Reed City Michigan

Osceola Inn

Most spirits here have a benign attitude, though a few can get grumpy.

DESCRIPTION

While this historic haunted building was torn down in 2014, it still is worth telling the stories of the hauntings associated with this structure. It was a two story brick structure that was connected to several other buildings sitting right next to it as it was expanded in the 1940s to accommodate more hotel guests.

The first floor was the restaurant and Saloon; already great money makers. the second and third floors were where the guest rooms were located that became rooms for boarders when the hotel business dried up due to competition.

The building that replaced it was made to look like other buildings still standing from the 1885 era, complete with rounded windows and other features of the Victorian era. It is a handsome building and not an eyesore. It may have attracted some of the spirits from the Osceola Inn.No one is talking.

osceola-inn-paranormal

HISTORY

In the late 1800s, Reed City was a growing village situated in a most advantageous area in Osceola County. Located by the Hersey River, and in a spot where the junction of Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroads crossed over, a town couldn’t ask for more in being a place where business and people could make a good living.

The land surrounding the town was fertile, and there was good ground to build the homes of people who came to start businesses and raise their families. The trees and oil in the area also supported robust logging and petroleum industries. Plenty of opportunities to work and better yourself were available, living conditions were pretty good; so it is no wonder that Reed City grew big enough to be incorporated as a city by 1875.

In 1870, businesses began to arrive and set up shops. The first in line to do so was the Devenport Brothers’ general store, followed by Mr. Gibb’s who provided competition by also opening up a general store. A Drug store soon followed, and other investors jumped in to start business community rolling.

By 1881, enough visitors were coming to Reed City to inspire Daniel Oaks to build a nice wood-frame hotel. Not too long after the hotel was built, the enterprising King brothers from Port Huron bought the place and called it The King Hotel and Saloon. Alas, this structure unfortunately suffered the fate of many wooden structures of that era in that it burned to the ground in a fire in 1884.

The King brothers fixed that problem by rebuilding their 3 story hotel and saloon using bricks instead of wood, and continued running their hotel and saloon until they sold it in the early 1900s, when it was renamed The Osceola Hotel, which provided a nice place for visitors to rest and relax, for a moderate price.

The hotel changed hands once again in the 1940s when Ray and Anita Rogalla purchased the hotel and the building which surrounds it, making both buildings into their hotel, now called The Osceola Inn. This was the last renovation done on this building. Rates were still reasonable.

At some point, part of the building was a boarding facility, with a restaurant and bar on the first floor. It became all boarders at some point, that offered rooms for a reasonable rate. With no improvements, they could not get a higher paying clientele.

As the years rolled on, the building became a fixer-upper opportunity. By the early to middle 2000s, just the restaurant and bar were making money, because the second and third floor were too run-down to rent. The first floor restaurant and bar were very popular with the locals and out of towners. It became the favorite place to have a meal and a drink.

There was no money to invest in this historic place and it wasn’t added to the Michigan Registry of Historic Places or the National Register of Historic Places which may have given them some funds to do so.

Because a building owner can’t survive just using the first floor of the building, the writing was on the wall. The future for this structure didn’t look good.The structure needed major renovation and restoration.

The time to tear it down came when Yoplait came to town to buy up buildings on E Upton Ave. The company bought all the buildings across the street that once were homes to mom and pop businesses. Then, after much discussion, they were allowed to buy the creaky Osceola Inn and tear it down in 2014 to make way for their new buildings.

The town’ beloved eatery and watering hole was no more. But, did it leave its spirits here?

HISTORY OF MANIFESTATIONS

There are a variety of reasons for all the spirits who love this structure.

Sudden death can cause spirits of people to stay; not ready to go onto the next world.

Waverley Plantation House, MS (The two spirits of children who died suddenly here, still reside there).

The Nelson House, CA (The spirit of Ozzie Nelson died suddenly from a heart attack. His spirit wasn’t ready to go, so he stayed in the family home).

The Osceola Inn, MI (One accident, one illness, and a bad heart condition caused fatalities).

Suicide doesn’t bring peace but just more intense unhappiness.

Old Allen House, AR (A woman with awful taste/ unlucky in relationships, killed herself).

Hotel Adolphus, TX (A bride that killed herself when stood up at her wedding here, hung her self. She still is unhappy and lonely as a spirit).

The Osceola Inn, MI (A depressed person killed himself in his room).

Emotional hurts, unhealthy relationships and addictions can continue on in the spirit realm, tying spirits to this world.

Bowers Harbor Inn, MI (Betrayal, guilt and mental illness have caused the hauntings of the former original owners).

Columbia Court Apartments, MI (A volatile relationship keeps exploding between two spirits).

The Osceola Inn, MI (An abusive relationship between two spirits continues on the third floor).

Spirits try to enjoy in this world what they enjoyed while alive. “Let’s make the best of it!”

Goodman-LeGrand House, TX (The former spectral owners still hold grand parties, and have a lot of fun).

Wabasha Caves, MN (Three murdered gangsters have a great time at all the social events held here, not dwelling on their bad end).

The Osceola Inn, MI (Spirits who choose to stay find ways to entertain themselves here).

People who enjoyed a favorite place while alive sometimes like to visit as spirits.

