My Hotel is Haunted

“The hotel is haunted” said my contact while I was photographing a king room bathroom in the Hilton Baton Rouge.

“Really?” I said, “tell me some stories.”

Louisiana has had some colourful politicians to say the least. The most infamous of which is Huey P Long whose favourite words were, “Every man is a King.” His dream was to become the President of the United States. While he was governor he built himself a mansion that resembled the White House. He was a big college football fan and he had his own songwriter on staff. He spent a fair amount of time in the building that is now the Hilton. He did some creative things with the taxpayers money to put it lightly. He had a tunnel dug underneath the Hilton to the building across the street so he could escape his enemies and visit his mistress. He loved the Ramos Gin Fizz which was created in New Orleans. He brought one of their bartenders to New York to teach the other hotel staff members how to properly make him one. My kind of man! The addition of orange flower water and cream make it slightly different than a normal Gin Fizz. I forgot to mention Huey loved his cigars.

I thought this was a ghost story? Oh, yeah.

The housekeepers say the tenth floor is haunted as a matter of fact. It’s been a non-smoking property since it was reopened in the 1980’s. Housekeepers will often enter a room that they have just cleaned to catch a whiff of cigar smoke.

Not convinced? It gets better.

Before the Hilton renovated the property in the 1980’s the building remained empty for more than twenty years. It became occupied with rats, the homeless, and the odd crystal meth lab.

My hotel contact went on a tour of the property and saw all of these things including the outdoor pool. It was covered in mold and filth from more than twenty years of neglect. The next day she returned with her co-workers to find the pool clean and sparkling like it is today.

No one at the hotel had cleaned the pool.