the Historical eskridge Hotel
4/1/2006
General Information
Investigators: Christy, Roger, Jim, Dana, Danae & J.T
Equipment used: DVR, (5) IR video cameras, personal audio recorders, digital cameras and various EMF meters
Below is our group's Movie Documentary of our investigation at this location.
Historical/Factual/Relevant Info:
The town of Wynnewood was started as a settlement in 1886 by John Walner who began the town with a store and post office. It was originally named Walner after its founder, but was renamed to Wynnewood in 1887 by the railroad men who began to move into the area when the railroad made its first run through the town. The railroad men named a lot of the small towns they settled in after their home towns in Pennsylvania.
The Eskridge Hotel was built by Pinckyney Reid Eskridge in 1907, the same year that Oklahoma was made a state. Mr. Eskridge traveled up and down the Santa Fe Railroad from Texas to Kansas buying cotton in wholesale lots. He and other traveling salesmen, known as “drummers” in the early days, complained about the uncomfortable, lumpy and saggy beds in most hotels. During the last months of the Indian Territory period, Mr. Eskridge had done well with his cotton business and since he had observed Wynnewood as the most thriving town on his route, he decided to build a hotel there with all the comforts of home.
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Mr. Eskridge constructed the three story brick hotel with lathe and plaster interior walls, tall ceilings, door transoms, a dining room, kitchen, lobby and sleeping rooms. He furnished every part of the hotel with classic turn of the century good, serviceable furniture. In each sleeping room he put thick pure cotton Ostermoor mattresses and in some rooms extra-length beds. He wanted every guest to have a comfortable bed.
Although Mr. Eskridge never operated the hotel himself, he took an interest in making it a fine hotel with a famous family dining room. It became a local custom for families to dine at the Eskridge after church on Sunday and enjoy socializing in the lobby.
In 1973, the Wynnewood Historical society turned the Eskridge Hotel into the Eskridge Hotel and Museum to help preserve its history along with some of the local history of Wynnewood and the state of Oklahoma.
Now a museum, the Eskridge Hotel’s 1907 elegant charm still remains, with its porches extending over the sidewalk and its benches on each side of the entrance retained. Not all of the original items from the Eskridge Hotel remain, but the items it holds tell a story from a past time long ago.
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As staff will tell you, the Eskridge Hotel has been rumored to be haunted by several of the local townsfolk. Rumors of this haunting state that the mannequins upstairs move on their own as well as furniture and other items. Footsteps
are reported to be heard quite often when no one is upstairs as well as distant voices and ballroom music. Dark shadows were also reported by those staff members who were in the hotel at night.
Before 1887, settlers came to Wynnewood in ox carts, covered wagons, stagecoaches, on horses and then eventually by train. 1887 was a growing year for the town of Wynnewood as small businesses began to open and settle. By the beginning of the 1890's, hotels and boarding houses were built which provided a place for those travelers to stay.
Investigation Report
On the way back from an investigation one evening, our team passed through the town of Wynnewood.
Christy had noticed the old Eskridge Hotel as we passed by and she was intrigued by it and told the team she wanted to see if we could get in to investigate the location. It wasn't too long after that that we were actually inside of the Eskridge conducting a full blown investigation!
We took extensive time talking to the building's caretaker and learned that there were many claims of paranormal activity that had been taking place for years in the old hotel. Over the
course of the next few years, our team would do countless numbers of investigations there and in turn, we all grew quite fond of the old building.
Our first and initial night there however would be one of the more memorable ones for us as we were able to witness an array of paranormal activity to include shadows, footsteps, distant voices and apparitions.
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On our initial visit we had a thunderstorm move through the area and it seemed to increase the activity within the hotel and it seemed that activity seemed to be breaking loose all around us. Several of us commented on how we felt like we were being followed and watched. A couple of our members stated that they felt like they were touched and even felt breezes blowing by their faces.
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Since this location was so large, our team decided to split up into 2 teams. We did this to cover more ground and to be able to compare things that each team experienced to see if we had similar experiences.
On our initial visit to the hotel, we did an outside sweep taking photographs of and around the building. One of our investigators decided to take a photo of the street just right outside the front of the Eskridge Hotel when he happened to catch a shadow in his photograph. He immediately noticed the dark figure and began taking more shots from the same area and angle. He was unable to recreate the same photo. Recreations of this photograph were also tried by other team members but we were not able to recreate the same photo. Below we will also show the cropped and outline version of this shadow.
1st Floor
Our team began setting up equipment throughout the old hotel. We decided to set up base on the first floor. The first floor was quite large and our group took the time to investigate it throughly. We only had a couple of things occur while we were on the first floor. Our group heard footsteps on the stairs and also in the upstairs area right above the downstairs entrance area. Later on during one of our other investigations, one of our investigators saw what she thought was another group member walking out of the entrance area and into the back kitchen area. She called out to the group member who seemed to ignore her so she followed him into the back kitchen area only to find no one was there. Moments later, the group member she thought she had seen came down the stairs into the entrance area. She questioned the member and asked him if he had been upstairs the whole time to which he replied yes.
