June 20, 2025 • 36 mins
In this episode of Tales, Trails, and Taverns, Joe takes Rob—and all of you—on a journey to one of North Carolina’s most iconic and allegedly haunted landmarks: the Omni Grove Park Inn. Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, this grand stone resort has hosted presidents, celebrities, authors, and yes... spirits.
Joe describes what it’s like to walk through the massive granite halls of the century-old inn, from the roaring fireplaces to the shadowy corners where stories still whisper. We dive into the fascinating history of its construction in 1913, its role during wartime, and the long list of famous guests who’ve passed through its doors.
But things take a spooky turn as Joe shares tales of the infamous “Pink Lady,” the spirit said to haunt the halls near Room 545. Whether it's lights flickering, cold spots, or guests waking in the night with the sense of being watched, the Grove Park Inn has no shortage of eerie encounters. Grab a drink, settle in by the fire, and join us as we explore the luxurious—and possibly haunted—past of the Omni Grove Park Inn.
Joe describes what it’s like to walk through the massive granite halls of the century-old inn, from the roaring fireplaces to the shadowy corners where stories still whisper. We dive into the fascinating history of its construction in 1913, its role during wartime, and the long list of famous guests who’ve passed through its doors.
But things take a spooky turn as Joe shares tales of the infamous “Pink Lady,” the spirit said to haunt the halls near Room 545. Whether it's lights flickering, cold spots, or guests waking in the night with the sense of being watched, the Grove Park Inn has no shortage of eerie encounters. Grab a drink, settle in by the fire, and join us as we explore the luxurious—and possibly haunted—past of the Omni Grove Park Inn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
She used to get visited by people at night that
died in the mills.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
There is a shadow figure standing right next to where
the pictures are on the wall that we had just been.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
At about ten minutes ago. Right when we crossed the bridge.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I saw something.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And as I walk into the hallway, I feel like
I see a little girl out of the right corner
of my eye.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Dude, I see this fucking man quick one too, like
blink my eyes for three seconds and he's fucking gone through.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
The inn is haunted by three ghosts. He says, there's
the general, there's a little girl.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
All of a sudden, just gets this weirdest feeling today,
just got really cold all of a sudden. It's like,
kinda within a minute of saying that, we see two
blonde hair, blue eyed children.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Hear them come up the stairs, but I don't see
the light any he or anything. Ferdie went back down
to get it, and about five minutes later he comes
up the stairs and he's got the light in hand,
and I'm like, dude, what did you do? You forget
the light downstairs the first time? And he's like, what
do you mean. He's like, I heard you come up
the stairs. I didn't see a light a periods like, dude,
that wasn't that wasn't me.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
There's a weird feeling about it. We turned, we will.
These kids are fucking gone too.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Happy Friday, everybody, welcome back to Tail Trails of Taverns.
Happy first day of summer, because pretty sure Friday is
the first day of summer.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I forgot about that.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, So before we get into the uh the episode here,
before we get into what I'm going to talk about tonight,
we do want to talk about what we're doing with
the podcast going on for the rest of the summer.
So it turns out I I'm getting very busy. Rob
(02:07):
is getting very busy this summer. He's got our man
is producing a movie this summer. If you know, I know,
we've talked about this on this episode on the show
many times before. Rob is working on a movie. He's
gonna start filming it. And so, unlike last summer, last
summer we tried. Last time, we pushed through it. And
(02:29):
I can't tell you how tired I was last summer. Man,
I was I was building a boat, I was working
on podcast episodes, I had started a new job. I
ran myself ragged last summer.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Yeah, you did so, and I literally spent the entire
summer driving around all fucking weekend to every single haunted
mental asylum all.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Over it in New England pretty much.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
So with all that being said, me and Rob we
been talking about it. We decided we are going to
take a break for the podcast. We are going to
take a summer vacation so to speak, from the regular
episodes of the podcast, and we are going to come
back when Spooky Season starts, because what better time is
there for a paranormal podcast than Spooky Season, right, Yeah,
(03:25):
that's correct. So we are going to take a little break.
We're going to bounce out of here for the summer,
have a little vacation, have a little fun plan the
next episodes coming up instead of trying to scratch them
all together over the summer like we did last year,
and jump back into it with fresh faces. Come probably
(03:48):
either end of August or early September, one of those.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
One of those, thinking probably September.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, I mean fall starts to September. Spooky season we're
starting to burre months m hm. So I would say
expect to hear a new podcast, a new Friday podcast
on the first Friday of September. That's where I want
to go with this.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
That is correct.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
So I know everybody's crying, everybody's worried about us, you know,
are they going to disappear. No, we're not. We're not disappearing.
We're just taking a little hiatus. We're gonna play in
the next episodes. We might we might actually we might
get we might make sure that Rob gets a mic
(04:40):
and a studio set up for next year too.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Yeah, that'd be good. I don't have any spare rooms
in my house, but.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
We'll figure it out.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
But uh yeah, put it put in the basement.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
There you go. So, yeah, that's the plan going forward.
That's the plan for the summer, and then uh hopefully,
you know, I'll get the next book wrapped up, Rob
will get his movie done, and then you'll go watch that,
go read that, watch that, read that, all that super stuff,
(05:25):
and we'll get back into spooky season full bore. Fuck.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah, that's the plan.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
That's the plan.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Man.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
We're not going anywhere. We're just taking a break.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Correct, the Monday work a work break, but so we
can go work on other things.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
That's right. We go do other things for a while.
But Yeah, I do have a nice little episode here
planning for you. So, uh, after the intro, we're gonna
come back and I'm gonna tell you about the Omni
Grove point in in Ashvil, North Carolina. In the dark
(06:04):
forest lies the secret told in broken stories by those
who have bore witness a monster, a murder, a long
forgotten ghost town, shrouded mystery. We're not just here to
uncover these stories. We're here to walk the haunted paths,
to seek out the restless spirits who linger in these
forsaken places, and we want you to come along. Welcome
(06:25):
to tails, trails and taverns, where curiosity defy his caution.
We venture into the eerie trails, the abandoned ghost towns,
and the old taverns where echoes of the past still
cling to the air. These are the places others might
warn you not to go to. So lace up your boots,
grab a work in flashlight, and join us. Together. We'll
(06:45):
tell the tales, hike the trails, and raise a glass
of the spirits, both spectral and distilled, who wait for
us at the tavern's door. Ladies and gentlemen, the growth
that Omni Grove parked in in Ashevill, North Carolina. Have
you heard of this place before? So it's a place
in Nashville, North Carolina. I don't know if you know,
(07:07):
you obviously know, everybody might not know. I lived in
North Carolina for ten years from twenty nine to twenty nineteen,
and for five months of that I lived in Asheville.
Me and my ex wife tried to move out to Ashville.
We moved out there, we put our house in the market,
spent five months out there. Turned out it wasn't a
great market for selling a house. Our house didn't sell.
