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| The Elk Hostel in Sutton Source: Elk Hostel FaceBook |
As many people in the paranormal community are discovering, the little town of Sutton, WV, located in the central part of the state, has quickly become a can't-miss paranormal tourist destination. Sutton is home to both the Flatwoods Monster Museum and the West Virginia Bigfoot Museum. It's home to one of SRI's favorite haunted locations, a charming Victorian home known as the William Edgar Haymond House, which can be rented out overnight for paranormal investigations or simply as a cool, spooky place to stay the night. Several festivals are held throughout the year celebrating the area's unique contributions to the world of paranormal research, and there are plenty of local businesses and attractions celebrating the town's history and its lore.
However, there's one location in Sutton that has a long reputation of being haunted, but surprisingly doesn't get as much attention. It's a historic building where you can stay the night when you're in town, and has been the filming site of several interesting movie projects. This building is the Elk Hostel, which can be found right downtown at 200 Main Street.
Before it was the Elk Hostel, the old building started as The Elk Hotel. Construction of the hotel was completed and it was ready for guests by April of 1894. However, the Sutton Hotel Company, which was behind the project, was formed on June 6, 1891. J.S. Hyer, a local politician and businessman, was a member of this committee, and would ultimately become the first official owner of the hotel, which was occasionally referred to as The Elk House.
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| Elk Hotel prior to 1910 Source: Clio |
By 1909, the Home National Bank was incorporated and moved into the bottom floor of the Elk Hotel. The following year, the hotel underwent some renovations. The outside facade was covered in a stucco, scored to imitate stone blocks. The corner entrance into the bank lobby and the Doric columns adorning this section were also added.
Over the years, the hotel changed owners and management several times, and even became known under the ownership of Mr. and Mrs. Lester Gerwig as The Midway Hotel, because it had become a midway stop on the WV Bus Company's route. Space in the building was used as a bank, a general store, a billiards hall, and even a restaurant before the building finally was abandoned. It sat abandoned for 20 years until it was purchased by Kevin Carpenter around 1999. Kevin began the process of restoring the hotel, and opened it up as a cool little place to stay in downtown.
But during those 20 years when the old hotel sat abandoned, it might not have been as empty as it appeared. On October 31, 2003 NPR published a wonderful little Halloween ghost story piece with reporter, Erika Celeste, talking about the alleged hauntings of the Elk Hotel/Hostel. Weird sounds, doors slamming shut, misty apparitions, and strange feelings were all experienced after Kevin purchased the building. However, two witnesses came forth and claimed that they saw something...
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| Lobby of the Home National Bank Source: Sutton, West Virginia, Looking Back Again, by Craig A. Smith |
Colleen Dickerson worked across the street from the Elk Hostel and she reports that one night about 2am, she happened to glance at one of the windows of the then-abandoned building. Knowing the building should be empty, she was shocked to see a young woman with long, blonde hair wearing an old fashioned white blouse looking out.
Janet Butler possibly saw the same ghostly woman. She saw the apparition of a woman, possibly holding a candle as it was bathed in a dim light, looking out from the hotel's enclosed balcony. But who was this woman?
The NPR recording goes on to state that there was some historical precedence for why the Elk may be haunted by this woman and several others. To begin with, it was stated that downtown Sutton was once home to an Adena Burial Mound, which was leveled by early settlers to make room for the town. Further, there were some deaths associated with the Elk Hotel, including a story about a guest who went missing, only to be found a short distance away. He was deceased and his body was being eaten by pigs. Another story tells of a mother who took her own life at the hotel shortly after losing her child to a fever. Could this mother be the phantom woman seen by both Janet and Colleen?
As with many projects, research into this location is on-going, and I'm hoping to find some documentation of the deaths mentioned above, as well as get to finally tour the site for myself! I'll update as needed, but until then, if you have had any experiences yourself at the Elk Hostel or anywhere else around Sutton, I'd love to hear from you! Please share your story in the comments below, or find me over on Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State FaceBook. And as always...happy haunting!
For further reading and information:
Info on the Elk Hostel from the Braxton County WV website
NPR Interview with Erika Celeste
Downtown Sutton Historic District Nomination for National Register of Historic Places
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