The Imperial Hotel: Haunted or Just Hauntng?

The Imperial Hotel is located in Atlanta, once again, not so far from The Rufus Rose House. The Hotel has a deep and varied histoy, starting from its construction in 1911. It was designed by the Arhitect Edward Dougherty, with an emphasis on what is described as a variation of the chicago style.



From its groundbreaking, all the way up to the 1950s, the hotel served as an upper-class hotel in the city. Seven stories tall, it had over 120 rooms above the first floor and basement.

In 1968, it suffered a small fire, and as remodelled. After this, the Hotel stopped operation, as new Hotels began to be built in the city, including the mega Hyatt and Hiltons more intown. However, the Imperial was still used. In the 1970s it was home to Domino's Lounge, which was both a go-go bar and a local stage for blues artists of the day. However, within the decade the Lounge Closed down.

The Hotel remained vacant for the next several years, becoming a local mainstay for the city's homeless population. However in 1988, the hotel caught fire, and there were several undocumented deaths. In 1996 it was remodelled again, and made into low income housing.

This hotel has tons of stories, the most moving has to be the story of the undocumented deaths. But the exterior of the building certainly has an appreciable creepy asthetic.

On my tours, I've had several "sensitives" feel as if they could detect more to that in the story. One of the most common 'feelings' that is gotten from the house is that someone committed suicide from the top-most window to he left, as if you are looking at the house from the front. However, I was never able to confirm this story.

But on thing can be said or sure, whether or not there is any paranormal activity in the hotel, it has one of the more diverse and interesting histories in the city. And even if it isn't haunted, it certainly could seem that way! I recommend that you take a look at this building if you get a chance!

Rose House

Alright, so my first story for you, is that of the Rufus Rose House, off of Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia. I will cover the history of the house, then reveal to you some of the strange happenings that I've encountered at the house. Then I will talk about the state of the house today.

The reason I can talk so candidly and knowledgably about the house is because the house is on a tour-guide route that I do here in Atlanta as a Ghost Tour Guide. The house is a big part of my particular tour, so I had took it upon myself to do research and get as much background information about the house as possible.

The house was built in 1907 for Rufus M Rose, a distillery owner here in Atlanta. It was built for $9000 in 1907, which according to consumer price index, would be worth around $250,000 today. If you think that this is price for construction, if you added in all other market factors, the house could easily sell for over $1,000,000 today. The architect was a man named EC Siez.

The house was first inhabited by Mr Rose. He lived there with his family. He had at least one son and one daughter. As was the tradition of the day, he would have galas to show off his daughter, so that she might be married. There are rumors that say that his daughter had an unrequited suitor, but it can't be confirmed. He moved, with his family and his distillery, to Chatanooga.

The house then served as a boarding house for more wealthy, upper-middle class people of the time. We know that alot of the original furnishings were left in the house.

Later, the house served as a Museum and later an Antiques store. However, for the past 20 years, at the very least, it's been vacant. It is still for sale today.

So what makes me think that the house might be a source for paranormal activity? Well, when I first started my job, we did a tour to learn the route that we would be taking guests on. We brought a K5 meter with us, it detects electro-magnetic activity. We proceeded to ask about to see if there might be an entity that would set the meter off. We actually started to get some response, which surprised me. I checked to see if the meter was running to the house.

If your familiar with GE Power, you know that they keep enough juice running so that the meters work. Well, I think the grid had been disconnected because the meter wasn't working. Given that we were in the middle of the city, there was still plenty of random electro-magnetic energy to affect the K5 meter.

However, it was really odd because whatever it was answered three control questions, and then answered several questions specifically about the house. We found that, according to our mediums, that there was a female entity in the house, who had been murdered. There was also a young boy, but his story was, and still is unclear.

I became incredibly interested in the tour. And asked my employer some of the stories about the house. She has some specific stories and symptoms that affect her, as she is a medium as well. She reports sensing a large male presence near the house, and every time she approaches the house, she gets an intense sensation of heat in her arm and right side.

I found this interesting, because a few weeks later, I had a customer come with me on the tour, and reported getting a heat-sensation in her right arm. At first it didnt strike me as peculiar, until the very end of the tour, which I remembered my boss' own unique story. Either way, it just added fuel to the fire which was my interest in the house.

You can still see the house today. It is on Peachtree Street, literally only a few feet from Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles. If you have a real stash of cash, you can buy the house for the princely sum of 1.6 million.

The house has an interesting backstory, but not one with a compelling paranormal link. So if I were to rate it out of five, I would say a three. The paranormal happenings at the house, however, have been the most I've ever seen in any location, and that would get five out of five. The overall ambience of the house is great, it fits the haunted house stereotype almost to a tee, and deserves another five out of five.

The house as a whole gets a 4.2 out of 5, and is honestly a great place to visit, if only for historical reasons. Though at night, it certainly has the power to scare!

-Emperor