We end up moving back to Stanford, North Carolina, which
(07:29):
is in the middle of the state, not out in
the mountains. But during that time, there's a place called
the Olmni Grove Park in and for a little while
my ex wife worked there. We decided we were going
to do it. I was working like because I was
paying rent and a mortgage. I was working like ten
plus hour days, you know, I was working fifty sixty
(07:50):
hours a week. Jesus, and our son was a toddler.
He was under a year old at this time. So
for a little while we tried to do me work
during the day and she worked second shift at the
Omnigrove Point in So it's a very cool place. It's
up on the side of a mountain. I'm gonna tell
(08:11):
you all about the history of this place. It's got
quite the history. It's over one hundred years old and
it's amazing. It's just this huge granite, all these blocks
built right up on the side of the mountain. You
walk out there, everything is rocked. The hole inn is stone,
huge grand fireplaces inside of it. Every Christmas they do
(08:33):
a gingerbread It's a gingerbread contest basically, so artisans and
bakers from all over the world come in and they
make these huge, grand gingerbread castles essentially, and they do
a big competition of it, and you can come in,
you can see them all. It's amazing. It's nothing you
should do if you're ever in Asheville during a Christmas time,
(08:56):
you know.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And my daughter made a gingerbread house plus Chris Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well, gingerbread house are definitely fun to make. These ones
are those? The ones that I saw at this place
are absolutely incredible, Like, yeah, you should. You should google
it at some point. Nestled in the Misty Blue Ridge
Mountains overlooking the city of Atrial, North Carolina, stands a
structure carved from the very bones of the land itself,
(09:26):
massive granite boulders corey just yards away from its mighty walls.
It's a hotel, a fortress of hospitality, a place where
American presidents, celebrities, military officers, and even ghosts have found
themselves under the same red tile roof. The story of
the Omni Grove Park Gain is a story of vision, luxury, war, healing,
and mystery. All right. It all began with a man
(09:48):
named Edwin Wiley Grove, a Tennessee born pharmaceutical magnate whose
Groves Tasteless chill Tonic, a quinine based medicine designed to
treat malaria, had made him fantastically wealthy by the early
nineteen hundreds. Grove, who suffered from chronic bronchitis and other ailments,
discovered Asheville in the early twentieth century. The crisp mountain
(10:09):
air and stunning vistas were said to have healing qualities,
and for Grove it proved true. He was so taken
with the area that he decided to build a RESTful
retreat for the body and mind. But Grove didn't want
to build just any hotel. He wanted to build a
hotel that rivaled Europe's greatest spas and resorts, a place
of healing and elegance for the upper class, hidden away
(10:29):
in the Blue Ridge. A man of great determination and
determination and ambition. Grove took on the project personally, hiring
Fred Loring Seely, his son in law, as architect and
construction manager. The building was built in less than a year.
The pace of the pace of construction was staggering. In
(10:49):
July of nineteen twelve, construction began and by July nineteen thirteen,
the hotel opened its doors. That's right, This five hundred
and twelve foot long granite masterpiece, complete with one hundred
and fifty guest rooms and all the luxury of the era,
was completed in just twelve months. Over four over four
hundred men, mostly local workers. The Stonemasons labored six days
(11:13):
a week, powered by groves money and Cely's unrelenting schedule.
Talk about cracking the whip, dude, Holy fuck. Yeah, the stone.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Its building and considering the time, like the primitive equipment
that they have for construction back then.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah, nineteen twelve to nineteen thirteen, Yeah, they're not.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
That's that's nuts, very crazy.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So the stones, some weighing up to ten thousand pounds,
were harvested from Sunset Mountain itself, where the Inn now rests.
The construction was so robust and the material is so
natural that the building seems to grow directly from the mountain.
And that's that's not even that's not even an exaggeration.
Omnigro point bark In looks like it's just built out
(11:59):
of the mountain. And it's I mean, knowing that the
stones all come from the mountain itself kind of makes sense.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
That's sucking cool.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
When the Grove park In opened in July twelfth, nineteen thirteen,
former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan gave the keynote,
addressed to an audience of elites, declaring the most beautiful
resort hotel in the world has been built in the South.
From the beginning, the Grove park In attracted the rich,
the powerful, powerful, and the influential. Ten US presidents have
(12:34):
stayed at the inn, from Williard Howard Taff to Barack Obama.
F Scott Fitzgerald stayed here in the nineteen thirties while
his wife Zelda was undergoing psychiatric treatment. Nearby, the serene
mountain landscape may have offered him inspiration or refuge from
the chaos of his life. During World War II, the
hotel was repurposed not once, but twice. First, in nineteen
(12:58):
forty two, it was leased by the US gouvern to
serve as a convalescence hospital for wounded Navy personnel. The
massive halls and healthy mountain air were deemed perfect for recovery. Then,
in nineteen forty four, it was turned into a top
secret internment center for AXIS diplomats and their families captured
in Latin America. For months, foreign nationals lived quietly behind
(13:21):
the granite walls, unaware they were being monitored and in
some cases interrogated. Oh boy, so this place is used
for all kinds of shit during the war. Yeah. After
the war, the Grove Park resumed his life as a
luxury of retreat, continuing to host the elite, from Harry
Hugh Deini to Thomas Edison and later Oprah Winfrey, Elon
(13:43):
Musk and Desmond Tutu. Holy shit, I mean this is
a nice fucking hotel, man, You ain't kidding. So architecture
and atmosphere, the Grove Parking is an architectural marvel built
in the Arts and Craft style, a movement that emphasized
craftsman ships, simplicity, and harmony with nature. The massive twin
(14:03):
fireplaces the main lobby, each large enough to stand inside,
are legendary in themselves, and I'm I'm again not an exaggeration.
Those fireplaces are fucking huge. And the chimneys that go
up from home like they've got to be they're they're
forty feet if there are six inches, you know what
(14:24):
I mean?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Like, Bro, trust me, dude, when you're telling me that
Oprah and Elon.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Musk and Barack Obama have stayed at this hotel, I
can imagine that it's pretty extravagant.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
It's it's yeah, the play. It's fucking crazy.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
They're not staying at the fucking Half with Johnson's.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Bro, you know, no, yeah, yeah. The rustic elegance of
the red oak furniture, iron fixtures, and granite walls speak
to the era in which it was born. Both rugged
and refined, The Inn's hallways echo with age. The windows
are thick with time. Even the air seems different, cool, crisp,
as though each breath holds a century of whispered conversations
(15:05):
and clinking glasses. But it also has a haunted past,
so for all its grandeur, the Grove Parking is not
without its mysteries. The most famous haunting is that of
the Pink Lady. According to local lore, sometime in the
nineteen twenties, a young woman dressed in a flowing pink
(15:25):
gown either jumped or fell to her death from the
fifth floor of the Palm Court atrium. Some say she
was the mistress of a wealthy man, others claim it
was a tragic accident. Whatever the case, guests and staff
alike have reported sightings of a pink mist or, a
full apparition, appearing and vanishing at will Room five point
(15:49):
forty five in particular, is said to be her domain.
