The Grand Midway Hotel
Is the home of the World’s Largest Ouija Board also a hotbed for real paranormal activity?
Paranormal Activity at
The Grand Midway Hotel
- Apparitions are seen by visitors
- Cold spots are encountered
- Objects are moved by unseen forces
- Disembodied voices and screams have been heard
- People have been attacked in the ‘Canopy Room’
Grand Midway Hotel’s
Mysterious History
The small, quiet community of Windber, Pennsylvania may not look like a place that’s home to a Guinness World Record-holding building. But, a rustic, red-sided inn beside the train tracks keeps what may be the spookiest world record of them all.
The Grand Midway Hotel, a fixture of Windber since the 1800s, is known today for the massive design that expands across its flat roof.
Grand Midway’s roof is home to the world’s largest Ouija board. And it wasn’t installed on the roof just for fun. The hotel’s huge spirit board is said to be quite useful in communicating with the dead!
Stories abound about ghostly mysteries at the Grand Midway Hotel. Could the hotel’s record-sized Ouija board help bridge the gap between the living and the afterlife?
A Miner’s Getaway
Little is known for certain about the Grand Midway Hotel’s history. Most reports suggest the building originated in the late 1880s or early 1890s. The area was a prosperous coal mining region in the 1800s. So, the inns that operated in town often greeted new miners and migrant workers, as well as their share of prostitutes and criminals. Reports say that the Grand Midway operated as both a hotel and a brothel in these early years.
The town of Windber was not established until 1897, when it was incorporated as a company town for the mines around it. The community grew steadily into the 1900s, with the Grand Midway Hotel growing alongside it. The hotel quickly became a fixture of the town’s culture, and in 1911, the site of a lethal local rumor.
The Shocking Death of Martha at Grand Midway Hotel
The story goes that, on July 4, 1911, a young woman named Martha stood on Grand Midway’s balcony to watch fireworks nearby. One firework went awry, and reportedly struck the woman in the throat as she stood on the balcony. Popular legend says that Martha perished right there on Midway’s balcony.
Beyond that 1911 tale of tragedy, Grand Midway Hotel operated quietly through the 1900s before closing down in the 1990s. In 2000, current owner Blair Murphy bought the hotel on a whim, hoping to restore and reopen the inn. Murphy reopened the structure in 2001, and continued to develop the hotel as an ongoing project for many years.
Grand Midway Hotel Hosts World’s Largest Ouija Board
In 2019, Murphy added Grand Midway’s most famous feature – its record-setting Ouija board. Both before the board was painted on the roof, and since then, stories have spread about hauntings at the Grand Midway Hotel. And today, as guests come and go from the historic lodge, more reports of ghostly encounters come out.
But how many ghosts haunt the Grand Midway Hotel?
Is The Grand Midway Hotel Haunted?
Paranormal claims have proven popular at the Grand Midway Hotel. Ghost hunters are now directly catered to with marketing and amenities. Based on many of the hotel’s claims, visiting investigators may have plenty of stories to explore.
One of the most common claims of paranormal activity at the hotel is the sudden appearance of translucent apparitions.
Several spectral figures have been identified around the hotel. One, called The Professor, is known for showing himself quietly reading in a second floor room. A little girl’s apparition has also been spotted at times, most often on the third floor and in the basement.
Another apparition, a young woman with curly hair, has a disputed origin. Some figure the curly haired figure is a former hotel prostitute, forever lingering in the hotel’s halls. Others suggest she is the ghost of Martha, the victim of the July 4, 1911 incident on the Midway’s balcony.
Disembodied Screams in Windber, Pennsylvania’s Haunted Hotel
Disembodied voices and other ghostly sounds are also commonly reported at the Grand Midway Hotel.
Interestingly, the ghosts at the Grand Midway are more often heard screaming than talking. Disembodied yells and distant calls from higher floors are reported and recorded by visiting ghost hunters.
But, while the phantoms inside the hotel may like to scream, you may also hear them whisper from the hotel’s darkness.
Many ghost hunting teams report coming away with potential EVP recordings of quiet, far-off voices from inside the hotel.
The Grand Midway Hotel’s Most Haunted Room
Many of the Grand Midway Hotel’s rooms are claimed to be haunted hotspots. But, one room, the ‘Canopy Room’, is said to have some exceptionally unique paranormal reports.
A ghost in that room purportedly hates Ouija boards. This spirit has physically attacked ghost hunters and guests who have tried to use the boards to communicate. One has to wonder what this spirit thinks about the record-setting Ouija board painted on the roof.
Poltergeist Activity in The Grand Midway Hotel
The Canopy Room isn’t the only place where ghosts might get physical in the Grand Midway. Another phantom is known for throwing things around the building. Chairs and other pieces of furniture are sometimes hurled around the hotel’s floors. Little is known about this entity, or what they’re so upset about.
Maybe they’re the one screaming so often?
See Shadow Figures & Feel Cold Spots
The Grand Midway Hotel has its share of well-known paranormal occurrences, but other claims remain mysterious. Other apparitions are sometimes spotted, but no one knows who they are, or why they continue to haunt the little Pennsylvania hotel.
Cold spots are frequently encountered throughout the building as well, with no indication of who, or what, may be causing them.
Other claims of poltergeist-like activity also appear in certain guest rooms.
Objects and decorations reportedly move all around the rooms. But the question of which specter is doing all the interior redecorating remains unanswered.
Explore Grand Midway Hotel Ghost Hunting
Ghosts and ghost stories have helped make a new identity for the Grand Midway Hotel. These stories help chart a path towards modern success for the historic lodge. Though it may have been built with coal miners and traveling workers in mind, the Grand Midway now focuses on much more phantasmic clientele.
Ghost hunting packages are offered, giving groups of paranormal enthusiasts full rentals of the building. This allows ghost hunting teams to explore all the different guest rooms and find out what may go bump in the night at the Grand Midway.
To book a stay or full investigation, interested parties can visit their website and reach out to them to find out about available dates. Along with all its ghosts, the hotel sports numerous themed rooms, movie screening spaces, and a full kitchen for its guests to enjoy.
America is dotted with purportedly haunted hotels. Some lean into their ghost stories and share them wide, others do their best to keep their claims a secret. But the Grand Midway Hotel strikes a perfect balance between its history of hospitality, and its modern explorations of paranormal mystery.
