Investigation Report of the Park Inn, by Nanette Patterson
The Park Inn was a posh hotel in the 1960s frequented by people of power and money. High class prostitution was prevalent there. Cesar Chavez supposedly met there in the "Red Velvet Room" to negotiate high powered labor decisions. Finding this room became the focal point of our search/investigation in the building.
Shortly after we arrived, we split up into groups to find the "Red Velvet Room." I joined Starr and Jessi. They gave me an EMF indicator while Starr relied on her dowsing rods. Jessi had a walkie-talkie (Jackie had the other set) and a camera. We went up the stairs and I got the impression that there was more energy down the north side of the building. Starr's rods also indicated such. We started heading down the hall and Starr's rods honed in on room 244 on the right side (east) of the hallway that had a closed and locked door. I volunteered to visit Gabriel, the custodian, to see if we could get a key to open the room.
The Park Inn has 3 wings. It has one wing going north/south parallel to the I-35. At each end of this wing, there is a wing running perpendicularly west. Gabriel's suite was in the center of the southernmost wing running east/west. When I reached his room, Gabriel was standing outside the doorway in the hall speaking with Mike and his girlfriend and her daughter. As I listened in on the conversation I learned that while Gabriel had a master key, it only opened about 75% of the doors. At one point all the doors were open, but somehow some got closed. If you go through the halls, you will notice several of the doors have broken door frames because they have had to kick in the doors. I figured getting a key was probably an exercise in futility and decided to head back to Starr and Jessi. Just as I was about to go around the corner back into the north/south running wing, I saw an open door on my left to a storeroom. It caught my attention and I peeked my head in the door. I looked to the left inside the storeroom and got nothing. I looked to the right and it didn't feel right to me. I turned on my EMF indicator and I was getting very high readings. There was a fuse box on the south wall and what appeared to be a vent to the HVAC on the north wall. However, in the center area of that end of the storeroom, I got EMF readings off the scale. I turned around and headed around the corner into the north/south wing. The first door on the left to Room 259 was open and I walked into the darkened room. I felt energy there and tried to validate with the EMF indicator and I was getting readings off the scale. Excitedly I left the room to go get Starr and Jessi. Once I got to the center of that wing in the lobby area at the top of the stairs, I called them over (they had been exploring other rooms as I went to fetch the key for Rm 244). I asked Starr to see what her dowsing rods picked up. Strangely, the dowsing rods pointed to the room directly across the hall from Rm 259 on the east side of the wing. We went into that room and then her rods sent her back into the hall and into Rm 259.
When you enter the room, there is an access way with a vanity to the right leading to a bathroom. If you walk straight into the room, there is a dresser with a mirror on the south wall and two double beds to the right against the north wall. Immediately upon entering the bedroom space, I got the chills and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Starr came in and felt a pressure on her chest and the air was heavy for her. We turned on the light and I started taking EMF readings. It went off the scale in the area that was directly the opposite the wall in the storeroom. Perhaps it had something to do with the HVAC system??? Looking in the access way to the bathroom, I noted an access point to the ceiling above the closet area of the walkway. I got on a chair and lifted the tiling. I saw wiring and a towel. That sort of freaked me out. Why would a towel be up in the ceiling causeway? Jessi got on the walkie-talkie and told Jackie to head down to the room. I got off the chair and Starr and I went back into the bedroom area. I again got the chills and the hair standing up. Starr had to take a seat at the foot of the first bed on the right. I was taking pictures but didn't pick up anything. I leaned against the east wall. As I was standing there with my back against the wall, I felt something brush against my left breast. Jackie and Roxan arrived and we started an EVP session. Jessi was sitting on the 2nd bed and she felt someone pinch her rear. She got up and sat down again at the head of the bed Starr was sitting on. I laid down on the second bed on my stomach crosswise to the bed. Jessi continued taking pictures as Jackie spoke to the presence. After awhile, Jackie went to play back the tape. We all listened and we heard a male whispering responses to Jackie's beckonings. Not much later, Jessi viewed a photo that appeared to have ecto. I asked to see it and she got up to come over to me to show it. Her camera shut itself down and at the same time, both Starr's and Jackie's cameras also shut down by themselves. Shortly thereafter, Dee, Gabriel and his girlfriend arrived as well as Brenda and Jim. Dee came into the room and sat down on the west end of the dresser. By this time, Jessi had moved back to the head of the other bed and was snapping pictures. Dee was reminding the presence that it was no longer of the flesh and blood and warning him that his bad behavior would not be tolerated. Gabriel's girlfriend, who called the presence "the stubborn old man" (she saw him as being in his late 40s or early 50s), said that the presence did not like hearing this information. Jessi also got a similar impression. Brenda, on the other hand, did not sense this presence. She got the impression of a much younger male about 18 who was short. Jessi started snapping more pictures and got orbs hovering around me. She also got the impression that the presence was directly in front of Dee and was somewhat agitated not liking what he was hearing. Jim who was standing in the doorway out by the hallway snapped a picture at about the same time and this photo had a blurry white light directly in front of Dee where Jessi said the presence was. We continued the EVP session and once Dee felt the presence had left, we all decided to move on to where Dee and her group had been prior to Rm 259 where they took pictures of wheelchair tread marks outside the handicapped room on the north side east/west running wing. Starr, Jessi, and I lingered in Rm 259 a little while longer. I know I wasn't quite convinced the all the spirits had left. When I turned out the light to the bedroom, I knew someone was still there.
