Joe and I shared a wonderful week end at Glen Tavern Inn in Santa Paula CA. This adventure event was organized by Richard Senate, Ghost Hunter who we've met up with on a few occassions and events.
The venue:
History: The hotel was built in 1911 and is known for its colorful history. At the time the Inn was built, Santa Paula was growing and prospering as an oil town, and was headquarters to Union Oil. The Tudor-Craftsman hotel was designed by famed architects Burns and Hunt and funded by a consortium of twenty-five wealthy townsmen each of whom anted one thousand dollars for its construction. It was erected directly opposite the train depot to provide accommodations to the many newcomers lured to the area by the burgeoning oil and citrus industries, and to provide a gathering place for Santa Paula's growing high society circles.
During Prohibition, the Inn retained something of its Wild West origins as the third floor - at that time an open space not yet built out into separate guestrooms - was utilized as a speakeasy, brothel and gambling parlor. Many legends stem from this era, including tales of murdered prostitutes and shootouts between unruly gamblers. These stories, though mostly unconfirmed, persist with a life of their own as part of the hotel’s rich lore.
In the 1930s, Hollywood discovered the valley hamlet of Santa Paula.[2] Its ruggedly picturesque vistas and hills – improbably close to the sprawl of Los Angeles - provided a setting for numerous Westerns. During this era, the Glen Tavern Inn hosted such notables as Carol Lombard, John Wayne, Houdini and canine thespian, Rin Tin Tin, who boasted his own suite long before “pet-friendly” entered the hospitality lexicon.
Eventually, as oil money and old Hollywood moved on Santa Paula traded fortune, glamour and vice for the quieter constancy of agriculture and small town life Americana. The train depot became defunct, and likewise economic development bypassed the town. For the next half century the hotel endured a marginal existence, alternating owners and uses many times as it slowly sank into flop-house decrepitude until it was eventually rescued by developers with intentions of restoring its original grandeur.
Our Experience:
The inn has a feeling of peacefulness. When I walked in I felt a comfort. Our group was reserved on the 3rd floor ~ We were in room 303. Our meetings and discussions were in room 308, the Houdini Room. Room 307 was kept open for access for experiments and investigation during the entire event. Which, proved to be for great opportunity. In this area (room 307) the legend is during Prohibition, there was gambling and alcolhol served. Along with murder and mayhem. This is confirmed one of the most actively haunted areas in the inn.
The 3rd floor has 8- 10 rooms and an alcove, a small raised area with a comfortable old chair for sitting and looking out the window. That area, in particular seemed to draw in an attraction and feeling that was not as more prevelant than other parts of the inn. I sat there in the chair for about 10 minutes when we arrived and checked into our room. The time was about 3:00 p.m. I was overcome by the feeling of safeness. It was in this area that Joe was able to capture (displayed photo) an outstanding orb with a mist around it.
Our experiences in Room 307:
Later that evening, after group introductions and discussion we broke for a dinner break. During that time between 7:00 - 7:30 p.m. Joe and I investigated room 307. We used our Ovilus, digital voice recorder, camera, video camera, EMF device and K2. The EMF readings were high for the most part and we could not find an external source. They were also inconsistance so we discounted that as interior wiring and, at that time deemed it non-paranormal.
Lying the K2 on the bed we started asking questions. We asked if "whoever was there could make the lights on the device light up all the way cross to the red", we got a bit of a response, Joe then said "made all the lights go out" the response on the audio (DVR/digital voice recorder) was heard outload at the time "I won't make it...". It sounds like the voice of a female child. A class A EVP!!!
As of this day, we haven't analyzed all of our information yet and will do that within this week and post any additional findings, if any. I will also try to record in visual form, the audio (ha!) of the voice captured in room 307.
Photographs:
Taking photos with our Sony digital with the shutter speed set at 3200, the highest it will go, also proved to enhance our chances for any capture of anything that was not normal (paranormal). The photo displayed in this post, was taken later in the evening and we were very careful making sure there were no flash reflections. We will further analyze our photos and see if we captured anything out of the ordinary (paranormal ha!)
Photo taken in alcove 3rd floor:
