just a little shady - We Visited One of Michigan’s Most Haunted Places | Ep. 10

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

Telling the stories behind some of Michigan's most haunted places & vlogging our visit to one of the places in the Patreon bonus content! Submit your shady story to be featured in a future episode anonymously here: https://forms.gle/WJJ3NdovNXW4eEGS7 NEW LIMITED COLLECTIONS just dropped on justalittleshadypodcast.com Join our Patreon for ad free content, bonus content & more: https://www.patreon.com/justalittleshadypodcast Subscribe to our youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/justalittleshadypodcast Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justalittleshadypodcast/ Watch us on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR6yk19Q/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome back to another spooky episode of the podcast. This episode is going to be Michigan's most haunted places and the stories behind them. And for the bonus content this week, if you are on Patreon, we are actually going to be vlogging ourselves going to one of these haunted locations. So if you want to see that, make sure you join the Patreon bonus content. And we are actually starting with the place that we are going to be visiting. And that is the Whitney Mansion in Detroit. That was a great sound effect for that. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So the story behind the hauntings here is that it was originally built in 1894 for David Whitney Jr. and his wife and children. And a lot of people say this was supposed to be their forever home. And some

say that it still is because they are said to be still haunting the place. So back when the house was built, that fantasy never came to fruition because the family matriarch, his wife, passed away in 1882 before the construction even began. But one year later, Whitney married Flora, the sister of his wife. This is shady, not just spooky. This is a shady story. Exactly. And she became the stepmother to the family's four children aunt stepmother they ended up moving into the whitney mansion and taking over

that home and so particularly now people say that sarah the original wife haunts the bathroom the women's bathroom, and weeps because she never got to live in the home that her sister took from her. I mean, that doesn't surprise me. I would weep too. If I went out that way and I don't have a sister, but in theory my sister took my man, absolutely not. Right, this could be a shady story in itself, but now turns spooky because she literally haunts the home, it said, over this.

And I guess not that long later, a little bit of karma hit Mr. Whitney because Whitney himself ended up dying of a heart attack in the mansion in 1900. In the bathroom? Just in the home. It could have been the bathroom. We'll go with the bathroom for dramatic effect. But that was just six years after the home was completed. Also, there was a little bit of a sad story there because David Whitney's daughter, Grace, was in Europe at the time of the passing and she never got to say goodbye. And so now it's said that Grace enjoyed having tea in the Holmes carriage house, which is located just next door. And a

tea set was always set out waiting for her visits because David Whitney always wanted that. So now they have a tea set up, a tea party set up in the carriage house and it's said that if anyone touches the tea set to this day that things will go breaking inside of the mansion and people think it's david whitney because he's upset because that's for his daughter oh that's precious yes i love a temper tantrum over frivolous things and he is said to be doing that to this day and Whitney's second wife Sarah the sister ended up passing away in 1917 and the mansion was eventually transferred to the Wayne County Medical Center and used as a TB tuberculosis ward for some time and so now some have reported that when they visit the mansion spirits from that era are having

coughing fits throughout the mansion and that's what they can hear and they think that those are the spirits from that era of the home that's that's sure is something kind of i mean like why did it go to the medical center just that's what david whitney wanted that's what i think some people donate their like properties to different causes and maybe that was one that they chose so after that family didn't have it any longer and it was no longer the medical ward in the 1980s the whitney was reimagined as a restaurant and sold to an entrepreneur and so now the building is open to the public and has been ever since but in 2007 it was again reimagined when someone else bought it and now they've kind of turned it into a state-of-the-art kitchen with a ghost bar on the

third floor which is where we will be visiting during our vlog on the patreon yay so the spirits of david whitney jr and his family are supposedly said to be there to stay and a few different ways that they show up one is so their residence was actually the first residents in detroit to have a functional elevator and so some people say and it's supposedly on security footage as well that the elevator is said to move up and down on its own without any passengers oh it just it just decides when it wants to move and so people think that it's the family using the elevators good to know that we can still use elevators in our ghost i don't see why you need to can't you just like float upstairs that you would think but maybe that's not just the logistics of it like maybe the ghosts have to take the stairs that we'll never know i mean until we're until we're ghosties um and then some say that they've seen unexplained apparitions in the second

and third floors and staff members have reported hearing sounds of utensils being stacked and table settings moving on their own so we are gonna go and we're gonna see if we have any experiences we're gonna try to vlog so if you want to see that that will be on the patreon but let's get to the next haunted place in michigan which is the holly hotel the holly hotel so the historic holly hotel has been long known to be haunted with taylor's hit album 1989 by norman garthur garthur is how we'll go with that is that how you do it um a professor in parapsychological parapsychology parapsychology which i gathered i don't totally know what this is yeah what is that i was a little into psych i have never heard of parapsychology but i believe it's paranormal activity oh let's fucking get it with

