Owner Todd Johnson's Firsthand Experience
My first and only experience in the hotel that appeared to be “supernatural” was shortly after I purchased it. In September, 2004, we had been renovating the hotel for a couple of months and planned to open November 1st. I drove by the hotel after dark and noticed light shining through the 5th floor fire escape indicating the hallway lights had been left on. As I pulled around to park, I noticed room #206’s lights were left on as well. Being very energy conservation minded, I headed inside to turn off the lights. I had never been in the hotel late at night by myself and there were no lights on whatsoever in the lobby, so it was a bit creepy.
I got on the elevator and pushed the button to go to the 2nd floor. It crossed my mind that if the elevator got stuck I’d probably have to spend the night on it because we hadn’t yet connected the phone that is inside it and cell phones definitely don’t work. As the elevator arrived on the 2nd floor, the doors attempted to open a few times, but finally gave up and the elevator took me swiftly down and when the doors opened, I realized I was in the basement. This has never happened before or since and of course it completely freaked me out. Determined, however, I pushed the button to try the 2nd floor again.
Upon arriving at the 2nd floor the second time, the doors opened freely, so I stepped into the hallway and saw the lights illuminating around the door of #206 at the end of the hall. I flipped the three light switches for the hall lights but they wouldn’t come on. I flipped them several times but to no avail. Again, this has never happened before or since. I knew we had stored several pieces of equipment in the hallway so I wanted some light to make my way down the hall. I fumbled for my keys and turned on the light to the closest room, #201, and left the door open so I could see. As I took a few steps down the hall, the door to #201 slammed shut behind me. (Years later I discovered a man burned to death in that room as the result of falling asleep with his lit cigar.) Undeterred, I went down to #206, SLIGHTLY opened the door and slipped my hand in without looking inside. I hurried back down the hall, turned off the light in #201, got back on the elevator, and headed to the 5th floor.
When the door opened on the 5th floor I was surprised to see the hallway lights weren’t on anymore. I flipped the lights on and off and they seemed to be working fine. I stuck my head out the fire escape door and looked up and down to check if the 4th or 6th floor hallways were lit instead, but they weren’t. So with my heart racing, I got back to the elevator, made it to the lobby and then outside without any further incidents.
Even though I am in the building nearly every day, and also lived in the building for 18 months, I haven’t experienced anything else in the Tioga I considered “supernatural”. It is interesting, however, that most of the abnormal experiences that have been reported to us have happened in the basement and on the 2nd and 5th floors, which are the same floors the elevator took me to that night in September, 2004.
I had heard the Tioga was haunted from my long-time maintenance man, Jerry McMillan. He had been in charge of maintenance of the hotel since it was first opened as a Senior Citizen Assisted Living Center in 1990. He had several stories of things he had seen and that had happened, many which I can’t remember because they didn’t seem important at the time. One of the stories I remember is that he claimed to have seen a ghostly woman standing at the foot of the stairs in the lobby one evening. Ironically, no one reported anything abnormal after my incident with the elevator in 2004 until a flurry of reports occurred after his unexpected death. The first incident occurred in hotel room #508.