The Lake Lure Inn stands as a beacon of relaxation and history. Established in 1927, the Lake Lure Inn is more than just a hotel; it's a living, breathing time capsule of history. Completed in 1927 by Dr. Lucius Morse, the same individual who developed Chimney Rock into a park and conceived the idea of creating Lake Lure, the inn was the crowning jewel of the resort town he aimed to create.

This is a place where history lives. The original oak and pine floors, period furniture, bronze statues, and oil paintings lend an air of authenticity to the Inn's storied past. You can almost imagine F. Scott Fitzgerald, a frequent guest in the mid-1930s, sauntering through these doors.

The lobby is filled with antique music boxes, most as large as a man, and player pianos. George and Hope Wittmer, the owners of the inn, continue to add to this impressive collection. Additionally, the hotel houses a restaurant and a bar. While the ambiance at the restaurant was delightfully fancy and old-fashioned, we ate at the pub, called The Moose & Goose.

A stuffed goose hangs from the ceiling and a mounted moose head greets guests as they enter. This full service bar also serves some of the best food in Lake Lure. Although we stayed at the hotel on an off-season week night when it wasn’t very busy, the bar was packed with people and the atmosphere was merry.

Guests have the opportunity to delve into the Inn's rich past through newspaper clippings and photographs that line the lobby walls, from Calvin Coolidge’s 1928 visit to Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey’s stay during the filming of Dirty Dancing in 1986. There are even reminders of its significant role during World War II, providing rest and respite for 5,000 combat airmen before they returned to the front lines. The walls are lined with beautiful art and collections of antiques. Old signs from the hotel remind guests of its history. One of our favorite newspaper articles labels the inn as the “Only resort in the thermal belt” and boasts that it yields “Three Fig Crops a Year!”

The Inn's architecture, marked by Mediterranean characteristics such as stucco, arches, and a red-shingled roof, speaks of the original vision for Lake Lure: a resort town inspired by the Lake District of Northern Italy.

Our favorite part of the hotel was the pool. When you are there, it feels like you’ve transported to a different time and place. The old fences make it so the outside world fades away entirely, excepting the beautiful mountains rising up all around the lake, which are perfectly visible while floating in the pool. It feels like a Mediterranean paradise, with unusual and beautiful plants and architecture. We had the pool, to ourselves, and we couldn’t stop talking about how lovely it was.

Dr. Lucius Morse originally had plans for an airfield, a yacht club, and a zoo to complete his resort town, but the Great Depression stopped progress. However, the Inn remained, steadfastly embodying the town's history since its incorporation.

Despite its rich and intriguing history, it's the chilling spectral legacy of the Lake Lure Inn that leaves an indelible mark on many guests' memories. The Inn is reputedly home to several spirits. A newspaper article on the wall discusses the haunting, and posits that the ghost could be the spirit of Dr. Lucius Morse, finally able to enjoy the resort he created.

But we talked with life-long Lake Lure resident William, who is the night auditor at the hotel. He hasn’t had any experiences with the ghost of Dr. Morse, but his eyes sparkled as he began telling us of the different ghosts he knew of in the space.

Perhaps the most compelling and tragic tale is of a young bride who met a gruesome end within the hotel's walls. The story tells of a groom's wrath in the 1930s, which led him to murder his new wife after seeing her flirt with a police officer in the Inn's lobby. The ill-fated couple had been residing in room 217-218, a single spacious room at the time, and the echoes of their tragic end seem to linger even today.

Many guests staying in rooms 217-218 have reported inexplicable occurrences, hinting at the continued presence of the unfortunate bride. An overwhelming scent of roses frequently pervades the room, seemingly coming from nowhere. Sightings of a spectral woman, dressed in an ethereal white garment, wandering aimlessly through the Inn's corridors, have been reported. She's often seen lingering near the historic room, her spectral figure an eerie reminder of the violent incident that took place decades ago.

