HOLLY, Mich. (WXYZ) - The enchanting Victorian Inn turned restaurant has been charming guests ever since 1891.But some claim they can hear childlike spirits running up and down the stairs or giggling.
Others say they’ve seen a woman’s image similar to that of Nora Kane. The woman’s portrait looms in the hotel’s lobby.
Chrissy Kutlenios is the Historic Holly Hotel’s owner. She says only once has she seen something startling that she really couldn’t explain. It happened when she was walking into the hotel’s main dining room one morning.
“I looked up in this corning right here. I saw an American Indian. And he had no feet – just a head and headdress,” she recalls pointing toward a light fixture hanging above a table. “It was startling. We had this eye contact. We just looked at each other. I looked away, and he was gone.”
When you pass through the original swinging wooden doors into the kitchen, you are entering the realm of the Holly Hotel’s most active ghosts, according to some.
Plates will just fall off the counter for no apparent reason. Utensils will move around the kitchen including a meat cleaver!
So are there spirits living in the Historic Holly Hotel?
“Many, many, many spirits. I’m not even sure how many,” says Bridgett Shipway of the Michigan Paranormal Research Association. She was on a team from the MPRA which videotaped a moving orb at the hotel in March of 2009.
“It’s basically a ball of light,” explains MPRA member Samantha Harris. “Some people confuse it with dust because sometimes it is. However, it had its own light source. It had a flight path because it avoided them, and it also went into the wall because it disappears which is interesting.”
The Historic Holly Hotel will hold séances at 8:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday this week for those who would like to decide for themselves if the hotel is haunted.
You can find out more information at the hotel’s website:
www.hollyhotel.com.