Some guests have claimed they woke up feeling washed, whether
that the air felt icy cold. Others report lights, flickering,
doors closing on their own, and a strange sensation of
being tucked into bed by invisible hands. Yet, unlike most hauntings,
the Pink Lady is said to be a benevolent spirit,
(16:10):
playing harmless pranks and sometimes comforting children who are scared
at night. Okay, the inn has fully embraced the story,
and staff will happily tell you the tales, though perhaps
with a knowing smile and a touch of theater. Other
ghostly occurrences had been whispered about, unexplayed footsteps and empty halls,
(16:31):
the smell of old cigar smoke and the smoke free areas.
Voices hurt echoing late at night when the halls are empty.
Whether these are tricks of acoustics or imagination or something
more spectral is left up to the visitor. In twenty thirteen,
the Grove Park Inn was acquired by Omni Hotels and Resorts,
(16:52):
thus the name Omni Park you know, Omni Park Omni
Grove Park, becoming the Omnigrove Park in and underwent significant renovations,
but Omni wisely kept the soul of the place intact.
The lobby still feels like it belongs to another century.
The massive fireplaces still crackl in winter. The staff still
(17:12):
exudes that old world charm, and the ghosts they're still
part of the charm today. The inn offers nearly six
hundred rooms, a world class subterranean spa, an eighteen hold
Donald Ross golf course where they put a golf course
inside of the mountain. I have no idea, but award
(17:33):
winning restaurants.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
What's ey that say it's good to have money?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Right? Award winning restaurants, breathtaking views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
It's a destination unto itself. So more than just a resort.
The Omnigrove Park Gain is a place where the past lingers,
not just in granted and timber, but in the very atmosphere.
It's where echoes of political strategy, literary amusings, military recovery,
(17:59):
and whisper ghost stories converge. It's where you can walk
the same hallways it's Fitzgerald, Roosevelt and Hughgini and maybe
feel the presidence of the pink lady brushing by.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
So, yeah haunts this place?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Who does?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
No?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Hughgini spent time there? He didn't. They're not saying he
haunts the place. That would be kind of crazy, THO,
wouldn't it?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
It would That's why I asked, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
So the US presidents William Toward Haft, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge,
Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon,
Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, and Barack Obama have
all spent time here.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Uh. F Scott Fitzgerald lived in the end of the
nineteen thirties while Zelda was in a nearby sanatorium.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Oh Ship.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah. Uh. Thomas Wolf He's an ash Asheville native who
frequented the inn. Uh. Carl Sandberg, a poet and writer
who lived nearby and visited often, and then historical and
political figures Harry Hudini visited during its early years. Desmond
Tussu Nobel Peace Prize winning South African bishop and human
(19:22):
rights activist Eleanor Roosevelt obvious she was the first lady.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
First Lady John D.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Rockefeller Junior spend time here. Okat Some of the actors
and entertainers who have been here. Michael Jordan we all
know Michael Jordan, the NBA legend who is vacation.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Mis Elon Musk is known to have stayed there during
a personal trip out. Oprah Winfrey when she she filmed
in the area and stayed at the Grove Park, oh Ship.
Jennifer Lawrence stayed during area film shoots.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
She was the one who was in Hunger Games.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Hunger Games, Yeah, because that was filmed out in western
North Carolina. Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Wait wait wait wait, Hunger Games was filmed in western
North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Yeah, the District thirteen, the one that she was living in.
That was there's a town in North Carolina where that
was filmed.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
I did not know that. Yeah, that's pretty fucking cool.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I mean I knew it because I was living in
North Carolina at the time. It was kind of a
it was kind of a big deal, you know.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
And then also, uh, what the hell? Oh, Wilmington is
a big filming city. Do you remember that show? Uh
what the hell is the name of it? Dawson's Creek
that was filmed in Wilmington. Yeah, oh shit, I know
(21:05):
it was supposed to be it was like a Cape
cod style town, but it was filmed in Wilmington.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
I mean I didn't watch. My sister was obsessed with
that fucking show.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Yeah, I was. I was probably the right age, but
I was the wrong demographic to watch that.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yeah. Well, my sisters like was born in eighty two.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah, so that was it, Yeah, exactly. So George Gershwin
a legendary composer. He stayed there and then Uh, some
of the hauntings, So again we're doing The pink lady
of Room four fifty four says she's the most well
(21:48):
known gross ghost at Grove Park in benevolent but occasionally
mischievous spirit believed to haunt room four fifty five and
in the surrounding areas of the historic main inn. Yeah,
and staff alike have reported a pink miss flashes of light,
or a full bodied apparition in a flowing pink gown.
(22:09):
This is this is the same thing that we have
talked about sometime in late nineteen twenties, jumped to her death.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Uh, pushed, nobody knows, pushed.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah, unseen presidence sitting on the bed. Even more eerie.
Some guests have claimed to awaken to find the pink
ladies standing at the foot of their bed, smiling sadly,
before vanishing into thin air.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
That's a weird way to start today.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah, apparently you can request room five forty five. But
from a couple of things that I read, it's that
a lot of people will not spend the entire night there. Really.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Yeah, well, don't tempt me with a good time.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
I know. Right now I'm kind of wondering how much.
That would because like the Omni, the Omni Washington Hotel
is super expensive. Now I'm wondering what the grow But
I mean you can go there. You can go there
and just go to the bar and sit on the
balcony overlooking the mountains. You know you're gonna pay fifteen
(23:16):
to twenty dollars for a drink. But still nice places
sit and have a beer. Oh yeah, I mean super
nice place sit and have a beer. Right another place
called the Children's Hallway. Several visitors who reported the sound
of children running or laughing in the hallways late at night,
(23:38):
particularly the oldest parts of the main inn. But upon checking,
there are no children checked into the rooms nearby or
even on that floor. And this has given rise to
the theory that multiple spirits may reside at the Grove
Park Inn, not just the Pink Lady. I would imagine
that someplace that's over one hundred years old like.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
This, especially all the the wounded veterans and then fuckinget
what sounds like military intelligence was operating in there at
one point.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yeah, and I mean this this isn't even talking about
the fact that the Blue Ridge park the Blue Ridge Parkway,
the Blue Ridge mountains. They're firmly in the Appalachian Mountain range.
You know, this is all Appalachia area, Okay, And Ashville
is way up there. Ashville's up in this inner valley,
way up in the mountains. I mean, I don't know
(24:32):
if you've ever if you've ever been out to Asheville.
When you go west across the state in North Carolina,
you're going forty across the state and you get to
where you go up in Asheville, you go up for
a while. Like Asheville is not a low city. It's
way way up there in the mountains. It is up
in the mountains.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
I worked with a guy that retired in September, and
his dream is to move up to ash That's all
he talked about. Yeah, before the tirement was was selling
his house and taught and moving to Ashville, North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Yeah. I mean, it's it's a gorgeous it's a gorgeous place.