Adding to the chilling narrative, a bone-chilling, shrill scream has been captured echoing through the Inn on multiple occasions. Both hotel guests and event visitors have reported hearing it, often accompanied by an unshakable sense of dread. The scream is believed to be that of the young bride, her spectral voice echoing her terror across time. Two different ghost hunting teams have recorded the screams in room 217 and 218, and although they were separated by time, and heard by different teams, the screams were identical.

A former housekeeper, under the cover of anonymity said, "I used to work there, along with my mother. There's a lot of strange activity that goes on there. I can assure you, that place is haunted. There's a room on the second floor where a woman died. Whenever you cleaned the room, even if no one had stayed there, you would always find long strands of black hair in the bathroom and the television would turn to static, even if you unplugged it. I've had my cleaning cart pushed over when no one else was up there with me."

And the night auditor, William, told us that on his second night of work, he looked up in the lobby and a burst of smoke appeared, with the lady in white inside it. It’s the only time he’s actually seen her, but it made him a believer for life.

Here at Foothills Digest, we are a curious lot, so we stayed in the haunted room. It offers a beautiful view of the pool, Lake Lure and the surrounding mountains, with large windows that open outward. We didn’t hear any screams, or find any black hairs, but we did smell roses while bathing. We brought our ghost hunting equipment, including dowsing rods, an EMF reader and a spirit box. We settled in, once it got dark, and began asking questions, such as, “Is there a spirit in this room.” Strangely, the dowsing rods didn’t spring to life, and offered no answers at all. The EMF reader stayed quiet. I continued asking questions, and then the spirit box, which had been silent for the months that I’ve had it, spoke up. It loudly and firmly said, “STOP.” We pressed on a little longer, and three minutes later, the spirit box spoke it’s second and third words: “PLEASE GO.” We are curious, but not stupid, so I put my equipment away and we didn’t ask more questions.

But this woman in white isn’t the only spirit in the hotel. After World War II, the hotel, still struggling financially in the aftermath of the Great Depression, was used as a convalescent home for soldiers. It is said that many of these soldiers still wander the premises.

And in the basement, there are two spirits that are spoken of. William tells us of a little boy that many people have heard bouncing a ball. Many people say that this is the spirit of the boy that died at the nearby Bottomless Pools in 1985. William disagrees, thinking it is more likely the spirit of a boy who was drowned at Lake Lure Beach, which stands just across the street from the hotel. Interestingly, there is a photograph of the young boy. The staff was taking a picture of an ice sculpture, and when once they shared it, people started mentioning the little boy. You can see the image here, and to the left of the sculpture there does appear to be a spectral boy. But we’ll let you come to that conclusion on your own.

Another ghost in the basement is less friendly. He’s known as “Sam” and workers have reported that he has pulled their hair straight up into the air. As William talked, he imitated the voice of Sam: “Hey,” low and gravelly and a bit unpleasant. My husband and I turned to look each other with our eyes wide: as we had toured the hotel alone earlier in the day, we found ourselves in the basement. We both heard a gruff, “Hey.” We assumed it was a worker, and we saw ourselves out, but listening to William made us confident that we had heard a ghost.

He also told us of other common occurrences that made our blood run cold. For instance, the hotel closes during the week over the winter. When the staff comes back to open up for the weekend, there is a particular painting of a girl (shown above) that is usually found somewhere other than where it was left. They’ve found it in rooms, in the basement, on every floor, and hanging in different spots on the wall. It’s never damaged…just sometimes difficult to find.

The spirits do have one habit that the staff find terribly annoying. They tend to lock the doors from the inside. Unlike newer hotels, which use key cards, these doors use old fashioned deadbolts on the outside, and metal chains on the inside. There’s no way to fasten the chains from the outside, but it often happens that these chains are mysteriously locked. It’s a difficult task to unlock them from the outside, and a task that the staff has to perform relatively often, to their chagrin.

As guests enjoy the historic charm of the Lake Lure Inn, they can't help but feel a fascinating connection to the past, not only through the tangible history but also through the spectral whisperings of a bygone era. However you feel about ghosts, you should still book a stay at the Lake Lure Inn, which offers a singularly charming experience.