Comments (15)

1. 

   Lisa Greeene  |  September 25, 2013 at 4:54 am

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   I grew up in the area, and the BB was always known as the Diamond Queen, but none the less, was always known to have her ghosts. I used to deliver flowers there and sometimes staff would tell of rumbled rooms after being freshly made. The Starlight Room had a particularly uncomfortable feeling sometimes, when setting arrangements for tables…like someone didn’t approve. Everything from cold spots, to tropical arrangements becoming icy. I worked for Petals and Plants at that time, in 1986. I was told by some of the much older staff, that the “permanent” residents of the Hotel and Guest Houses, did not approve af the new architecture and residents of the newer buildings that had been added in the early 80’s. {seemingly so, as they were butt ugly, compared to the gradeur of the original buildings} Delivering flowers to several of the condominiums, I experianced cold spots, and very tempermental elevators, along with a few shoves and slips.
   The saddest thing was in 1993, I was managing Cedar Oaks Apartments off of 14th St. and I had a tenant named Bob Crozier, who was an electrician at the BB. He was in the process of helping convert the old tube and ball wiring to newer, because of a small fire they had, had in the attic of one of the wings. He became, more and more increasingly disturbed about events of tools and supplies going missing. Then was asked to work on some of the lighting in the Starlight Room. He was very uncomfortable after telling me that he would encounter freezing spots (in March) and was distictly shoved and told to “get out” by someone who wasn’t there. Unfortunately, Bob was so stressed…he shot and killed himself in Apt 9, of Cedar Oaks in June of 93.
   I myself returned to the BB in 2001, for a LHS class reunion. We were in the south auditorium and all was fine, other than stumbling into one of the older, rarely used Ladies, I heard a quiet female voice say “Welcome Home”. yet, I was alone. However, I had been drinking and there were a lot of people about. However, I definately believe the Ol Gal has her secrets, and hates the fact that she’s been let go.
   I did hear about some children drowning off the original boat docks in the early 1900’s and sometimes you can still hear their cries. Dunno—you’ll have to research that :o)

2. 

   Adam  |  November 22, 2013 at 6:07 pm

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   Does anyone know how to actually get to the BB? There’s a country club there in the way and it’s impossible to spot the BB from the road. The address given just takes you to the country club.

3. 

   Michael J Ricci Jr  |  May 15, 2014 at 12:32 pm

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   I was in the Army Air Force and stayed at the wooden hotel and did basic training on the grounds.

4. 

   Michael J Ricci Jr  |  May 15, 2014 at 12:48 pm

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   For our 3 meals a day we were bussed. to a cafeteria on St Pete I”m 92 years of age and remember being on duty guarding against German Subs landing on our beaches.

5. 

   Michael J Ricci Jr  |  May 15, 2014 at 12:49 pm

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   Do you have photos that early?

6. 

   Tom  |  August 10, 2014 at 7:14 pm

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   While visiting in 2005, with my son, daughter-in-law and their toddler son, I saw a child’s ghost. We shared a suite and one morning I was up first working at my laptop. My wife was still asleep, but my son’s family was just getting up. The door to their room opened and a small boy ran out immediately followed by my laughing grandson. The first child vanished before my eyes.

7. 

   tiffany  |  February 10, 2015 at 7:54 pm

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   I can never step foot inside the Grounds Again. I am an avid history buff and imagine my surprise to find that my junior prom was to be held in the Tiffany ballroom. Being that this is my name as well but to be surrounded by beautiful glass while dancing with my sweetheart. As kids do we were restless and wandered the halls. I have never been so scared in my life. The history that seeps through the walls in any Henry B. Plant hotel is astonishing. You can feel it move around you. We found an old fire escape and went up into an attic like place. It was filled with the furniture from years before. I cried that we should leave and was never able to go up myself. The little girls (that mind you were only there in spirit) would not stop following me. The visions I saw and the cold feeling in my bones would never leave. To my suprise I went scouting colleges the next year only to fall in love with another of his properies. This man has haunted my dreams with his creations for longer than I care to admit.