psychology love that for him norman um as we will refer to him now forward the hotel gets yearly visits from ghost hunters from southern michigan the hotel has a long history and part of that was two tragic fires that consumed the holly hotel the first fire took place on january 19th 1913 a very spooky year you know 13 and that was followed by a second fire exactly 65 years apart to the day into the hour that doesn't seem like a coincidence that's what i was thinking when i first looked into this history that's what i was thinking and i will i don't want to spoil things too much but i will say that the holly hotel no longer is in business and people say it was because of another fire that is spooky so the building is is definitely riddled with fire hazards we may need to drive by this one as well um so one of

those fires is said to be the cause by the hotel ghost can't seem to pass on the first of which is mr hearst um he was the first for formal hoteller when the hotel was called the heist hotel his spirit seems to be unable to pass on into the afterlife due to the great fire at the holly hotel as we mentioned in 1913 which ended his reign his ghost is known to be the most frequent if you see a man in wearing a frock coat in a top hat you most most likely have met mr heiss the smell of cigars is a common manifestation of him it can be soft wafering barely, or very overpowering and very strong. Yeah, most guests do smell cigars when they walk in, and obviously you can't smoke inside the building, especially with all of their fire issues in the past. But they do say that they notice a cigar smell,

and whether they know about it or not, a lot of people will go there not really realizing that this is a haunted hotel and will complain of the smell of cigars. And the staff will always inform them, you're not allowed to smoke in the building and if you're smelling that that's most likely mr hearst and a lot of people also say that you can't see him so although they have been known to see him in a frock coat and a top hat those are mostly gathered based on like images of him from the past i see his apparition isn't really present it's mostly manifested in the smell i see very strong smell well i can see why he is the most common another ghost that seems to be trapped in the hotel is

nora kane called to be the hostess of the house from historical accounts miss kane had a love of music and enjoyed playing a good medley now and again her spirit is frequently encountered as she materializes mostly in photographs especially at weddings held at the hotel her portrait is displayed in the restaurant's main lobby that's very much so giving harry potter vibes yes i will say I can imagine that this one is people kind of have come to this imagination of her based on the portraits being at the hotel. I see. And this one was interesting, actually, too, because she's also known to be manifested mostly in the sense of smell of her perfume, which is a vastly different smell than a cigar. Yes, so people actually will either smell this really nice floral sweet perfume or the cigar smell.

So very different smells that guests will complain about when they're there and one is said to be her and one is said to be mr hearst and guests have also spotted nora's ghost most often in the bar in the back hallways probably where you'd find my ghost which ones were the main entrance to the holly hotel she's often described as um graceful not often complete very demure but cutting off at about the knees um she is always wearing one of her beautiful dresses again something that i would do in my ghostly form wear beautiful dresses why wouldn't you why wouldn't we dress to the nines if we could um as i sit in my sweatpants but i digress nora was also known to be a very good singer and her soft medleys can sometimes be heard

distantly in different rooms of the dining rooms late at night. She's also been known to ask people standing near the piano to play a tune for her and a voice can also be heard throughout the house. That's wild. I know. They have quite a few ghosts at this Holly Hotel because another one is a ghost in the kitchen that people say is the most active of the ghosts, which kind of makes sense because they think this is a younger spirit. And it's thought to be potentially Nora's child who had passed away at a young age. And so now where the parking lot exists now, it used to be a stable. And some have speculated that maybe instead of it being Nora's daughter, it's a little girl who passed away in the stable next door from an injury. So they're not exactly sure who this is, but it's a very happy, playful ghost that is very active. And people think they're between the ages of 9 and 13 and they seem to

toy with many kitchen items that are placed within the room and a lot of times they will be moving a meat cleaver which seems a little creepy. I don't like that. But it's said to be a happy ghost so no worries there they're not coming after anyone with the meat cleaver and the young ghost has appeared the only one that actually appeared during a seance in the early 1990s so a soft giggling can be heard through this ghost in the kitchen and often is moving objects the meat cleaver teapapots, utensils. Don't like it. I don't like it one bit.

And the hotel has now been closed since June of 2022 when a large fire in Holly damaged the historical building. The hotel owners have now since announced that they are selling it in a Facebook post on September 12, 2024 for $899,000. Yes. So this is recent news that the Holly Hotel is up for sale. I do believe that the original owners wanted to keep it, but they said that they made the difficult decision to ultimately sell it after the last fire and so now it's up for grabs which $899,000 doesn't seem that expensive to me for a hotel that's this popular right I really hope someone buys it so we can go see it potentially next Halloween I'm on their website right now and it

