Welcome to Paranormal Preservation! I’m really excited, now that I have a blog where I can share the ideas I have for haunted locations like I do with other buildings I write articles for, I thought I’d start off by telling you about a very interesting haunted location that I’ve chosen for this article. This is the historic Roads Hotel located in Atlanta, Indiana, and it’s also a location that’s very well-known to ghost hunters. I first learned about it a few years back while attending a ghost convention, and have been very interested in finding out all about the activity that goes on here. I’ve also chosen the Roads Hotel for this article because it’s also on my list of haunted locations that are still look very much the same way they did over 100 years ago, so that’s a really special honor. According the history, the hotel was built in 1893 by Newton Roads and his wife Clara, and it was originally meant to house those flocking to East Central Indiana during the natural gas boom in the late 1800s. Newton and Clara Roads operated the hotel with their daughter Hazel, and their son Everett, but tragedy soon struck. In 1909, the family’s son Everett passed away in the hotel of tuberculosis, he was only 19 years old. Newton Roads himself passed away in the hotel in 1926, as well as his wife and stepmother. But the stories apparently don’t end there, the Roads Hotel was also a layover stop for the railroad around that time, and saw a wide variety of guests, including famous criminals such as John Dillinger and Al Capone when it was converted into a brothel and a speakeasy during Prohibition. The hotel was then converted into apartments, which it remained until it was purchased by new owners and reopened as hotel. The Roads was also added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, and is now known as one of Indiana’s most haunted locations. Since I have a passion for not only ghost hunting, but historic preservation I can tell you right now that I’m absolutely amazed with how the hotel has managed to remain the way it has for so long. I’ve always had a belief that paranormal activity is likely to increase even more when a location is still exactly the way it was back then, and this place is almost perfectly preserved from the way that I see it. There are however just a couple of very small things that I would consider having done to bring this building entirely back to it original appearance, so now I’ll go ahead and share them with you. After comparing the hotel to the photographs I’ve uploaded with this article, I think one of the most obvious things I would consider taking care of is reinstalling the exterior wood trims on the hotel’s front porch which you can clearly see are not there anymore. It already amazes me enough to know that hotel’s original wooden porch is still intact and strong like ever before, but I really don’t think removing the ground floor trims was a good idea. If possible, I would have the trims rebuilt onto the posts or reinstall the original ones if they still have them. Another thing that I’d like to recommend also involves the porch as well. If you take a close looks at the vintage photograph of the hotel on the left up above, you can see that the porch had at one time wrapped around to a side entrance creating an almost patio sized length. I think the porch would look spectacular if it was expanded to meet that same length again. It was also very clear to me that the porch’s current foundation is built of bricks and concrete, but the original was clearly made of wooden clapboards. I would probably have the old wooden clapboard porch reinstalled to the building if it can happen, so that it’s more historically accurate. Despite these few things, there pretty much isn’t anything else I would consider changing, and that means that I find the hotel to still be very much as it was back then. If these few small things were taken care of, then the hotel would be even more accurately preserved in its original appearance. Plus, as one of Indiana’s most haunted locations, I know that no matter what happens, the Roads Hotel will always continue to draw the attention of ghost hunted from all around. Hopefully this blog will eventually do the same thing, and get more haunted locations all over the US, more popular, preserved, and well-protected for a long time. Until next time, be sure to keep visiting Paranormal Preservation, the place where haunting will always have their highlights!

Welcome! I’m so excited because this will be the first article I’ve ever written for Paranormal Preservation! I decided to do this first article for a haunted location that I had just learned about, and think could use a little bit of help. Let me introduce you all to the historic Garnett House Hotel, a historic and haunted hotel located along 4th Avenue in the city of Garnett, Kansas. Not many of the haunted locations that I know are in Kansas, but after reading about this place and hearing stories about it being haunted, I really thought it seemed like the kind of place that deserves the honor for this article. Built in 1858 as the private residence of D.W. Houston, a Garnett resident named Hiram Tefft later opened the building as a hotel in the fall of that same year. This place became the first hotel in the city of Garnett and is also the city’s only surviving antebellum style structure. During the 1870s, the town of Garnett became a crossroads of both cowboys, citizens, and settlers heading west. Some of the hotel’s most famous guests include famous lawmen such as Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and Wild Bill Hickock. I’m still reading up on the hauntings reported here, but one thing I read was that during the time known as “Bleeding Kansas”, it is said that the famous Abolitionist John Brown hid escaped slaves in the attic of the house around 1859 just prior to the American Civil War. Today, the hotel’s current owners are working to restore the building back to its original 1850s appearance, and even before all that it was already drawing ghost hunters from all around. After seeing this place and hearing that it was going to be restored, I decided to write this article to share my ideas on what I think should be done, which is one of the main reasons I created Paranormal Preservation. Now I know that they are already repainting the exterior walls white, so that’s already taken care of, I also heard that they might want to add shutters to the windows. I’d recommend adding either green or black shutters if the house is being painted white, I know from experience that some homes look a lot more historic in those colors. Also, I would be extra careful when restoring the porch, I believe that the porch is original and should not be removed. My best solution would be to have it fixed up, and carefully examine before doing so. I also noticed in some pictures that some of the rooms look like they have the original wallpaper on their walls, and I would recommend removing those either. Also keep the original wooden floors intact if they can be, and hang on to any furniture inside before deciding on selling it, some of those things could match the hotel’s time period perfectly. My ideas for gardens and landscapes are usually hard for me to explain, but all I can pretty much say is to try adding some bushes, and maybe even a couple trees. A nice wooden white sign with hotel’s name on it would look great in the front yard, that’s the final touch I’m going to recommend. I hope that once the Garnett House is fully restored, it will continue to bring ghost hunters from all around to its location, making another awesome haunted place to add to the list. I hope to someday even visit the place myself if I can, and even if it’s not to help with he restoration, I’d still like to be helpful in any way. Congratulations to the Garnett House Hotel for being the main topic of Paranormal Preservation‘s first original article, it’s really an honor. Don’t forget, you’ll be hearing about a lot more haunted locations when you visit Paranormal Preservation, it’s where the hauntings always have their highlights!