Potentially-haunted elevator at the Algonquin, NYC

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The Algonquin Hotel Times Square, Autograph Collection

Just in time for Halloween, we’ve got another haunted hotel story for you. This one comes from reader , who wrote in to tell us about her own haunted hotel experience after we passed along the story of the “duppy encounter” in Jamaica:

We just got back from another stay at , our favorite hotel. I never thought of it as haunted but treasure its’ storied history. However, on this stay a woman (a bit freaky but not a ghost) said are you feeling anything on your side of the hotel? My first thought was earthquake? I laughingly said no the round table wouldn’t haunt the place they weren’t exactly a happy bunch – why would they hang around? Then I remembered in a previous stay I was on the elevator and I heard the song “I’m In The Mood For Love” and I jokingly asked who was singing it – or to my husband and a fellow passenger thinking about it? They responded as if I were nuts and I secretly enjoyed the communication from somewhere??

That night I heard moving furniture (as if on a wooden floor) twice and I was completely awake – but since I’m so fond of Dorothy and her gang I know she’s not harmful – I wasn’t afraid. Next day we are in the lobby waiting to go up and the doors open to a woman who has luggage and is exasperated. I said are you getting off – she said no she was trying to get to her floor. I laughed, entered the elevator and made a joke about it really being haunted but since we are regulars here we’ll ride to her floor and see her off safely! Meanwhile it stopped at every other floor – opened to no one and closed – we finally got her to the 9th floor and returned to the 5th safely. I am thrilled to have this story to tell and look forward to doing so – I’m much better in person talking than writing t his but maybe I’ll have to make the effort… Oh and one more then we were on the elevator which is tiny and 7 other people squuezed in and I started singing in my husband’s ear unconsciously “I’m feeling claustrophobic simply because you’re near me.” to the tune of “I’m in the mood for love.” Which was written by Dorothy Fields – a contemporary of the vicious circle – although it could just be a former elevator operator who hangs out there!

Freaky. Anyone else have an Algonquin haunting story? Write in!