I mean it still looks like it's for sale now nobody's bought it just yet so here's your chance everyone it's up for buy this hotel i mean who wouldn't want to buy a haunted hotel it looks so quaint okay next up on our haunted places in michigan we have the terrace the Terrace Inn and 1911 Restaurant. So this is a hotel with a restaurant. So if you are a little too nervous to go stay at the hotel itself, you can just join the restaurant and take a look around. This one is in Petoskey, Michigan. And this place is so well known for having ghost encounters with guests that they actually keep a book at the front desk called The Ghost Files. And you can ask for it when you're there and read it. And they let basically it's like a guest book and you can write your experience if you had paranormal activity during your stay in this guest book. And so I did try to look online to see if there was any photos

of it but they don't let you take any photos you're only allowed to see it if you're there in person oh my gosh and so the hotel's website has a different story about the ghosts that are there versus other accounts so according to the terrace inn's website their haunted history is according to a well-placed rumor that the inn is haunted by spirits of two workers who passed away when a beam fell on them when they were doing construction on the hotel and that to me makes a little bit of sense you know right and those ghosts have been seen heard and felt by guests and employees, according to the Terrace Inn website. But other paranormal investigations have said that there's three other main ghosts that roam the hotel. One being the lady in white.

Some say this woman is named Elizabeth Abby Sweet, who was searching for her husband. Another ghost that appears there, the man in tweed. So she's seen in hallways and guest rooms. And then that man, some say his name is Edward, her husband, and has been seen on the balcony looking into bedrooms. And then the third ghost that other people say haunts this terrace inn is the boy in the basement. And some say this boy is believed to be between 12 and 14 years old and seen in a shadowy form and interacts often with guests that go into the basement. Oh, I don't like the basement.

The basement spooks are too spooky for me. Yeah, I don't even like going into my own basement, and I've had no said encounters. So I can't imagine how fast these people run up the stairs on their way out, but I would definitely be doing the same. Oh, yes. And this is according to guests that have stayed at the hotel and the hotel website itself there's a room there room 211 that if you stay in this room you're bound to experience paranormal activity that's so scary do we stay in it do we go i don't know so i have actually seen and i'll insert a picture of actual reviews on like trip advisor talking about stop it's not knowing that this room is particularly haunted and

they get put into this room i feel like that's gotta come with a warning yeah so this woman actually still left a five star review however she said i love this and i love the area and i will return however i will not stay in room 21. I stayed alone in the room and had a hair-raising experience with one of the paranormal inhabitants. I was told later that a lot of the paranormal activity takes place in this room and this wing of the building, mostly on the second and third floors. I have chills just typing about it. There are many people who enjoy this type of thrill. In fact, the inn hosts a ghost hunting weekend each october however this girl has booked room 100 a large jacuzzi suite with less reported activity and is bringing her husband on

another weekend in the fall so guests do claim that this is true and the website itself and willing to go back just not in that room and other guests have reported mysterious whispers this guest did not specifically say what their encounter was but i believe them and despite all that a five-star rating and the terrace inn has a 4.7 out of 5 stars with 587 reviews on google to this day and is still open for booking looking at the pictures of it right now and a little spooky. It's definitely dated in there. Definitely could create some spooky vibes. Yeah, very much so.

Maybe we'll stick to the restaurant. Up next is we have the Traverse City State Hotel, which is also known as. The hospital. Oh, yes. It's also known as the hospital because that is what it is. It's in Northern Michigan Asylum and the Traverse City Regional Psychiatric Hospital, which is now decommissioned. So what we know about it is there's been screams, voices that travel throughout the hallways.

The lights will flicker on and off throughout the building. And it's even more frightening that there has not been electricity in the space. So that's where it's like, why are these lights coming on and off? And if you've ever watched, which I used to be so weird to think about, but we've probably said this before. I used to love watching those paranormal shows where they would try to get the ghosts to flicker on and off like light bulbs and they bring those things and they do say that apparitions have a lot of energy so they can bring do something like that even if it's not there it's interesting to think that that is going on there. I thought this was interesting because I feel like I've heard a lot of stuff where asylums will get stereotyped as this place that were like so negative and so haunted because so many terrible things happened there.

And this is actually one of the opposite cases. So people think that apparitions haunt this place, not because they had a terrible experience and are trapped. Not because they were happy there. But because it was actually one of the most happy and freeing times of their lives, so they choose to go back and stay at this place. It's interesting. They housed over 50,000 patients, hired 20,000 employees,

and there was well over 250,000 visitors that came in and out before its closure and now there's been apparitions of adults children even a priest who was believed to have you know taken his own life there which is really unfortunate but the rumors are that there is a also a distinguished creature that appears in the tunnels in the basement so that's not one place that i would want to be is the basement i agree and i have actually seen very scary movies that kind of show these horrible things that these and like they call them insane asylums and they'll show like creepy stuff going on in the tunnels below. And so I envision that maybe that's where people get this idea of like creepy stuff

