Haunted hotel guide · Anniston, Alabama
The Haunted Hotel Finial, Anniston: The Former Victoria Inn and Its Ghosts
An 1888 Queen Anne mansion on the highest hill on Quintard Avenue, Anniston’s Hotel Finial was the Victoria Inn for three decades, and its ghost stories come from those years.
Hotel Finial is the grand Queen Anne house that Col. John McKleroy built in 1888 on the crest of Quintard Avenue, then the smartest street in the new industrial town of Anniston. Three prominent families lived here before it became the Victoria Inn in the 1980s. In 2016, after an eight-month, $2.5 million restoration by State Senator Del Marsh and his wife Ginger, it reopened as Hotel Finial, named for the iron finial on top of its turret. It is now part of Best Western’s Premier Collection but stays independently owned.
Its haunted reputation is gentler than some on our list of haunted hotels in Alabama. Guests and staff have long described footsteps in the dining rooms, piano music from an empty music room, glasses clinking behind the bar and a woman standing on the upstairs landing. The stories date from the Victoria Inn era, and the hotel itself does not promote them, so think of this as a beautiful Victorian stay with a quiet ghost story attached.
Hotel Finial at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address 1600 Quintard Avenue, Anniston, AL 36201 (older listings give 1604 Quintard Avenue)
- Opened Built 1888 as the McKleroy home; the Victoria Inn from the 1980s; reopened as Hotel Finial in March 2016
- Most haunted spots The upstairs landing and old music room of the main house, the dining rooms and the bar
- Best-known ghosts A woman on the upstairs landing, an unseen piano player and footsteps believed to belong to the mansion’s former owners
- Booking the haunted room Book one of the four main-house suites: McKleroy, Wilson, Kirby or the Ballroom Suite on the third floor. Most of the hotel’s rooms are in newer buildings on the grounds.
- Good to know Around 60 rooms, free hot Southern breakfast in the main house, outdoor pool, Spencer’s Bar in the Carriage House (also where you check in). The main house has no elevator.
The ghosts of Hotel Finial
The woman on the upstairs landing
The sighting reported most often is a female figure standing on the upstairs landing of the main house. Witnesses describe her simply as a woman, sometimes in white, who is there one moment and gone the next.
Nobody has a name for her. Local tellers suggest one of the women who lived here: Col. McKleroy’s widow, who stayed on until 1920, or Robbie Kirby, the last lady of the house.
Music from an empty music room
The Victoria Inn’s best-known story is music playing in the music room when nobody was in it. Some versions specify a piano, which fits the house: Robbie Kirby was a well-known musician who gave piano lessons to Anniston children in these rooms.
If you stay in the main house, the rooms on the ground floor are where to listen late in the evening, once breakfast service is long over and the house is quiet.
Footsteps in the dining rooms
When the mansion housed the Victoria Inn’s restaurant, guests and staff reported footsteps in the dining rooms and across the house when those rooms were empty. Today the same four dining rooms, with their original hardwood floors and fireplaces, serve the hotel’s breakfast.
The footsteps are usually credited to the mansion’s former owners, still walking the floors of the house they built and lived in.
Clinking glasses behind the bar
Another old story has glasses clinking just behind the bar, sometimes when the bar was closed. The bar has since moved: Spencer’s Bar is now in the Carriage House, where you also check in, so if the story follows the glasses, that is where to sit.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- McKleroy Suite: Named for the family who built the house in 1888; historically the grandest bedroom, with antiques and a claw-foot tub.
- Wilson Suite: Named for William Coleman Wilson, the foundry president who bought the house at auction in 1920. One of the largest rooms in the mansion.
- Kirby Suite: Named for Frank and Robbie Kirby, the last family to live here. Robbie’s piano lessons connect neatly to the music room story.
- Ballroom Suite: The entire third floor, which served as the family ballroom in the late 1800s. The closest you can sleep to the upstairs landing.