2nd Floor
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Our team began our sweeps up on the 2nd floor. Christy had said she felt drawn up to the 2nd floor and suggested we spend a lot of time up on the floor. Shortly after being on this floor, Christy encountered
a woman whom she called Elizabeth. Elizabeth was grieving because she had lost her son and was unable to find him. Elizabeth had told Christy that there were many other spirits there in the hotel who stayed and used the old hotel as a place of refuge.
As we began investigating and at various times, we heard footsteps, audible voices and strange sounds coming from down the hallways. When we would go down to the other end of the hallway, the sounds
While up on the 2nd floor in one of the rooms, Christy saw a shadow standing inside the doorway of one of the inner rooms. She described the shadow to be around 6 feet tall. Christy saw it as the team entered one of the rooms but as soon as the team entered the room, the shadow quickly disappeared.
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Also while on the 2nd floor, the team experienced seeing a large white streak of light up on the 2nd floor just to the left of the stairs landing. During a sweep in the same area, an investigator took a picture and another investigator saw a woman in a long victorian type of dress.
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Between all of the floors, our team noticed a lot of battery drainage.
The Doctor's Room
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Various parts of the hotel were set up as models for various antique items. One of the old rooms was set up for antique doctor's items. Our team did a sweep of the room and as Christy did a walk through of the room, she passed by several old doctor bags and said she heard a man tell her he wanted the bag to be opened. Not being sure which bag needed to be opened, our team started opening up the various bags. One of the bags revealed some broken doctor's tools. Christy touched the small brown bag and immediately knew that this was the one. We placed the little brown bag on the shelf and left it open.
Christy said she felt like this man was unhappy and she
Williamson Hotel Room
The team left the doctor's room and entered back into the hall. Christy saw and heard a woman stick her head out of the Williamson Room and ask for a blanket for the bed. One of the group members had noticed a blanket in the doctor's room just moments ago so she went and got the blanket and placed it on the bed for the woman. Christy said she then saw a woman half sitting up in bed with a young child around the age of two. The woman had her arms around this young child. She told Christy "thank you." Our group started to feel like we would be helping a bunch of
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spirits there in the hotel by helping fill their requests for things.
The Dress Shop
After the team left the hotel room, they went back out into the hallway and Christy heard this woman calling down to the end of the hall stating that she wanted a dress. The team ended up going down to the end of the hall and after they walked in, Christy was drawn to a lacey dress on the mannequin. Jim started asking her if she liked the dress and then all of a sudden the left sleeve started to move on its own. The team told her that she could have the dress if she wanted to. We talked about the dress being pretty "cool with all the lacey holes in it" and we asked her if she wanted something different and she gave us the impression that she didn't want anything different because "summer was coming."
Christy saw this woman with her arms held out from her body and I got the impression of it being hot, humid and sticky. At that point, an investigator audibly heard, "summer's coming."
An investigator felt like we needed to add more to the "attire" like an accessory. We started looking around and found a pair of high heeled shoes so we picked them up and placed the shoes in front of the mannequin. Another investigator picked up a hat and took it over by the dress and put in on the neck of the mannequin. We started talking about how they seemed to go together. We then felt the same "relief" sensation that we had gotten in the other rooms.
We then left and walked out into the hall and Jimmy announced that the battery was going dead on the camcorder so we needed to go down and get another one. We told them that we would be right back for anyone else who needed anything, however when we got downstairs, we realized that it was already 2:30am in the morning and we had to leave as it was getting late. We then went back upstairs and announced that we had to leave, but that we would be back to help whoever else needed help.
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3rd Floor
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Our group made our way up to the third floor to continue our investigative sweeps. One of the first rooms we did upstairs was room #28.
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The Chapel Room
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Our group spent quite a bit of time up in the chapel room. While we were up in the room conducting a sit down, one of the investigator's said she felt a breeze blow by her face. We had our walking camcorder with us and we happened to capture a light anomaly on video. You can see it move across the screen from left to right by one of the investigators. We took a still photo from the video. The photo is grainy since the quality of video was not as good when we conducted our investigation at this location, but you can still see the light anomaly. We will also post the video below.
The Tool and Tack Room
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We got the feeling that there was an elderly man still up on the 3rd floor who was getting impatient because he had already waited for his turn to come and now we were leaving. We assured him that we hadn't forgotten him and would be back on the 13th of May and even though we did not want to leave, we really needed to because of our family & children who needed us. It wasn't until our next visit that this man came forward and asked for a hammer to add to the tool collection he had going in the Tool & Tack Room. He seemed very fond of the room and claimed to fix many things in the hotel with the tools that were present.
On the drive home, we were all talking about how this investigation was very weird for us because we normally don't investigate like this but it just seemed like something that we could not ignore and needed to be done. While doing all of this, several of us either felt things at the same time or would say things at the say time and that is also very strange because we all don't normally do that! It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time, plus we had gotten a correlating EVP while fulfilling these requests.