Jean Bennett Tavern, PA (Solid & see-through spirits of men>, dressed in frontier clothes, are enticed to show themselves, enjoy a drink at the bar, or stand near the piano, and watch the piano player perform.

Old Pink House, GA (Spirit of James Habersham likes to appear like a solid person, and have a drink with the living patrons).

The Osceola Inn, MI (Past spectral patrons still visit their favorite place in this world).

When a forever home for spirits is torn down and replaced, the homeless spirits may move right into the new structure.

Kalamazoo Sanitarium spirits, MI (These spirits attached to the land where the hospital once stood, and had no problem moving into the new homes built there).

Capitol Building, TN (Two elderly female spirits moved into the Capitol Building as it was built on land where their forever home was located. They adapted to office living).

Osceola Inn spirits may still be there, inhabiting the floor that they once lived on or visiting the first floor where they enjoyed many a drink and meal.

MANIFESTATIONS

Abuse Addiction

JApparently, the abuse continues in their room, making noisy spectral neighbors.

Josephine and Andrew stayed in the hotel in the early 1900s, on the third floor.

Andrew had an explosive temper, wasn’t a real nice guy, and often became abusive.

Andrew severely beat Josephine, and it seems she still can’t bear to leave him even now!

Suicide

Peter haunts a second floor room – He was a frequent visitor at the hotel during the 1940s, trying to make a living as a gambler which he failed at miserably.

He wasn’t real sociable and spent a lot of time by himself.

He killed himself in his room.

Female Bar Fly

Audrey, a female ghost, likes to hang out in the bar area on the first floor.

Audrey had lived at the hotel with her children but died here from an unknown illness.

Accident Victim

Spirit of Louisa haunts the second floor.

She died when she fell from the second floor stairway.

Bad Ticker

In the early to mid-1990s, a man died of a heart attack in his room on the second floor while sleeping.

His spirit is still here, going about his business as if he was still alive.

Unknown Spectral Residents

Other entities also resided in the The Osceola Inn, perhaps making contact with anyone brave enough to sleep in their rooms.

They are more than willing to share their rooms, though the temptation to get some free chuckles must be great at the expense of their living roommates.

New Brick Building

Spirits may have just moved inside of this new building taking up residence on the floors where they lived or were the most happy.

Nothing has been shared from the current folks using the building.

PARANORMAL FINDINGS

In the historic building, Osceola Inn.

For years, people had witnessed and experienced a boat-load of paranormal activity that is listed above.

Some spirits have made themselves known to psychic investigators, who have come on several occasions to set up paranormal recording devices, wire the building for sound and temperature changes and to investigate the evidence of the hauntings experienced by the living.

West Michigan Ghost Hunters Society – Had sent an investigation team with a psychic and have come up with proof that the hauntings are real. This psychic identified the names of the entities in # 1, 2 – 3 and 4.

Paranormal Investigators Timothy Harte and Michelle Hajdu are planning a joint investigation of The Osceola Inn in October of 2005.

MESA Project: The Home of Paranormal Science – – Clinical Psychologist, Timothy Harte is leading a paranormal investigative team for the Mesa Project, a group of people who investigate hauntings, using a laptop computer system, MESA: multi-energy sensor array.

This system can answer the question regarding the Osceola Inn: “Is the Osceola Inn verifiably haunted, or just a receptor of environmental factors that mimic hauntings?”

Michelle Hajdu of Marion – founder of the Marion Michigan Paranormal Investigations. Michelle has been hunting ghosts since 2001 with her team.

When she started, Michelle relates, “There were no other paranormal teams in the northern part of Michigan and maybe one or two in the Upper Peninsula. Thanks to the INTERNET, I have met and joined several other teams from Michigan on hunts as an honorary member.” She just had two new people join her team, with one going to be their team sensitive. She has the goal of acquiring a Thermal Imaging Camera.

Michelle Hajdu already has done some investigation with her own team at this inn and has gotten some proof she needs that the place is indeed haunted, including a disembodied voice recording, from someone introducing himself as Jason.

Timothy Hatre’s team worked with Michelle Hajdu of Marion – Marion and Tim did a joint investigation in October 2005, on the Osceola Inn and came up with some interesting results!

Michelle Hajdu kindly shared their results with HauntedHouses.com: “We got quite a few EVPs this time, one in which you can hear a ghost dog bark and then the voice of a female spirit say, “Shanta!” and after that you can hear her slap her legs as if she were calling her dog to her. I was very surprised to capture this EVP and especially to capture a dog barking!”

Michelle Hajdu also reports, “Tim Hatre with his M.E.S.A. machine did get some unusual readings from the machine and some that were higher than he has captured before.”

“Tim himself saw a female apparition in white go across the lobby area and disappear into a wall. His brother Harold Harte also saw a face of a woman in a window in one of the rooms on the second floor.”

reed-city

STILL HAUNTED?

Unknown.

The building is gone but the spirits may have attached to the land and just moved into the new Yoplait structure. Or, they could’ve just moved to another building, or left for the spirit world.

It was definitely was the home at at least six spirits. They didn’t loose their home without making themselves known. According to a newspaper article, the workers in charge of the demolition encountered some unusual events.