STATLER HOTEL

By <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sullymon54" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:User:Sullymon54">Sullymon54</a> at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:">English Wikipedia</a>

History

The first Statler Hotel was built on the corner of Washington Street. It was later renamed the Hotel Buffalo and has since been demolished. It was the first hotel in America to have a private shower or bath in every room. It was closed in 1967 and demolished in 1968.

The new Hotel Statler – the location this article is about – was opened in May of 1923. The hotel was built with 18 floors and 1,100 rooms; more than all the other hotels in Buffalo, at the time, put together. When it opened rooms could be had for as cheap as $1.50 a night.

For 2 decades the Statler was the only luxury hotel between New York City and Chicago and as such it hosted lavish parties for the rich and famous. After World War II the number of people staying in the city could not fill the hotel rooms and some floors were converted to offices.

In 1954 Hilton Hotels bought out Statler Hotels. In 1984 the last hotel room was closed and the building was renamed Statler Towers. In 2000 an attempt to convert the building into condos failed and it went bankrupt.

In 2011 the current owner bought the building – which was apparently in such bad shape some floors were about to collapse and many of them were filled with water.

The lower floors have now been refurbished and can be booked for weddings and other events. The building will be closed in 2022-23 while the upper floors are converted to condos.

Paranormal Activity

Paranormal investigations have taken place in the past. There are none scheduled in the foreseeable future but that could change at any time.

Its very difficult to nail down the reasons for this hotel to have become so rife with paranormal activity. Perhaps its because the suggested reasons for the haunting deal with notoriously distasteful subjects that certainly would have been very hush hush when the hotel was open.

Namely the mob and suicides.

It is rumored that the mob had a financial presence in the hotel from day one. Buffalo provided the perfect place to deal with ‘special problems’ away from prying eyes in Chicago and New York City. This is said to have left behind some residual energy as well as a number of guests who may have checked in but never checked out.

Hotels are often plagued by suicides. If you kill yourself at a hotel your family won’t have to clean the mess. Stories say the Statler had more than its fair share of jumpers; some even suggest there is something on the upper floors that gives a fragile mind an extra push.

Paranormal activity recorded here:

Apparitions of former guests and staff; people are seen falling from the upper floors but fade into nothingness before they meet the ground; shadow figures; touches from unseen presences; an elevator that likes to go from floor to floor even when no one is in it – it may or may not take you to the floor you requested or it may not – it seems to prefer floors that the highest paranormal activity is reported on (2,11,18).

Of course, with 18 floors even ghosts would have to take the elevator.

Objects move on their own; phantom footsteps; disembodied voices and conversations; time and dimensional slips; unexplained noises of all kinds from whispers to screams to loud bangs; cold and warm spots; light anomalies; feelings of unease, not being wanted and not being alone.