History
History

The Garrett Hotel


The historic GARRETT HOTEL was built in 1925 by local entrepreneur and businessman, Jesse Richard (J.R.) Garrett. A luxury hotel that rivaled any in bigger cities, it was the pinnacle of refinement and good taste. Originally built to accommodate travelers of the commuter railway, it was the perfect complement to The Richard Theatre, a wildly successful vaudevillian theatre also built by Garrett. The hotel was host to many guests, civilian and celebrity alike. Many famous performers made it their home away from home including Abbott and Costello, the Hope Brothers and Doris Day. The Garrett Hotel remained hugely successful until J.R. Garrett’s untimely death in 1938. After his demise, the hotel operated for another three years before it ultimately closed.


The hotel remained closed for many years until the Town of Ahoskie purchased it and began to operate it as a small business incubator. The ground floor was renovated and modernized while the second and third floors remain untouched. In the early 2000s, it was purchased by Tommy Hurdle and Bobby Hoggard. The ground floor is now home to Tommy & Company Hair Designs and The Hotel, a haunted attraction. There have been numerous documented accounts of paranormal activity throughout the entire building, with most of the activity occurring on the upper floors. Paranormal ghost tours are regularly conducted in this area, with practically every guest experiencing some unexplained occurences.

The Hotel Haunt

THE HOTEL began in 2017 as The Basement, a haunted house which was located underground, in the basement of Ahoskie Town Hall. It debuted as The Basement: Paranormal Activity, a lights-out themed haunt based on ghostly occurrences within the Town Hall basement.


The haunt operated for three years as The Basement until 2020, when it was unable to open due to the Covid Pandemic (which immediately followed the Basement: Contagion theme!). In 2021, due to repair work that needed to be done on the building, the haunt moved out of the basement and into the Garrett Hotel, a national historic landmark located just one block down the road from The Basement location. Since the move happened rather suddenly, the haunt wasn't able to be ready before October 2021 so instead, the Halloween season welcomed the first guests to the Garrett Hotel Ghost Tours. Work proceeded on the haunt and it opened for the first time in the new location, as Santa's Frightmare Factory, which was also our first Christmas haunt, as well as the first one for the area.


In 2022, the haunt opens for the first Halloween season in the Garrett Hotel where guests check out, but they never leave.



The Hotel Haunt Timeline

2025Carnie
 Tunnel of Love
 Terror on the Midway
2024Festival of Frights
 Ringmaster
 The Abhartach
 Love Me Not
 A Midwinter Night's Scream
2023Bedlam
 Unlucky
 Bitten
 13
2022Insidious
 Silent Night, Deadly Night
2021Garrett Hotel Ghost Tours
 Santa's Frightmare Factory
2019The Basement: Contagion
2018The Basement: Carnage
2017The Basement: Paranormal Activity