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     Argenis  |  February 14, 2016 at 4:20 am

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     You should be a writer

8. 

   Tim  |  March 3, 2015 at 5:47 pm

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   I attended a wedding there several years back. When I was walking down the long hall way to go out the front door, I walked past a stairway. Right as I was walking by, I felt someone (something) push me. I almost was pushed into the wall. I looked around and nobody was insight! I will never go back inside there ever again!

9. 

   carla  |  July 29, 2015 at 11:40 am

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   My husband and I gave ghost tours at the Belleview about every other weekend in its final three years before it closed down (we even stayed there the last weekend it was open, and we were allowed to keep our room key). As part of the tour, we were given access to the closed-off portion of the fourth floor, which was normally closed to guests. We stayed overnight each time, and we had countless paranormal experiences over the years. One night, we did not have any guests for our scheduled 8:00 tour, so we went up to the closed-off portion of the fourth floor to explore on our own. While in the room at the very end of the hall, my EMF detector started going bonkers. Feeling that it was the children who were known to haunt that area, I was stooped down to get on their level. Quite suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and felt my ponytail being lightly pulled. I thought it was my husband, but when I turned around to look, there was no one visible.
   We stayed in a room where the tv kept turning on by itself, and my husband’s CPAP machine was unplugged one night.
   There was a room on the first floor that had many stories attached to it. It was always fun when someone on the tour was actually staying in that room! Many times, we would talk about how guests staying in that room often heard children running up and down the hallway, and the guests would say they heard that very thing the night before.
   The fifth floor of the hotel was closed off entirely, and kept locked due to the unsafe conditions. But, our paranormal group was allowed to sometimes conduct investigations up there, and there was always something crazy going on. There was an unpleasant ghost up there, whom we referred to as “the angry man.” One night, one of the security guards asked my husband to go up there with him, because someone reported hearing footsteps and noise up there, and he had had a really bad experience up there a few weeks prior. He said he and another guard went up, and saw a dark figure in the hallway. Went they approached, there was no one there, but the other guard was suddenly pushed against the wall very hard.
   We had so many experiences there; we really loved that crazy place, and miss it terribly. I still dream about it sometimes,

10. 

    Andi  |  August 31, 2016 at 11:33 am

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    This was a truly elegant hotel at one time. I had the pleasure of visiting it a few times before it closed for good. I’m very sensitive to energy and while I never saw anything, I definitely felt it. I got to meet the Ghost Hunters or TAPS team while they were there in 2008 I think it was, maybe earlier.
    I wandered around the hotel myself and found the basement very creepy as well as the top floor. On one visit I took my Mother-In-Law on a tour of the basement and felt that we were being followed.
    I love the story of Mrs. Plant selling her mansion on 5th Ave. in New York City to Cartier for a string of pearls. When I visited New York City I went to check it out. Of course they had remodeled it to suit their needs, but they kept the original ceiling and cornices. It’s beautiful.

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      Michael  |  September 4, 2016 at 1:34 pm

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      I stayed there in 2001. I felt very uncomfortable when I walked into the hotel and once in my room I made plans to change hotels. I wrote down my new hotel plans on a notepad and went to have a beverage. In the pub downstairs I was playing pool in a recessed area when it became extremely cold right where I was standing for at least a minute before subsiding.

      I left and went to a bar upstairs. I told the bartender what happened and he shared some stories about the pub, saying he refused to work in it as too many unexplained things happened and he heard voices talking to him even though he was alone. He also said no one on the staff would go up to the fifth floor where the Presidential Suite was as there had been a suicide there.

      I went back to the room and went to bed. In the morning my notepad with my hotel change itinerary was missing and I finally located it in one of the dresser drawers under some of the clothes we had unpacked. I did not put it there.

      As I was checking out one of the hall doors closed right behind me all by itself. The person at the counter said that happens all the time… doors closing by themselves.

      I had never felt the sense of foreboding as I felt as soon as I stepped inside that hotel. It was unnerving. The hallways are dimly lit and very, very long and reminded me of the Shining. The manager called me a week later and when I told him his hotel was haunted he laughed and said he’d heard many guests say that. Then he offered me a free, all expense weekend stay in the Presidential Suite.

