This 1912 hotel is noteworthy for many reasons. Harry S. Truman spent election night here in 1948. It was also once a training camp for boxer Jack Dempsey, and a summer camp for the 1948 New York Giants. But the hotel is also noted for its haunts, which provide a pervasive eerie feeling for some guests.
Reports say the hotel’s lap pool is haunted by a male ghost from the speakeasy days, during which the pool was part of the basement. The man is said to have been killed there by the mob. Others say the ghost they’ve seen at the pool is a woman who is upset and looking for her child. She is known to pull hair and throw things if her temper is riled.
On the hotel’s third floor, a twenty-something woman in a maid’s outfit is said to supervise the living housekeepers, making sure their work is done correctly.
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Geographic Information
- Address:
- 401 Regent St
Excelsior Springs, MO 64024
United States
Get Directions » - GPS:
- 39.33700429454326, -94.22592866427294
- County:
- Clay County, Missouri
- Nearest Towns:
- Excelsior Springs, MO (0.1 mi.)
Homestead, MO (2.2 mi.)
Crystal Lakes, MO (2.5 mi.)
Prathersville, MO (3.0 mi.)
Wood Heights, MO (3.4 mi.)
Excelsior Estates, MO (3.8 mi.)
Mosby, MO (3.9 mi.)
Lawson, MO (7.1 mi.)
Missouri City, MO (7.4 mi.)
Kearney, MO (7.6 mi.)
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Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the nature of "ghost stories," largely unverifiable. HauntedPlaces.org makes no claims that any of the statements posted here are factually accurate. The vast majority of information provided on this web site is anecdotal, and as such, should be viewed in the same light as local folklore and urban legends.
As I was leaving the hotel, on a blustery spring morning, a blue balloon was bouncing along the sidewalk in front of the hotel, going to the east. Its path was following the sidewalk so precisely that I looked specifically to check for a string of some type, but there was nothing. The sidewalk going east had a downward slope to a nearby creek, so I thought to myself that the balloon would be swept up by the south wind, and I wouldn’t see it again. I crossed the street to my car, then came back for a second trip to my room. The blue balloon was still bouncing along the sidewalk in front of the hotel, this time going from east to west. As I approached the front entrance, it crossed in front of me, and continued along the sidewalk, undeterred by the blustery wind. Again, as I left later, the balloon was bouncing along the sidewalk going east. I moved my car, walked around the grounds to the south of the hotel, and prepared to drive home. As I was leaving the parking lot, I saw a second balloon across the street, unable to move because it was tied to a mailbox, but the smaller balloon I had seen was still bouncing along the sidewalk headed west, stopped at the parking lot entrance, and reversed direction, bouncing along the sidewalk headed east. I remembered the ghost tour guide mentioned that hand prints of small children have been seen on the front window on numerous occasions. I wonder if the children were playing with a found balloon on that blustery morning.
My husband and I stayed on the 4th floor last night. At around 11:30 pm, while watching tv, I heard children laughing and running the halls several times. It happened again around 12:00. There were no children staying on the 4th floor.
On my wedding night my husband and I stayed in hotel in a suit I constantly felt watched and we had a overwhelmed feeling of stress anxiety and depression. We treated each other as if we didn’t matter to each other. Wedding night sucked
If anyone wants Intel of the elms ? Email me. I worked in that building during the big reservation and for 2 after it opened. The stories I could tell you a few may turn your hair white. Peggysue64080@yahoo.com
tell me about it! my school has a ghost named Jimmy and he built my school in kindergarten!
My daughter and I stayed there for two nights. We would walk around late at night and while in the lap pool area we did an EVP session for fun. We then went on a Ghost tour with the night desk man. He told us a story about a man being shot in the pool area. Our eyes went big, before meeting up with him and after our EVP session we listened to the tape, “He shoots, he shoots, he shoots” was very clear on our recording.
My wife and I have stayed here twice, once in August of 2023 and again in August of 2024. The first time I had a personal experience in the lap pool area, where I saw what looked like a shadowy arm extending from behind one of the stone pillars. The following night while on the ghost tour, a young psychic was drawing pictures of what she was seeing, and one of the pictures she drew was exactly what I had seen the previous night. Our second stay, we were in the Al Capone suite. We are paranormal investigators and had some equipment out both nights we were there. The first morning, our paranormal music box was going off, and could not find a natural cause, but dismissed it anyways. That next morning about 1am, I had a cat ball toy on the desk in the bedroom. It is motion activated by touch. It was lighting up on its own. I started asking questions, to which it seemed to respond to certain questions related to being killed there by one of Al Capone’s men. It stopped when I asked to let me go back to sleep. Though when my wife woke up, and I told her what happened, she told the spirit thank you for communicating with me, to which the cat ball lit up one last time. The previous night, the cat ball did not light up at all.