I love Ashville. It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
You're not the first person that I've heard speak very
highly of Asheville, North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Yeah. And then there's something known as haunted lockers and
hidden rooms. Employees working in the subtrain and areas of
the hotel, including maintenance tunnels, old storage rooms, and even
the staff locker areas have reported doors opening and closing
by themselves, footsteps in empty hallways, whispers and voices coming
(25:46):
from unused rooms. These stories persist despite renovations and upgrades
over the decades. Some longtime staff believe certain areas once
used for secret meetings or even as makeshift hospital rooms
during the nineteen eighteen flu pandemic or World War Two.
The residual energy they say never left, so that makes
(26:06):
sense too in nineteen eighteen the Spanish flu epidemic that
killed a huge portion of the population, and.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
If they were using the hospital for patients, yeah, man, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
One of the oldest elevators in the hotel is said
to behave strangely on occasion, especially late at night. Staff
have described it arriving on floors with no one inside,
or even taking guests to the wrong floor despite their selection.
A few brave visitors have reported a shadowy figure briefly
visible in the elevator mirror before disappearing when they turn around.
(26:47):
That would freak me out. Yeah, if I caught the
glimpse of something in the mirror in an elevator.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Fucking dude. That's wacky.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, staff testimonies. The staff of the Grove Park Game,
many of whom have worked there for decades, often share
quiet warnings and stories with new employees, particularly those assigned
to the graveyard shift. Some believe the Pink Lady watches
over the end and her presence is protective rather than malicious.
Others believe she gets lonely and seeks out companionship, especially
(27:25):
from young children. That's weird. Though the Omnigrove Park and
does not officially promote it's haunted history, they certainly don't
deny it either. Guests curious about Room four fIF five
point forty five can request to stay there, but be warned.
(27:45):
More than one visitor has asked to switch rooms in
the middle of the night. That's where I get that from.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Damn.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
So yeah, obviously a lot of history in this place.
It's obviously very, very gorgeous place to see. See. I'll
I'll have to post some pictures up. I don't have
any pictures that I took while I was there. Unfortunately,
it's been almost ten years since I lived in Nashville
or even been in Nashville. I think Jesus I gotta
(28:16):
go back. That feels gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Man. Maybe we should make a pilm till what do
they call it? Yes, thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
We'll have to figure out what sanatorium, uh Zelda Fitzgerald
was staying in. Maybe it's abandoned now, Yeah, maybe that
would be dope. Yeah, there's definitely a lot of stuff
out there. I was thinking I could probably add on
here about the Biltmore estate in Nashville, too, but I
(28:53):
didn't look. I didn't do any research on that one,
So we're gonna leave that one for another time. There's
probably a lot history with the Bilt War two. But
Omnigroll Park in Man.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Sounds like a fucking dope place.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yeah, somebody somebody brought this up on a group chat
on one of the paranormal groups on Facebook, So I thought,
I was like, you know what, I've I've been there
a few times. Mag's wife worked there. I think we
could do an episode in that fucking egg there it.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Is, Man, did your ex ever experience anything odd?
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Not that I recall her telling me, but I'll I
don't know. If I asked her, she might tell me.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
I have no idea, just curious, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah, not that, not that I remember, but she also
she's one of those people who like, she's one of
those people who believes in ghosts, but also just doesn't
want anything to do with them.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
You know what I mean, just even talking about it
freaks her out.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yeah, my ex was like that too.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah, it's just like, no, I don't want any I
don't like, she doesn't want to have paranormal experiences, so
she doesn't want to talk about it, she doesn't want
to think about it, she doesn't want to you know
that type of stuff.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Oh yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
So anyways, that's it, man, that's it for the summer
horror movie Monday is coming out this Monday. Next Monday,
we did one that is a definitely a classic now
a newer movie, but definitely has a big following, So
(30:42):
stay tuned for that one.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
It's gonna be h, I don't know, I want to
say something cheesy, but it's gonna be a cruel summer
do So.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Yeah, so it's where is the Friday episodes are going forward.
We're not gonna do anymore until September. The horror movie Mondays.
I think we're going to kind of play that one
by year for the rest of the summer. They're bonus
episodes anyways. Even though I know we've been doing them
every single Monday, we've gotten kind of used to it.
They are still technically bonus episode. So we're kind of
(31:19):
just see how it goes. If we end up watching
a movie, something cool, something we want to talk about,
we'll jump on here and record it. Otherwise, we're just
gonna be checking places out over the summertime and getting
stuff ready for the fall man for the spooky season
to come up, and hit it hard when we come back,
and you know.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Maybe we'll do some special podcasts.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
When I get towards the end of filming and when
maybe Joe gets towards the end of the publishing his
third book.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Maybe we could do a little little special episode. I mean,
kind of let people know where where we're at.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I mean, hey, man, you're gonna be You're gonna spend
a lot of time filming in the Haunted Woods there,
so there's probably, yeah, there's probably more than one episode
kicking around in there somewhere.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
It's funny you say that, Joe, because I was talking
to my daughter earlier today.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Yeah, she's telling her like, you're gonna spend most of
August with me.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
I've already worked it out with your mother, yeah, And
I told her, I'm like, legally, I can only work
you till ten o'clock, I said, but you're gonna be
in the woods with me till one in the morning,
moving around equipment and helping.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Right.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
She's like, I gotta be out there till one in
the morning.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I saw a demon in those woods, and I'm like, yeah,
we got a movie to make, so yeah, tell that
demon the screw.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
We ain't got time for his ship.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Tell him if he wants to be in a movie,
just come on, man, get on camera.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Oh my god, imagine if if filming and then like
just some odd thing that cannot be explained.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Is in the movie.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Oh my god, You're gonna end up being the next
found footage movie.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Wouldn't that be freaky? Though?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
This week on sixty Minutes, the Real Blair Witch Project
movie A man a man tries to make a movie
and some hat in the Freetown State forest and the
hawted woods ends up disappearing and the found footage will
shock you, bro.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
When I ran this whole idea by my cousin Derek,
who's a lot older than me.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
He's like early fifties.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yeah. He's like, you're making a horror movie that takes
place in the Freetown State Forest.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
He's like, that's a movie in itself.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah yeah, man, Yeah, you just you need somebody else
to just run a camera the whole time you're out
there filming, and then not only make the movie, but
then make a documentary based on making the movie.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Oh that's a good idea, dude.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Yeah, I'm probably gonna take you up on that.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Bone, buddy, One after the other, all the freaky things
that happen on set while we're in a Freetown State forest,
the documentary of making the horror movie in Haunted Woods.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Oh yeah, I've made that very clear to everyone.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
I'm like, it would be an insult to these locals
if I did not actually film it in the.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
Freetown State Forest, right, how could you not do that? Yeah,
that'd be blasphemy.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
You make a movie about the Freetown State Forest, you
film it in patchok State Forest. Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Bro, And then you got fucking all of Massachusetts like,
get the fuck out it here.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Like, hey, they're still haunted woods, Like come on, man,
still paying homage. But yeah, anyways, all right man, we digress,
We digress. Thank you guys for listening. Thank you, Thank
you so much for sporting the show. Please leave a review,
leave a five star review, Tell your friends, share the
(35:24):
episodes with your friends, get our name out there. Make
sure that when we come back and the fall, we
are skyrockety.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Joe, we can tell them that I love to them.