We headed downstairs and down the hallway to where the handicapped room was. We went all the way to the end of the hallway and found no one. That wing was in horrible condition. A water main had broken and there was standing water everywhere down that wing. The smell of mildew was intense. The ceiling had caved in for several of the rooms. We headed back towards the lobby and finally found everyone else. We stopped in the office area and I got the impression that in the office diagonally to the left of the doorway, someone of power once sat at the desk in there. There energy was still there. In the empty room diagonally to the right of the entrance lobby area, I got the impression that this is where the decisions were made. Starr got similar impressions, but Gabriel's and everyone else thought otherwise.
From there we all congregated in the lobby for a break. Gabriel's girlfriend got the impression that one of the ghosts was standing behind the pillar on the 2nd floor looking down at us. I snapped a picture shortly after she said that and there was a strong orb (didn't meet the texture, lighting, symmetry req'ts though) in the vicinity of where she said he was standing.
After our break, we headed back up to the second floor and to the northern wing to where Gabriel's girlfriend felt the red Velvet Room was. This suite was directly across the courtyard from where Gabriel's suite was. The suite was a little smaller. When you walked through the door, there was a kitchenette immediately to your right and a sitting area in front. To the right of the sitting area, there was a walk way to a bedroom. Personally, I did not get a vibe that told me this was the room. I did get the impression of drug dealing and prostitution and associated partying going on this room, but not high-powered decision making. Perhaps this is where they went to relax after the decisions were made? In the bedroom to the right, there was a definite cold spot that seemed to linger around and in the first closet in the room. Above the head of the bed, there was a mirror. Starr captured some interesting black shadows in that mirror.
From that room we continued west down the hallway continuing our search for the elusive Red Velvet Room. We were drawn into a room on the left. When Jessi entered the room, she felt as though she was being strangled. She went back into the hallway to recover. When I went in the room, I got a piercing pain in my left temple. Jim and I both photographed orbs near the window in this room. While I was snapping pictures, I heard some voices chatting (men and women). I looked up and out the doorway and saw Brenda with her finger over her lips telling me to be quiet. I thought it was Jessi still recovering from her experience, but I was obviously wrong. It seems many of us heard the haunted voices. Jim and I set out down the hallway going west trying to find the source of the voices. We found nothing; no one was in any of the rooms. I suspect it was a hint as to where the true Red Velvet Room was.
Once we gave up on finding the haunted voices, Jim and I headed downstairs to the handicapped room. First we went in the room on the north side. I snapped pictures, but got nothing. When Roxan entered the room, she immediately said that she felt a heart attack had happened there. As we were departing the room, Jim mentioned he felt nothing except the tingling in his left arm. I asked him where. He said just above his elbow to mid-forearm-the exact place I felt tingling and I had numbness in my fingers.
After that we took another short break and then we decided to head over to the Chapel. Starr, Jessi, Jim, and I were more anxious than the others so we skipped the break and went straight over. Because I had visited the chapel before we broke into groups at the beginning, I showed everyone around. Immediately when you walk in the chapel, there is a little lobby with French double doors that open into the congregation area. To both the right and left of this lobby area, there are small sitting rooms. On the backside of the pulpit area, there is a storeroom to the right on the other side of the door, a bathroom to the left, and a sink area directly behind the wall of the pulpit. Doors are on both the left and right of the pulpit to access this contiguous area. We started snapping photos and we were capturing orbs. Jim and I were standing immediately inside the French doors to the right side. The lights were out and we were reviewing our pics. Starr and Jessi were standing behind me in the lobby area. All of the sudden I heard a loud metallic pop noise and Starr or Jessi squeal. That frightened me and I jumped backwards and in doing so I feared I would mow Starr and Jessi down. I don't get scared often but when I do, my body reacts quickly. Jim was totally calm. We turned on the lights trying to find the source of the noise. I thought it was to the left of the congregation area. Meanwhile, Jessi gets on the walkie-talkie telling everyone else to hurry up and we were getting activity. We couldn't find the source of the noise, but we did notice that the door on the left side of the pulpit was opened wider than it had been in the pictures we had snapped prior to the noise. When the rest of the crew arrived, we started doing an EVP session. The church built around 1890 was not originally where it stands now. It was actually from one of the surrounding small towns. It was moved by a family that didn't want to see it torn down. During the EVP session, the left front ceiling fan turned itself on. After awhile with no more activity, Jim reached up (as far as I know only Jim and I were tall enough to reach the cord) and turned it off. Gabriel's girlfriend got the impression that she didn't like that. Shortly thereafter, the chandelier in the lobby started shaking wildly all on its own. Brenda was standing in the French doorway and Jessi was to her right. Brenda felt the door close on her pushing her into the congregation area. Brenda was going to investigate the cabinet that was in the lobby area to the right of the French doors when this happened. After that we all sat down in the pews and then the energy seemed to fade and we decided to give it a rest. As we were departing the building, Jim investigated that cabinet Brenda was going to check out and discovered that you could turn the ceiling fan on and off from one of the 4 switches in that cabinet (one switch for each of the four fans in the congregation area).
From there we headed back to the lobby and decided to call it a night. It was past midnight by this time. Some of the investigators had long drives back home…..
What a blast!
Submitted by Nanette Patterson and used with her permission.
All images, sounds and graphics © 2003-2007 PsyTech
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