going on in the tunnels. But in this instance, the tunnels were actually made to help ventilation, airflow. And one of the big practices of this hospital was they believed that basically to heal patients with not barbaric treatments, but with nature and beauty and tranquility. And that's how they would help these patients that came through, which was a very large number. But on the contrary, and kind of going back to what you said about the priest, there is said to be this hippie tree outside of the hospital it's one of the most popular legends and it claims that it's a portal to hell and what the tree yes and people actually who go and visit and not necessarily believe that the hauntings are real or anything like that because again like i said a lot of people know this hospital and asylum

to have been an actual positive experience so a lot of people will go in skeptical thinking that maybe there's not a lot of activity but they all agree they all seem to agree that this tree in particular when they start approaching it they'll start hearing things rustling in the trees rustling in the woods and they don't end up approaching and these are people who are skeptical so this is one of the most popular legends actually of the building this is wild you know what's wild is this is on a different note but a very similar note when i was younger my brother played hockey so we went on a lot of hockey tournaments to not chicago but the suburbs of chicago and one time we stayed at a hotel that was once a hospital it was a hospital turned into

a hotel and it was known to have a haunted floor so they had two wings of the hotel and it might have even been the 13th floor and you would go up to it and they didn't rent out rooms there and it was all like they didn't change anything in it it was just abandoned looking and I was trying to google what this was called I'll have to ask my parents what it was because I went to that floor and didn't walk around the first time we took the elevator up to it I was like heck no I am not walking around here and then I took the elevator up to it I was like heck no I am not walking around here and then I think I was convinced to go back with like my brother and his friends and we all like walked around the floor and it was it was so spooky that's it's

actually really well known that a lot of hotels won't even have a 13th floor for a lot of superstitious reasons like that so I I do believe, I mean, if there was one, it was definitely probably something going on. So apparently the superstition that many hotels skip the 13th floor is due to the fear of the number 13. People don't want to stay on it, which is like also odd because it's like, well, do people not stay on the 14th floor then? Because technically it is the 13th floor well that was that was interesting because that was something I always wondered if you're like on the 14th floor is it really the 13th floor and they renumbered it or do hotels actually leave it empty oh it could be

it could be but that like it's literally I need to know the name of this hotel that we went to because I have to find and find the pictures of this hotel that we went to because I have to find and find the pictures of it because it was so you would love it it was so spooky I don't know if I would love it I actually had an experience and I don't know maybe I did talk about this I think I did talk about this on the podcast for a spooky story in the past but um in Ann Arbor me and Evan had stayed at a hotel it was was unplanned. And it was like for Valentine's day, we went to Ann Arbor and we had a couple of drinks at dinner. So we're like, let's stay down here. And so we stayed at a random hotel, kind of unplanned. And in the middle of the night,

someone was banging on the door. And when we called the front desk at the hotel, they were like, there's no one there. We're looking at the cameras now. And basically this scary experience happened at a random hotel. And every time like something like that happens I feel like again hotels are kind of just known sometimes to be these spooky places and for whatever reason the number 13 plays into this and apparently it's rooted in like religion mythology numerology and um it's interesting i've just looked it up for some facts home insurance building in chicago was the first skyscraper was only 10 stories high and didn't have a 13th floor due to insurance sometimes for guest comfort they want them to avoid feeling uncomfortable with the number 13 so they just don't put it many associate negative events with the 13th floor so it can in fact hotel staff and them

not wanting to go onto the 13th floor I mean I don't know if I would and actually the 13th floor can deter buyers and lower property values so it's interesting that this whole like superstition kind of comes i mean obviously we have friday the 13th and the 13th bat falls from the decor that scared me so bad the it moved i also hear some noise right now so i don't know we need to stop talking about this there's i feel like we're inviting bad vibes into the set very not good so yeah but this building back to this um oh oh back to the hospital the traverse city state hospital it is actually open today so the main building building 50 and the outer buildings are being refurbished and it's part of like a grand traverse commerce village where they have residential commercial

like restaurants things going on there so they're trying to preserve this historical site which i think is a good thing i mean it was a positive experience for a lot of people, and they're just refurbishing it. But while they're doing this, construction workers have said that they've seen figures on the grounds, and some of them have refused to turn to work. So you can actually do tours of the hospital, and they'll tell you the history. Some of them have, like, paranormal tours.

But it's very much open to this day, just a new way i meant to say that with the whitney too they do paranormal tours and ghost dinners and things like that they sell out very quickly though we've been trying to keep our eyes on it yeah it's one originally that's what we were going to do for the patreon vlog however they're all sold out so we are just going to go and see what we can capture there we're going gonna do our own little paranormal um investigation investigation journalism if you will we're ready that concludes this week's episode the most haunted places in michigan well some of them at least there's plenty but that is it and the stories behind them so we will see you guys the next spooky episode bye everyone bye