The Terror of Room 409
“She sat up in bed and felt something grab her by the neck and tried to hold her down in bed as she was trying to get out of it.”
Room 409 at the Blennerhassett Hotel in Parkersburg, West Virginia, holds a reputation as one of the most haunted spots in the region. Long before the current hotel structure was built, the land housed apartments above a bakery where Joseph Eisel lived. Eisel was a German serial killer from the 1870s who committed several murders in town before becoming the last person publicly executed in Wood County. Today, visitors and investigators frequently encounter a spirit known as the man in the bowler hat, believed to be Eisel himself. One recurring guest had such an intense experience being physically pinned to her mattress that hotel staff sent a Bible up to her room for comfort. Even former employees have reported hearing the sounds of a rowdy party coming from inside the locked room at 2:00 a.m. when no guests were checked in on the floor.
Flying Books and Unexplained Elevator Rides
“There used to be a really heavy moose statue here that would just go in the elevator overnight and the cameras would never pick up anybody moving it.”
The paranormal activity at the Blennerhassett Hotel reaches far beyond a single guest room. Hotel lore includes a story about an extremely heavy moose statue that inexplicably relocated itself into the hotel elevator overnight without security cameras catching a single person moving it. Down in the hotel library, books have a habit of pulling themselves off the upper shelves without anyone touching them. This phenomenon is often accompanied by the sound of a disembodied woman screaming near the former front entrance, where a local woman tragically lost her life after a runaway tractor trailer crashed into the building. Investigators in the hotel have also experienced electronic keycards suddenly failing to open doors, alongside unexplained smells like burning hair in empty corridors.
Civil War Specters and the Weeping Woman
“Her eyes will follow you sometimes and then people will see a spirit actually in the cemetery with a flowing white veil.”
Parkersburg’s hauntings extend deep into the surrounding town, including historic sites like Quincy Hill and Riverview Cemetery. Quincy Hill carries a grim past, having served as a makeshift tent city for injured Union soldiers during the Civil War and later becoming the site of a fatal water tank disaster in 1909. A former resident on the hill even reported seeing the ghost of a red-headed Union soldier standing in her front room after noticing unlit candles mysteriously lighting themselves. Nearby at the Chancellor House, a ghost tour photograph captured a shadowy figure resembling hotel founder William Nelson Chancellor standing by the carriage house gate. Further down the road in Riverview Cemetery, visitors seek out the Jackson family plot to view the statue of Lilly Irene Jackson, known locally as the Weeping Woman, whose eyes reportedly track visitors during full moons.
Ready to Experience the Hauntings Yourself?
If you want to watch the crew navigate mysterious keycard failures, creepy hotel corridors, and a late-night graveyard stroll, you will definitely want to check out the full video. Grab your headphones, turn off the lights, and hit play to go overnight in West Virginia’s most haunted hotel room!