Will still be strong after the Boys of the Summer.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
About what a reference?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Al Right, guys think it awesome? Awesome reference. Al Right, guys,
have a good one.
She used to get visited by people at night that
died in the mills.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
There is a shadow figure standing right next to where
the pictures are on the wall that we had just been.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
At about ten minutes ago. Right when we crossed the bridge.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I saw something.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And as I walk into the hallway, I feel like
I see a little girl out of the right corner
of my eye.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Dude, I see this fucking man quick one too, like
blink my eyes for three seconds and he's fucking gone through.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
The inn is haunted by three ghosts. He says, there's
the general, there's a little girl.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
All of a sudden, just gets this weirdest feeling today,
just got really cold all of a sudden. It's like,
kinda within a minute of saying that, we see two
blonde hair, blue eyed children.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Hear them come up the stairs, but I don't see
the light any he or anything. Ferdie went back down
to get it, and about five minutes later he comes
up the stairs and he's got the light in hand,
and I'm like, dude, what did you do? You forget
the light downstairs the first time? And he's like, what
do you mean. He's like, I heard you come up
the stairs. I didn't see a light a periods like, dude,
that wasn't that wasn't me.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
There's a weird feeling about it. We turned, we will.
These kids are fucking gone too.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Happy Friday, everybody, welcome back to Tail Trails of Taverns.
Happy first day of summer, because pretty sure Friday is
the first day of summer.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I forgot about that.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, So before we get into the uh the episode here,
before we get into what I'm going to talk about tonight,
we do want to talk about what we're doing with
the podcast going on for the rest of the summer.
So it turns out I I'm getting very busy. Rob
(02:07):
is getting very busy this summer. He's got our man
is producing a movie this summer. If you know, I know,
we've talked about this on this episode on the show
many times before. Rob is working on a movie. He's
gonna start filming it. And so, unlike last summer, last
summer we tried. Last time, we pushed through it. And
(02:29):
I can't tell you how tired I was last summer. Man,
I was I was building a boat, I was working
on podcast episodes, I had started a new job. I
ran myself ragged last summer.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Yeah, you did so, and I literally spent the entire
summer driving around all fucking weekend to every single haunted
mental asylum all.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Over it in New England pretty much.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
So with all that being said, me and Rob we
been talking about it. We decided we are going to
take a break for the podcast. We are going to
take a summer vacation so to speak, from the regular
episodes of the podcast, and we are going to come
back when Spooky Season starts, because what better time is
there for a paranormal podcast than Spooky Season, right, Yeah,
(03:25):
that's correct. So we are going to take a little break.
We're going to bounce out of here for the summer,
have a little vacation, have a little fun plan the
next episodes coming up instead of trying to scratch them
all together over the summer like we did last year,
and jump back into it with fresh faces. Come probably
(03:48):
either end of August or early September, one of those.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
One of those, thinking probably September.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, I mean fall starts to September. Spooky season we're
starting to burre months m hm. So I would say
expect to hear a new podcast, a new Friday podcast
on the first Friday of September. That's where I want
to go with this.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
That is correct.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
So I know everybody's crying, everybody's worried about us, you know,
are they going to disappear. No, we're not. We're not disappearing.
We're just taking a little hiatus. We're gonna play in
the next episodes. We might we might actually we might
get we might make sure that Rob gets a mic
(04:40):
and a studio set up for next year too.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Yeah, that'd be good. I don't have any spare rooms
in my house, but.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
We'll figure it out.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
But uh yeah, put it put in the basement.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
There you go. So, yeah, that's the plan going forward.
That's the plan for the summer, and then uh hopefully,
you know, I'll get the next book wrapped up, Rob
will get his movie done, and then you'll go watch that,
go read that, watch that, read that, all that super stuff,
(05:25):
and we'll get back into spooky season full bore. Fuck.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah, that's the plan.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
That's the plan.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Man.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
We're not going anywhere. We're just taking a break.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Correct, the Monday work a work break, but so we
can go work on other things.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
That's right. We go do other things for a while.
But Yeah, I do have a nice little episode here
planning for you. So, uh, after the intro, we're gonna
come back and I'm gonna tell you about the Omni
Grove point in in Ashvil, North Carolina. In the dark
(06:04):
forest lies the secret told in broken stories by those
who have bore witness a monster, a murder, a long
forgotten ghost town, shrouded mystery. We're not just here to
uncover these stories. We're here to walk the haunted paths,
to seek out the restless spirits who linger in these
forsaken places, and we want you to come along. Welcome
(06:25):
to tails, trails and taverns, where curiosity defy his caution.
We venture into the eerie trails, the abandoned ghost towns,
and the old taverns where echoes of the past still
cling to the air. These are the places others might
warn you not to go to. So lace up your boots,
grab a work in flashlight, and join us. Together. We'll
(06:45):
tell the tales, hike the trails, and raise a glass
of the spirits, both spectral and distilled, who wait for
us at the tavern's door. Ladies and gentlemen, the growth
that Omni Grove parked in in Ashevill, North Carolina. Have
you heard of this place before? So it's a place
in Nashville, North Carolina. I don't know if you know,
(07:07):
you obviously know, everybody might not know. I lived in
North Carolina for ten years from twenty nine to twenty nineteen,
and for five months of that I lived in Asheville.
Me and my ex wife tried to move out to Ashville.
We moved out there, we put our house in the market,
spent five months out there. Turned out it wasn't a
great market for selling a house. Our house didn't sell.
We end up moving back to Stanford, North Carolina, which
(07:29):
is in the middle of the state, not out in
the mountains. But during that time, there's a place called
the Olmni Grove Park in and for a little while
my ex wife worked there. We decided we were going
to do it. I was working like because I was
paying rent and a mortgage. I was working like ten
plus hour days, you know, I was working fifty sixty
(07:50):
hours a week. Jesus, and our son was a toddler.