      I declined.

      Yeah, the pub was in the basement. Innocuous enough looking but gave me the creeps. I went to the bathroom next to the pub and sensed I was not alone in there. I was very unsettling.

11. 

    Libby Burke  |  September 20, 2018 at 3:25 pm

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    I have had two unsettling photo experiences at the Bellview Biltmore. I used to love taking my parents there for Sunday brunch. The first occasion was back in the 1990s . My late husband was playing piano in the beautiful lobby bar. The grand was located beneath a spiral staircase and I decided to wander to the hotel room level. The second floor door revealed a carpeted aging elegance hallway. the third floor was locked…I went up in the dim lighting to the 4th floor which I expected to be locked as there were repairs were being made and no rooms were booked there.To my surprise, it was unlocked! I peeked down a canvas tool strewn hallway. a single bare bulb lit the way. paint fumes and dust…I walked but a few yards …noting brass numbers on the deserted guest rooms.. 4302A ,4302B then decided it might be dangerous and quickly left. On the third floor , strangely now it was unlocked, I roamed past a few doors…3302A 3302B and then descended toward the brighter lights and the sound of my husband Jack at his keyboard entertaining the guests. I paused at the final few steps and handed my camera to my daughter. When the picture was developed(no digital or phone for me at that time) behind me on the stair was a tall swirl of white mist…as though following me down. Unexplained. t was already in the news that they were looking for buyers .. who might have plans to demolish rather than restore this white historic site. Restless ghosts?
    Fast forward , my husband now playing at the Safety Harbor Spa, I was with friends that night at a Mystery Dinner Playhouse at the Biltmore. After the show we were on the veranda off the lobby where Jack used to take a smoke break between sets. My friend Denise sitting in the large wicker rocker had a cigarett in her hand.. I snapped a picture. In it a giant swirl of white is hovering above her…there is no smoke anywhere in the photo near her hand . and the size and composition of the white mist does not look as though it could have possibly have come from the lone cigarette on that porch. Indeed after the following years of trying to save the hotel with petitions and rallies…we reluctantly attended the sell off of the interior items before the blue tarps would cover the peaked roofs and it would stand empty… orphan of the Gulf. At those poignant sales I chose some items of furniture.. rose satin upholstered vanity chairs, heavy green and gold plates, all numbered, a large print titled The Toast(if you research this you will see an elaborate gilt banquet with period dressed men and women toasting the lady of the house who, you will see looks dismayed, with a haunted look on her face) but best of all, the brass room number plate from room 3302B. It now is on my guestroom door here in Palm Harbor. I wonder how the spirits feel now after having their place stand dark and silent and empty for 3 years…now displaced to.?..the new condos,? the lobby bed and breakfast moved across the property? Perhaps they might come visit my guest room..and feel at home…looking for a little piano music after midnight.?
    All this is true. I have the color Verandah picture but cant up load it… I could send you a copy if you wish.

12. 

    Thomas Bound  |  July 11, 2020 at 5:51 am

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    I took a photo in our bedroom back in 2006. When we looked at it on the big screen back at home, there is a face on the bed staring back at me. There was no one near the bed.

13. 

    Laura  |  December 28, 2022 at 7:29 pm

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    In 1994, I stayed there for a week on business. My room was on the second or third floor, not supposedly one of the haunted rooms. The first night there, I was reading in bed and had just put my book away and turned off the light on the nightstand. Less than a minute later, I felt a depression in the bed as if someone had sat on the edge. Then I felt a hand stroking my hair like it was brushing it. I immediately felt exceptionally cold even though it was August. I got out of bed, turned on the bathroom light, but didn’t sleep at all that night. I changed rooms for the remainder of my stay and had no other issues. I read now that most of that lovely hotel was demolished, with only an original wing moved to a new foundation. It is sad that no one restored it in its original form; it was beautiful in a grand manner. Although my first night scared me, I did not sense that whatever (whoever) was stroking my hair meant any harm.