It all started with my boyfriend and I deciding to grab a drink and some cajun tater tots at this cool place near our house…
McMenamins Edgefield is the name of the place. It was built in 1919. Used as a country poor farm until it was turned into Edgefield Manor, where they treated tuberculosis patients. It was then turned into Edgefield lodge, home for emotionally disturbed children. Then it was changed to a nursing home. Until McMenamins purchased it and made it into a really cool property of several different bars…a funky cool hotel…and fire pits to drink around in the winter time.
The night we decided to visit for happy hour, my boyfriend and I were walking around the back of the hotel. I stop and stared up at all the windows of the hotel rooms. I pointed up to a certain section and said “That part of the hotel is haunted.” My boyfriend went on to tell me that indeed, there were rumors it was haunted. He then presented a challenge to me: If I could go inside and find the haunted room and we go to the lobby and find out that I am correct…he will stay in the haunted room with me for a night.
I marched right into that hotel and like a spirit bloodhound picked a staircase to walk up. I stopped at the second floor and looked down the hall. Yep, I picked up that scent. I quickly made a left turn and passed a couple of rooms until I got to one that I stopped dead in my tracks in front of (no pun intended…) I pointed to the door and said “That one! Room 215.”
We proceeded to go back down to the lobby and my boyfriend asks the receptionist, “Can you tell me which one of these rooms is the one that is supposed to be haunted?” She answers back “Oh yeah I can. It is room 215 and it is most definitely haunted.”
I smiled, though did not gloat. Well, maybe I did a little. I was more excited about staying in the room than the fact that I had thoroughly impressed my boyfriend. We booked the room for a later date and we walked out of the hotel. As we walked towards the parking lot to our car, I couldn’t help but feel like eyes were burning a hole into the back of me. I slowly turned around and looked up at the hotel room windows, half expecting to see some figure staring down at me. I didn’t see anyone…but I didn’t have to. I know whatever was there knew I was on to it…and knew I was coming back.
However, I will admit that on the drive back over to the hotel, I found myself a bit nervous. I wasn’t sure of what, exactly. I knew I was a bit perplexed that our room wasn’t going to have a bathroom in it. That we would have to walk down the hall to shared bathrooms every single time a need to pee came on. That was something I wasn’t too thrilled about. It felt more than that though. I felt like I was about to experience something I hadn’t experience before. And that is saying a lot in the paranormal sense.