He was under a year old at this time. So
for a little while we tried to do me work
during the day and she worked second shift at the
Omnigrove Point in So it's a very cool place. It's
up on the side of a mountain. I'm gonna tell
(08:11):
you all about the history of this place. It's got
quite the history. It's over one hundred years old and
it's amazing. It's just this huge granite, all these blocks
built right up on the side of the mountain. You
walk out there, everything is rocked. The hole inn is stone,
huge grand fireplaces inside of it. Every Christmas they do
(08:33):
a gingerbread It's a gingerbread contest basically, so artisans and
bakers from all over the world come in and they
make these huge, grand gingerbread castles essentially, and they do
a big competition of it, and you can come in,
you can see them all. It's amazing. It's nothing you
should do if you're ever in Asheville during a Christmas time,
(08:56):
you know.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And my daughter made a gingerbread house plus Chris Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well, gingerbread house are definitely fun to make. These ones
are those? The ones that I saw at this place
are absolutely incredible, Like, yeah, you should. You should google
it at some point. Nestled in the Misty Blue Ridge
Mountains overlooking the city of Atrial, North Carolina, stands a
structure carved from the very bones of the land itself,
(09:26):
massive granite boulders corey just yards away from its mighty walls.
It's a hotel, a fortress of hospitality, a place where
American presidents, celebrities, military officers, and even ghosts have found
themselves under the same red tile roof. The story of
the Omni Grove Park Gain is a story of vision, luxury, war, healing,
and mystery. All right. It all began with a man
(09:48):
named Edwin Wiley Grove, a Tennessee born pharmaceutical magnate whose
Groves Tasteless chill Tonic, a quinine based medicine designed to
treat malaria, had made him fantastically wealthy by the early
nineteen hundreds. Grove, who suffered from chronic bronchitis and other ailments,
discovered Asheville in the early twentieth century. The crisp mountain
(10:09):
air and stunning vistas were said to have healing qualities,
and for Grove it proved true. He was so taken
with the area that he decided to build a RESTful
retreat for the body and mind. But Grove didn't want
to build just any hotel. He wanted to build a
hotel that rivaled Europe's greatest spas and resorts, a place
of healing and elegance for the upper class, hidden away
(10:29):
in the Blue Ridge. A man of great determination and
determination and ambition. Grove took on the project personally, hiring
Fred Loring Seely, his son in law, as architect and
construction manager. The building was built in less than a year.
The pace of the pace of construction was staggering. In
(10:49):
July of nineteen twelve, construction began and by July nineteen thirteen,
the hotel opened its doors. That's right, This five hundred
and twelve foot long granite masterpiece, complete with one hundred
and fifty guest rooms and all the luxury of the era,
was completed in just twelve months. Over four over four
hundred men, mostly local workers. The Stonemasons labored six days
(11:13):
a week, powered by groves money and Cely's unrelenting schedule.
Talk about cracking the whip, dude, Holy fuck. Yeah, the stone.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Its building and considering the time, like the primitive equipment
that they have for construction back then.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah, nineteen twelve to nineteen thirteen, Yeah, they're not.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
That's that's nuts, very crazy.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So the stones, some weighing up to ten thousand pounds,
were harvested from Sunset Mountain itself, where the Inn now rests.
The construction was so robust and the material is so
natural that the building seems to grow directly from the mountain.
And that's that's not even that's not even an exaggeration.
Omnigro point bark In looks like it's just built out
(11:59):
of the mountain. And it's I mean, knowing that the
stones all come from the mountain itself kind of makes sense.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
That's sucking cool.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
When the Grove park In opened in July twelfth, nineteen thirteen,
former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan gave the keynote,
addressed to an audience of elites, declaring the most beautiful
resort hotel in the world has been built in the South.
From the beginning, the Grove park In attracted the rich,
the powerful, powerful, and the influential. Ten US presidents have
(12:34):
stayed at the inn, from Williard Howard Taff to Barack Obama.
F Scott Fitzgerald stayed here in the nineteen thirties while
his wife Zelda was undergoing psychiatric treatment. Nearby, the serene
mountain landscape may have offered him inspiration or refuge from
the chaos of his life. During World War II, the
hotel was repurposed not once, but twice. First, in nineteen
(12:58):
forty two, it was leased by the US gouvern to
serve as a convalescence hospital for wounded Navy personnel. The
massive halls and healthy mountain air were deemed perfect for recovery. Then,
in nineteen forty four, it was turned into a top
secret internment center for AXIS diplomats and their families captured
in Latin America. For months, foreign nationals lived quietly behind
(13:21):
the granite walls, unaware they were being monitored and in
some cases interrogated. Oh boy, so this place is used
for all kinds of shit during the war. Yeah. After
the war, the Grove Park resumed his life as a
luxury of retreat, continuing to host the elite, from Harry
Hugh Deini to Thomas Edison and later Oprah Winfrey, Elon
(13:43):
Musk and Desmond Tutu. Holy shit, I mean this is
a nice fucking hotel, man, You ain't kidding. So architecture
and atmosphere, the Grove Parking is an architectural marvel built
in the Arts and Craft style, a movement that emphasized
craftsman ships, simplicity, and harmony with nature. The massive twin
(14:03):
fireplaces the main lobby, each large enough to stand inside,
are legendary in themselves, and I'm I'm again not an exaggeration.
Those fireplaces are fucking huge. And the chimneys that go
up from home like they've got to be they're they're
forty feet if there are six inches, you know what
(14:24):
I mean?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Like, Bro, trust me, dude, when you're telling me that
Oprah and Elon.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Musk and Barack Obama have stayed at this hotel, I
can imagine that it's pretty extravagant.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
It's it's yeah, the play. It's fucking crazy.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
They're not staying at the fucking Half with Johnson's.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Bro, you know, no, yeah, yeah. The rustic elegance of
the red oak furniture, iron fixtures, and granite walls speak
to the era in which it was born. Both rugged
and refined, The Inn's hallways echo with age. The windows
are thick with time. Even the air seems different, cool, crisp,
as though each breath holds a century of whispered conversations
(15:05):
and clinking glasses. But it also has a haunted past,
so for all its grandeur, the Grove Parking is not
without its mysteries. The most famous haunting is that of
the Pink Lady. According to local lore, sometime in the
nineteen twenties, a young woman dressed in a flowing pink
(15:25):
gown either jumped or fell to her death from the
fifth floor of the Palm Court atrium. Some say she
was the mistress of a wealthy man, others claim it
was a tragic accident. Whatever the case, guests and staff
alike have reported sightings of a pink mist or, a
full apparition, appearing and vanishing at will Room five point
(15:49):
forty five in particular, is said to be her domain.
Some guests have claimed they woke up feeling washed, whether
that the air felt icy cold. Others report lights, flickering,
doors closing on their own, and a strange sensation of
being tucked into bed by invisible hands. Yet, unlike most hauntings,
the Pink Lady is said to be a benevolent spirit,
(16:10):
playing harmless pranks and sometimes comforting children who are scared
at night. Okay, the inn has fully embraced the story,
and staff will happily tell you the tales, though perhaps
with a knowing smile and a touch of theater. Other
ghostly occurrences had been whispered about, unexplayed footsteps and empty halls,
(16:31):
the smell of old cigar smoke and the smoke free areas.