The Old Eskridge House
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We were given the chance to investigate the old Eskridge Home as well. The current owners are in the process of remodeling the home and have even stated that while doing so, experienced some weird things, including seeing a woman in the home. We couldn't resist the opportunity to investigate the old home so we grabbed our equipment and set out to check out the location.
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Upon entering the Eskridge House, everything was dark and quiet. The home was empty and under renovation, so there was no electricity. Currently the inside of the house is down to just the wall studs. We had just returned from Oak Lawn Cemetery, which is the cemetery that Pinckney and Annie Eskridge are
buried. The equipment we had in the home was a digital camera, digital audio, and our flashlights. We went over the first floor, snapping pictures and listening closely for anything unusual. We then proceeded to the second floor, to do the same thing. Everything seemed equally quiet on the second floor as well. While we were on the second floor, I took a moment to show Melissa, who had given us access to the home, the gravesite pictures I had just taken. After doing this, we took some outside pictures, wrapped up, and went to the Hotel to begin our investigation there. Later that night after the completion of the hotel investigation, we began reviewing audio from the home. Toward the end of the audio, we got to the point where I was showing Melissa the gravesite pictures. Approximately 45 seconds after showing Melissa these pictures, a very interesting EVP was captured. It was a voice, and sounded female. There were no workd spoken, but the voice was clearly in distress. It was quite loud, and distinct. The voice seemed to be shocked or extremely disturbed by something. Eskridge House Moan" At a previous visit to the Eskridge House, we also recorded another evp of what sounds to be a woman saying, "Really."
Conclusion:
Our team feels like The Eskridge Hotel has many spirits present within it's walls. We do feel like these spirits reside at the old hotel because it is a place of refuge for them. They feel comfortable there and although there are many present, we do not feel like they are unhappy. We also do not feel like they are harmful to the staff of the Eskridge or to any visitors who may enter the hotel.
Psychic Investigator’s Comments
The minute I stepped through the door I felt my head began to spin as I picked up on many different spirit energies. I also picked up on so much residual energies from some of the items in the hotel museum.
I did have one of the spirits there of a woman come through to me while we were on
the 2nd floor investigating. She was one of the stronger personalities that came through to me. She called herself Elizabeth and stated that she was in search of her son who had died quite young.
It was on our 3rd or 4th visit to the hotel that we encountered activity of a different kind. I myself had been holding back on trying to communicate with any spirits present because I wanted to make sure that we could get some sort of evidence recorded on our equipment. Towards the end of our investigation I felt compelled to go upstairs. I felt like there was someone who had a strong message. While up on the 2nd floor I encountered Elizabeth again who conveyed to me that there were many spirits there in the hotel, many of which used the hotel as a refuge and home. She told me that many of them stayed for various reasons.
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I encountered many other spirits who had special things they wanted. As our group responded to their requests, the energy felt like it changed each time. It appeared to be more peaceful and calm. After many investigations at the old Eskridge Hotel, I found myself very fond of the old building and the spirits who resided there.
would appear to come from the opposite end. At one point our team did a sit-down and used a strobe light to monitor for shadow activity since that was one of the claims. It was at that point when we were standing in the hall that we saw many shadow people starting to come out from the hotel rooms and stand in the door entrances. Christy said that Elizabeth had told her that "they were the ones hiding in the shadows."
said he was complaining about one of the wheelchairs not moving correctly the way it should have, almost like it was broken a bit or so. Christy said the man gave his last name as Murrow and she got the impression that he was unhappy about one of the wheelchairs not working correctly. Luckily for us we had audio going and during this time when I started describing his feelings about the wheelchair my other team members, we ended up getting an EVP of a man talking about his wheelchair right before a class "A" EVP was recorded of a woman saying, "A doctor here." The wheelchair part is very low and you have to listen closely to hear it, but I promise you it's there! Wheelchair/A Doctor's Here
Room #28
As we walked into room #28, one of our members felt drawn to a white cloth hanging on a hook by the door. The group then began to smell oranges. Christy did not smell the oranges, but she said she saw orange peels and a small knife on the wooden table. Jimmy and Christy were standing in the room just in front of the doorway and both reported feeling a sudden burst of electricity blow right by them. Right as this happened, both Christy and Jimmy said, "Did you feel that?"
One of the members then went over by the white piece of cloth again and wanted to find out what it was. As she touched it, she said: "What is this?" She felt like she needed to take it down and put in on the small wooden table. She then took it and put it on the table and no sooner had she said, "That looks really good on the table," the room's feeling changed to a relief and much lighter feeling. Christy then saw a man sitting at the table again with his hands smoothing out the wrinkles on the table cloth. He was smiling and was very happy. On our following return visits to the Eskridge and room #28, we have brought this man an orange and have left it on the table.
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evidence collected
There were 19 EVPs that was recorded during this investigation and 0 sound clips.
There was 1 photo and 1 video clip.
EVPS
