The Avenue Hotel
Workshop
I have known Robin Brekhus, manager of the Gadsden Hotel, for many years. When she announced to me that she purchased a 2nd hotel—the Avenue Hotel—in Douglas, I jumped at the chance to be the first paranormal team to conduct an investigation in the historical hotel.
The Avenue Hotel was built in 1904. It was a small, narrow hotel with a dining area downstairs. In about 1914 they built on an addition with wider halls and rooms with baths. It was very popular with early travelers do to the location near the train station. The hotel was in operation until 1974. The owner closed for business and the doors were locked. Everything inside remained preserved until recently when Robin acquired this gem.
Robin told me the sad story of Mabel McGee—the young 18 year old hotel maid/waitress who died from and overdose of alcohol and poison in 1905. She resided in the older section of the hotel—her dressing table with mirror is still in one of the rooms. Robin feels Mabel’s melancholy spirit still roams the hotel . We were able to hunt down newspaper clippings of Mabel’s death and even the coroner’s report to verify her existence. I promised Robin a $1000 donation towards her air show project for the use of the non operational hotel for one evening and started putting an investigation crew together!
The workshop crew consisted of twenty people. Members of four different paranormal teams from around Arizona were on the roster as well as several other experienced investigators I have worked with in the past—a well rounded crew!
We met in the lobby of the Gadsden hotel. I passed out the info folders and we discussed our plan of action for the evening. We drove down two blocks to the Avenue Hotel and unloaded our equipment, bags, and bed rolls into the lobby.
Robin was on hand to give us a personal tour of the hotel. She gave us lots of information and history of the Avenue Hotel and its owners. We were all amazed that the original furniture and equipment were in such good shape.
Dave and Paul set up the command headquarters from their room where we all could sit and monitor the hallways and rooms on their equipment. We all helped them run and tie down the cable wires to the cameras.
Deb and Judy set up their new equipment in the Poker room area. Everyone else had a least one camera set up and focused on a room. We had every inch of the building covered—no ghost was to get past us!
After dinner James led us in the first of several controlled EVP sessions we held during the evening. We did group EVP sessions in a hall in the old section—one in the halls of the new section—and a couple more in the saloon area.
CLICK HERE
TO LISTEN TO THE EVP CAPTURED BY James Kelly
Paul experimented with his Frank’s box device he had built. We were excited he decided to test the gadget out on this investigation and it was quite interesting as we played back the recording.
CLICK
HERE to Here EVP Captured by Paul Bradford's "Frank's Box" experiment
A small group of investigators took a break and drove over to the Pirtleville Cemetery to try their hand at EVP there. It was very cold so the visit was short.
We ended our last EVP session with James about two AM and headed to our cold unfurnished rooms—hence the sleeping bags—and tried to get a few hours of sleep.
We met downstairs in the Lobby in the morning for coffee, juice fruit and rolls provided by the MVD Ghostchasers and of course, posed for our group picture.
Everyone was pleased with the thorough investigation and the professionalism the group displayed. We left anxiously awaiting the findings and photos seen here. There were no visits from Mabel—but there is definitely a presence felt in the old section of the hotel.
Special thanks to:
Arizona Paranormal Investigations
Verde Valley Spirit Seekers
Sonoran Paranormal Investigations
for all your help!