HISTORIC AND HAUNTED

Built in 1902 by wealthy businessman Joseph Stickney, the Mount Washington Hotel was truly a wealthy man’s paradise. He and his wife Carolyn loved the hotel almost as much as they loved each other. However, on one tragic day in 1903 Joseph died from a sudden heart attack, leaving his devastated widow to roam the hotel they both loved so much, alone.

Carolyn eventually married again, to Prince Lucinge of France, and moved over to his homeland with him, until he died years later. After his death the princes moved back to the Mount Washington Hotel, spending the rest of her days enjoying the hotel and its many luxuries that her first husband had worked so hard to build.

It’s Carolyn’s ghost that many people believe still haunts the hotel today. Staff and guests alike have reported seeing the apparition of a woman that matches Carolyn’s description looking over the balcony of the hotel. She used to stand here secretly comparing what people were wearing, determined to outshine them. Her ghost has also been seen descending the stairs for the dinner.

Room 314 (also known as the Princess Room), used to be Carolyn’s private suite. The handcrafted four-poster bed in this room is the one that she shared with her husband, Joseph. On a few occasions, guests have awoken to see Carolyn sitting on the end of the bed, slowly brushing her hair. In this room TAPS (Ghost Hunters TV Show), caught an EVP of a woman, believed to be Carolyn, seemingly respond to their questions.

In the Tower suites, lights are also known to turn on and off. Perfume suddenly drifts into rooms and tubs have been known to fill themselves.

Ghosts – The widowed bride of Mount Washington

As a part of Italian tradition and superstition, the artisans and laborers who built the Mount Washington Hotel varied the number of steps to the second floor (thirty-three from the registration area and thirty-one in the South Tower) to confuse ghosts in the hotel.

The stairs haven’t confused one ghost in particular. Carolyn Stickney, the widowed bride of the Mount Washington Hotel’s owner, played a principal role in the development of the hotel and visited the hotel season every year. She became known as “the Princess” after marrying French royal, Prince Jean Baptiste Marie de Faucigny Lucinge, and often held extravagant parties in her own private dining room, now called the Princess Lounge.

After her death in 1936, caretakers and managers prowling the property during the winter hibernation months reported catching glimpses of the Princess descending the stairs for dinner or lights switching on and off in one of the towers.

The Princess often returns to a third-floor guest room at the Mount Washington Hotel, where her four poster maple bed still resides. Several guests staying in that room have reported being awakened to find a woman sitting at the end of the bed, brushing her hair.

Hotel employees often pose for photos in front of the hotels veranda and one year, employees made a startling discovery in an enhanced photo. When the picture was blown up, viewers could see a woman in the window of the Princess’s room. No one had checked into the room and it was said to be vacant.

* Listing information and/or photos were researched on the Internet and provided by a third-party, article or property owner's website and is deemed accurate, but not guaranteed, to the best of our knowledge.