Works Cited

Adolphus Hotel Ghost. Web. 24 October 2012 http://adolphushotelghost.com.

Tipping, Joy. "Haunted Dallas: Resident Ghosts Make their Presence Known." The Dallas Morning News. 30 October 2010. Web. 24 October 2012 http://www.lexisnexis.com.

5. Conclusion

4. Evidence

3. Reports of Paranormal Activity at the Hotel

Dallas Morning News reporter Joy Tipping says she had a paranormal experience at the Adolphus Hotel while doing a story for the Metro section in 2008. Ghost hunters were giving a seminar, and Tipping says her crystal "did a whipping- spinning thing" on its own that she could not control. The hauntings at the hotel supposedly center around a ballroom that no longer exists in the hotel, which opened in 1912 and cost a staggering (for then) $1.87 million. People who have rooms in the area that was once the 19th-floor ballroom often hear clinking glasses, Big Band music, cocktail chatter and other party-type noises late at night. Newer reports have mentioned a female ghost of some sort in the hotel's pastry kitchen (Tipping).

According to the Adolphus Hotel Ghost website, over the nearly one hundred years since the Adolphus Hotel opened, guests and employees alike have reported numerous instances of paranormal activity throughout the hotel. Many swear the ghosts of visitors from long ago, and who have apparently never left, are to blame. Many people who have stayed at the hotel swear they feel like someone is watching them. They hear doors opening and slamming shut. Many employees who work the aptly named “graveyard shift” say they feel someone following them around watching them as they collect room service carts but when they look around there is no one to be seen (Adolphus Hotel Ghost).

One such report of a haunting involves a woman who had been a regular customer in the Hotel’s bistro. During the weeks after the woman died employees swore the saw the woman coming in and sitting down at her favorite table that was near the front of the Bistro. Several housekeepers have claimed that an unseen guest would tap them on the shoulder while they were cleaning one of the hotel’s restrooms. Several hotel employees have reported different episodes of having windows flying open with a hard  blast of icy cold air (Adolphus Hotel Ghost).

Then there is the most famous of the Hotel’s specters — a sad figure of a bride. It is said that back during the Depression Era of the 1930s, a young woman was jilted by her husband-to-be and left standing at the alter on her wedding day.  When he never showed up for the wedding, she hung herself a mere few feet from where she had hoped to start her new life. She died abandoned and broken-hearted.  She is said to haunt the 19th Floor of the hotel—forever searching for her lost love. Many guests say they hear the sobbing of a woman either in the room next to them or going down the hallway but there is never anyone found.  Many people who have seen the apparition have sworn she has followed them to their destination and stays until either the party is over or they leave. Many people have reported that the soft and gentle melody of a music box plays continually while the melancholy bride is around (Adolphus Hotel Ghost).

2. History/Background of the Hotel

The Adolphus Hotel was the dream of Adolphus Busch. He was a German immigrant and founder of the renown Busch Beer Company. Busch seemed to have a passion for hotels and already owned the Oriental Hotel which was built in 1892 and situated on the southeast corner streets of Commerce and Akard. In 1910, Dallas was booming and the newly burgeoning city wanted a new City Hall and a new grand hotel to represent their expansion. The city leaders decided to talk to Busch about the creation of a new luxury hotel on the site of the old City Hall. Adolphus Busch agreed and shortly announced plans to build a $1 million hotel at the opposite corners of Commerce and Akard. Later that year, in 1910, the demolition of the old city hall and the construction of the new hotel was started (Adolphus Hotel Ghost).

During the Roaring Twenties, the Adolphus would be the place to be. Over the years the Adolphus has been host to major stars of music and film and has hosted a fantastic array of first class entertainment. Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Tommy Dorsey all played at the Adolphus. The Adolphus has also been host to such famous people as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, President Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt, and Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and many others (Adolphus Hotel Ghost).

1. Proposal

Perhaps because I saw the film Poltergeist at an impressionable young age, I became interested in hauntings and other paranormal phenomena. This fascination makes sense considering my Enneagram personality type: The Individualist. We are often interested in the metaphysical world, and like the character Fox Mulder in the television series The X-Files, we "want to believe" in the supernatural. I chose to research hauntings at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas because I am staying at the hotel from November 1 to November 3 to attend the Community College Humanities Association Conference. My boyfriend John (who works in Dallas) told me that a co-worker of his shared rumors of this hotel being haunted. Before I stay at the hotel, I would like to conduct my own investigation into this topic so that I can be on the lookout for things that go bump in the night.