Voices hurt echoing late at night when the halls are empty.
Whether these are tricks of acoustics or imagination or something
more spectral is left up to the visitor. In twenty thirteen,
the Grove Park Inn was acquired by Omni Hotels and Resorts,
(16:52):
thus the name Omni Park you know, Omni Park Omni
Grove Park, becoming the Omnigrove Park in and underwent significant renovations,
but Omni wisely kept the soul of the place intact.
The lobby still feels like it belongs to another century.
The massive fireplaces still crackl in winter. The staff still
(17:12):
exudes that old world charm, and the ghosts they're still
part of the charm today. The inn offers nearly six
hundred rooms, a world class subterranean spa, an eighteen hold
Donald Ross golf course where they put a golf course
inside of the mountain. I have no idea, but award
(17:33):
winning restaurants.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
What's ey that say it's good to have money?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Right? Award winning restaurants, breathtaking views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
It's a destination unto itself. So more than just a resort.
The Omnigrove Park Gain is a place where the past lingers,
not just in granted and timber, but in the very atmosphere.
It's where echoes of political strategy, literary amusings, military recovery,
(17:59):
and whisper ghost stories converge. It's where you can walk
the same hallways it's Fitzgerald, Roosevelt and Hughgini and maybe
feel the presidence of the pink lady brushing by.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
So, yeah haunts this place?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Who does?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
No?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Hughgini spent time there? He didn't. They're not saying he
haunts the place. That would be kind of crazy, THO,
wouldn't it?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
It would That's why I asked, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
So the US presidents William Toward Haft, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge,
Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon,
Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, and Barack Obama have
all spent time here.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Uh. F Scott Fitzgerald lived in the end of the
nineteen thirties while Zelda was in a nearby sanatorium.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Oh Ship.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah. Uh. Thomas Wolf He's an ash Asheville native who
frequented the inn. Uh. Carl Sandberg, a poet and writer
who lived nearby and visited often, and then historical and
political figures Harry Hudini visited during its early years. Desmond
Tussu Nobel Peace Prize winning South African bishop and human
(19:22):
rights activist Eleanor Roosevelt obvious she was the first lady.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
First Lady John D.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Rockefeller Junior spend time here. Okat Some of the actors
and entertainers who have been here. Michael Jordan we all
know Michael Jordan, the NBA legend who is vacation.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Mis Elon Musk is known to have stayed there during
a personal trip out. Oprah Winfrey when she she filmed
in the area and stayed at the Grove Park, oh Ship.
Jennifer Lawrence stayed during area film shoots.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
She was the one who was in Hunger Games.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Hunger Games, Yeah, because that was filmed out in western
North Carolina. Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Wait wait wait wait, Hunger Games was filmed in western
North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Yeah, the District thirteen, the one that she was living in.
That was there's a town in North Carolina where that
was filmed.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
I did not know that. Yeah, that's pretty fucking cool.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I mean I knew it because I was living in
North Carolina at the time. It was kind of a
it was kind of a big deal, you know.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
And then also, uh, what the hell? Oh, Wilmington is
a big filming city. Do you remember that show? Uh
what the hell is the name of it? Dawson's Creek
that was filmed in Wilmington. Yeah, oh shit, I know
(21:05):
it was supposed to be it was like a Cape
cod style town, but it was filmed in Wilmington.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
I mean I didn't watch. My sister was obsessed with
that fucking show.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Yeah, I was. I was probably the right age, but
I was the wrong demographic to watch that.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yeah. Well, my sisters like was born in eighty two.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah, so that was it, Yeah, exactly. So George Gershwin
a legendary composer. He stayed there and then Uh, some
of the hauntings, So again we're doing The pink lady
of Room four fifty four says she's the most well
(21:48):
known gross ghost at Grove Park in benevolent but occasionally
mischievous spirit believed to haunt room four fifty five and
in the surrounding areas of the historic main inn. Yeah,
and staff alike have reported a pink miss flashes of light,
or a full bodied apparition in a flowing pink gown.
(22:09):
This is this is the same thing that we have
talked about sometime in late nineteen twenties, jumped to her death.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Uh, pushed, nobody knows, pushed.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah, unseen presidence sitting on the bed. Even more eerie.
Some guests have claimed to awaken to find the pink
ladies standing at the foot of their bed, smiling sadly,
before vanishing into thin air.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
That's a weird way to start today.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah, apparently you can request room five forty five. But
from a couple of things that I read, it's that
a lot of people will not spend the entire night there. Really.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Yeah, well, don't tempt me with a good time.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
I know. Right now I'm kind of wondering how much.
That would because like the Omni, the Omni Washington Hotel
is super expensive. Now I'm wondering what the grow But
I mean you can go there. You can go there
and just go to the bar and sit on the
balcony overlooking the mountains. You know you're gonna pay fifteen
(23:16):
to twenty dollars for a drink. But still nice places
sit and have a beer. Oh yeah, I mean super
nice place sit and have a beer. Right another place
called the Children's Hallway. Several visitors who reported the sound
of children running or laughing in the hallways late at night,
(23:38):
particularly the oldest parts of the main inn. But upon checking,
there are no children checked into the rooms nearby or
even on that floor. And this has given rise to
the theory that multiple spirits may reside at the Grove
Park Inn, not just the Pink Lady. I would imagine
that someplace that's over one hundred years old like.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
This, especially all the the wounded veterans and then fuckinget
what sounds like military intelligence was operating in there at
one point.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yeah, and I mean this this isn't even talking about
the fact that the Blue Ridge park the Blue Ridge Parkway,
the Blue Ridge mountains. They're firmly in the Appalachian Mountain range.
You know, this is all Appalachia area, Okay, And Ashville
is way up there. Ashville's up in this inner valley,
way up in the mountains. I mean, I don't know
(24:32):
if you've ever if you've ever been out to Asheville.
When you go west across the state in North Carolina,
you're going forty across the state and you get to
where you go up in Asheville, you go up for
a while. Like Asheville is not a low city. It's
way way up there in the mountains. It is up
in the mountains.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
I worked with a guy that retired in September, and
his dream is to move up to ash That's all
he talked about. Yeah, before the tirement was was selling
his house and taught and moving to Ashville, North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Yeah. I mean, it's it's a gorgeous it's a gorgeous place.
I love Ashville. It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
You're not the first person that I've heard speak very
highly of Asheville, North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Yeah. And then there's something known as haunted lockers and
hidden rooms. Employees working in the subtrain and areas of
the hotel, including maintenance tunnels, old storage rooms, and even
the staff locker areas have reported doors opening and closing
by themselves, footsteps in empty hallways, whispers and voices coming
(25:46):
from unused rooms. These stories persist despite renovations and upgrades
over the decades. Some longtime staff believe certain areas once
used for secret meetings or even as makeshift hospital rooms
during the nineteen eighteen flu pandemic or World War Two.
