Guthrie Oklahoma
Stone Lion Inn
Spectral helpers, event crashers & theater groupies reside!
DESCRIPTION/HISTORY
This 1907 mansion has 3 stories and a basement. It is described as being a Greek Revival Victorian “stately mansion.”
The third floor housed the main ballroom and a play area, with a closet used as a storage place for toys. It was built by F.E. Houghton, a wealthy man with quite a large family of 12 children who needed more room. He bought the land next to their old house and built this larger mansion, with some nice touches, like oak paneling in the dining room, leaded glass bookshelves, huge pocket-doors (doors which slide into the wall by the door), an Adam’s staircase, 3 fireplaces for those cold Oklahoma winters, ballrooms and a back staircase which leads to the third floor as well.
In the 1920s, the mansion became a boarding house, and later became a funeral home, before reverting back to being a room for rent establishment.
In 1986, the Luker family bought the mansion, renovated this grand home and turned it into an upscale, charming inn, restoring the place to its former glory, with luxurious suites, fine food and a grand way to enjoy a taste of life from a former era.
HISTORY OF MANIFESTATIONS
The mischievous Houghton children used to sneak up to the third floor playroom after their parents went to sleep between 10:00 PM to 12:00 AM to play with the toys in the toy box built into the storage closet.
One of the 12 Houghton children, little Augusta, an 8 year old girl, died when the maid gave her the wrong medication to combat the child’s whooping cough.
During the years that the mansion housed a funeral home and then another boarding house, perhaps an entity or two decided that they weren’t ready to go to the other side and decided to stay behind to “help” the living and hang around to enjoy the ambiance of an upscale inn, not to mention enjoying the murder mystery show events sponsored by the inn, or being an unseen guest of any of the weddings and receptions which are also held in the mansion.
MANIFESTATIONS
Little Augusta Houghton
Foot steps of a child can be heard pattering up and down the stairways.
One of the Luker boys kept his toys in the same toy box in the storage closet. Being a neat boy, he always put toys away after playing with them. Around 10:00 pm, a child’s footsteps could be heard on the back staircase which goes up to the third floor playroom, and the door opening to the playroom. Every time, the Lukers would find the boy’s toys strewn all over the playroom floor. Augusta doesn’t like to clean up! This continued to happen, even when Mrs. Luker put a lock on the closet.
Little Augusta likes to pat sleeping guests’ faces, tugs on their feet and has been known to take a nap on one of the beds. She appears to feel lost and is looking for her mother.
Male Entity (or Entities)
A male apparition has been seen in the basement area.
Maids have seen a male entity in a tall top hat, dressed in an old-fashioned black suit, hanging out behind the heating system.
Although the owners have established a no-smoking policy, an entity still enjoys a good cigar, and the living can smell the smoke and see it in the air as well.
When a guest went to bed, and left the light on the ceiling fan on, because she couldn’t turn it off, she felt a heavy presence climb up on the end of her bed, and turned off the light for her.
STILL HAUNTED?
Yes Indeed! The Oklahoma Ghost Patrol has indeed found evidence of entities in the mansion, and guests still have experiences with the entities, who are friendly, helpful and well behaved unseen residents of the Stone Lion Inn.
LOCATION
1016 West Warner Avenue
Guthrie, OK 73044
(405) 282-0012
SOURCES INCLUDE
- Oklahoma Ghost Patrol and Haunted Highway
- Haunted Highway: The Spirits of Route 66
by Ellen Robson and Dianne Halicki - Prairieghosts.com
Our Haunted Paranormal Stories are Written by Julie Carr
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