The residual energy they say never left, so that makes
(26:06):
sense too in nineteen eighteen the Spanish flu epidemic that
killed a huge portion of the population, and.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
If they were using the hospital for patients, yeah, man, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
One of the oldest elevators in the hotel is said
to behave strangely on occasion, especially late at night. Staff
have described it arriving on floors with no one inside,
or even taking guests to the wrong floor despite their selection.
A few brave visitors have reported a shadowy figure briefly
visible in the elevator mirror before disappearing when they turn around.
(26:47):
That would freak me out. Yeah, if I caught the
glimpse of something in the mirror in an elevator.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Fucking dude. That's wacky.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, staff testimonies. The staff of the Grove Park Game,
many of whom have worked there for decades, often share
quiet warnings and stories with new employees, particularly those assigned
to the graveyard shift. Some believe the Pink Lady watches
over the end and her presence is protective rather than malicious.
Others believe she gets lonely and seeks out companionship, especially
(27:25):
from young children. That's weird. Though the Omnigrove Park and
does not officially promote it's haunted history, they certainly don't
deny it either. Guests curious about Room four fIF five
point forty five can request to stay there, but be warned.
(27:45):
More than one visitor has asked to switch rooms in
the middle of the night. That's where I get that from.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Damn.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
So yeah, obviously a lot of history in this place.
It's obviously very, very gorgeous place to see. See. I'll
I'll have to post some pictures up. I don't have
any pictures that I took while I was there. Unfortunately,
it's been almost ten years since I lived in Nashville
or even been in Nashville. I think Jesus I gotta
(28:16):
go back. That feels gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Man. Maybe we should make a pilm till what do
they call it? Yes, thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
We'll have to figure out what sanatorium, uh Zelda Fitzgerald
was staying in. Maybe it's abandoned now, Yeah, maybe that
would be dope. Yeah, there's definitely a lot of stuff
out there. I was thinking I could probably add on
here about the Biltmore estate in Nashville, too, but I
(28:53):
didn't look. I didn't do any research on that one,
So we're gonna leave that one for another time. There's
probably a lot history with the Bilt War two. But
Omnigroll Park in Man.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Sounds like a fucking dope place.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yeah, somebody somebody brought this up on a group chat
on one of the paranormal groups on Facebook, So I thought,
I was like, you know what, I've I've been there
a few times. Mag's wife worked there. I think we
could do an episode in that fucking egg there it.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Is, Man, did your ex ever experience anything odd?
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Not that I recall her telling me, but I'll I
don't know. If I asked her, she might tell me.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
I have no idea, just curious, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah, not that, not that I remember, but she also
she's one of those people who like, she's one of
those people who believes in ghosts, but also just doesn't
want anything to do with them.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
You know what I mean, just even talking about it
freaks her out.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yeah, my ex was like that too.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah, it's just like, no, I don't want any I
don't like, she doesn't want to have paranormal experiences, so
she doesn't want to talk about it, she doesn't want
to think about it, she doesn't want to you know
that type of stuff.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Oh yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
So anyways, that's it, man, that's it for the summer
horror movie Monday is coming out this Monday. Next Monday,
we did one that is a definitely a classic now
a newer movie, but definitely has a big following, So
(30:42):
stay tuned for that one.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
It's gonna be h, I don't know, I want to
say something cheesy, but it's gonna be a cruel summer
do So.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Yeah, so it's where is the Friday episodes are going forward.
We're not gonna do anymore until September. The horror movie Mondays.
I think we're going to kind of play that one
by year for the rest of the summer. They're bonus
episodes anyways. Even though I know we've been doing them
every single Monday, we've gotten kind of used to it.
They are still technically bonus episode. So we're kind of
(31:19):
just see how it goes. If we end up watching
a movie, something cool, something we want to talk about,
we'll jump on here and record it. Otherwise, we're just
gonna be checking places out over the summertime and getting
stuff ready for the fall man for the spooky season
to come up, and hit it hard when we come back,
and you know.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Maybe we'll do some special podcasts.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
When I get towards the end of filming and when
maybe Joe gets towards the end of the publishing his
third book.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Maybe we could do a little little special episode. I mean,
kind of let people know where where we're at.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I mean, hey, man, you're gonna be You're gonna spend
a lot of time filming in the Haunted Woods there,
so there's probably, yeah, there's probably more than one episode
kicking around in there somewhere.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
It's funny you say that, Joe, because I was talking
to my daughter earlier today.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Yeah, she's telling her like, you're gonna spend most of
August with me.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
I've already worked it out with your mother, yeah, And
I told her, I'm like, legally, I can only work
you till ten o'clock, I said, but you're gonna be
in the woods with me till one in the morning,
moving around equipment and helping.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Right.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
She's like, I gotta be out there till one in
the morning.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I saw a demon in those woods, and I'm like, yeah,
we got a movie to make, so yeah, tell that
demon the screw.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
We ain't got time for his ship.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Tell him if he wants to be in a movie,
just come on, man, get on camera.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Oh my god, imagine if if filming and then like
just some odd thing that cannot be explained.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Is in the movie.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Oh my god, You're gonna end up being the next
found footage movie.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Wouldn't that be freaky? Though?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
This week on sixty Minutes, the Real Blair Witch Project
movie A man a man tries to make a movie
and some hat in the Freetown State forest and the
hawted woods ends up disappearing and the found footage will
shock you, bro.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
When I ran this whole idea by my cousin Derek,
who's a lot older than me.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
He's like early fifties.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yeah. He's like, you're making a horror movie that takes
place in the Freetown State Forest.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
He's like, that's a movie in itself.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah yeah, man, Yeah, you just you need somebody else
to just run a camera the whole time you're out
there filming, and then not only make the movie, but
then make a documentary based on making the movie.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Oh that's a good idea, dude.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Yeah, I'm probably gonna take you up on that.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Bone, buddy, One after the other, all the freaky things
that happen on set while we're in a Freetown State forest,
the documentary of making the horror movie in Haunted Woods.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Oh yeah, I've made that very clear to everyone.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
I'm like, it would be an insult to these locals
if I did not actually film it in the.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
Freetown State Forest, right, how could you not do that? Yeah,
that'd be blasphemy.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
You make a movie about the Freetown State Forest, you
film it in patchok State Forest. Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Bro, And then you got fucking all of Massachusetts like,
get the fuck out it here.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Like, hey, they're still haunted woods, Like come on, man,
still paying homage. But yeah, anyways, all right man, we digress,
We digress. Thank you guys for listening. Thank you, Thank
you so much for sporting the show. Please leave a review,
leave a five star review, Tell your friends, share the
(35:24):
episodes with your friends, get our name out there. Make
sure that when we come back and the fall, we
are skyrockety.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Joe, we can tell them that I love to them.
Will still be strong after the Boys of the Summer.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
About what a reference?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Al Right, guys think it awesome? Awesome reference. Al Right, guys,
have a good one.
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