History of Hotel Finial
Anniston was founded as a planned iron town in the 1870s, and by the late 1880s its leading men were building mansions along Quintard Avenue. In 1888 Col. John McKleroy, who headed the Anniston City Land Company and served as a lawyer, state legislator and state school superintendent, built this house on the highest point of the avenue. He died in 1891, but his family kept the home until 1920. In those years the third floor served as a ballroom.
In 1920 McKleroy’s widow sold the house at public auction to William Coleman Wilson, president of the Emory Foundry Company, which made cast-iron pipe. Wilson lived here until 1949. The last full-time residents were Frank and Robbie Kirby. Frank founded the Anniston Electric Company and was active in the city’s civic and church life; Robbie was a respected musician who taught piano. The couple had no children but kept cockatiels, and the hotel still honors them with carved birds and frosted-glass doors. After the Kirbys died the property passed to the Methodist Church.
In the 1980s Earlon McWhorter bought and renovated the mansion, added a pool and two guest buildings, and opened it as the Victoria Inn. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and for years the inn also ran a restaurant in the mansion’s dining rooms. Bob Hope, Jane Fonda, Richard Petty, Dan Quayle and Joan Rivers are all said to have stayed.
In 2009 the McWhorter family donated the property to the Jacksonville State University Foundation. The city of Anniston bought it in 2012 and in 2015 sold it to Del and Ginger Marsh on condition that they invest at least $1.5 million. Their eight-month restoration returned the exterior to its original look, modernized the rooms and reopened the property in March 2016 as Hotel Finial.
Tips for a haunted stay
- Book a main-house suite directly with the hotel if you want to sleep in the 1888 mansion; standard rooms are in the newer guest buildings.
- The main house has stairs only, so the Ballroom Suite is a climb.
- Linger over breakfast in the original dining rooms, where the footsteps were reported.
- Have a drink at Spencer’s Bar in the Carriage House, the modern home of the clinking-glasses story.
- At Christmas the grounds are decorated and Santa sits on top of the turret, a fun time to visit.
Want to investigate, not just sleep?
Sleeping in a haunted hotel is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through the building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and lets you explore on your own during free roam.
- Old Moore County Jail and Old Lynchburg Funeral Home Ghost Hunt, Lynchburg, TN: Our nearest ghost hunt to Alabama, just over the Tennessee line.
- Thomas House Hotel Ghost Hunt and Sleepover, Red Boiling Springs, TN: Investigate a haunted hotel all night, then sleep in it.
More haunted hotels nearby
- The Tutwiler Hotel, Birmingham: about an hour west, Alabama’s best-known haunted hotel
- Redmont Hotel, Birmingham: Hank Williams stayed here on his final trip
- St. James Hotel, Selma: an 1837 riverfront hotel with Jesse James legends
- Haunted hotels in Alabama
Stayed in one of these hotels? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from guests and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your stay. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hotel Finial in Anniston haunted?
It has a long-standing local ghost story from its years as the Victoria Inn. Guests and staff described footsteps in the dining rooms, piano music from the empty music room, glasses clinking behind the bar and a woman on the upstairs landing. The hotel does not promote these stories, and they are reports rather than proof.
Was Hotel Finial the Victoria Inn?
Yes. The mansion operated as the Victoria Inn from the 1980s until it was restored and reopened as Hotel Finial in March 2016.
Who built Hotel Finial?
Col. John McKleroy, head of the Anniston City Land Company, built the house in 1888. It was later home to William Coleman Wilson and then to Frank and Robbie Kirby.
Which rooms are in the historic mansion?
The McKleroy, Wilson and Kirby suites and the third-floor Ballroom Suite are in the 1888 main house. Most other rooms are in newer buildings on the grounds.
Is Hotel Finial a Best Western?
It is part of Best Western’s Premier Collection, but the owners describe it as independently owned and operated.
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.
- Yellowhammer News: How an old Alabama mansion became a destination hotel (2016)
- Hotel Finial history (PDF)
- Southern Exhilaration: Checking in at Hotel Finial (2017)
- Best Western: Hotel Finial, BW Premier Collection
- Digital Alabama: The Victoria Inn and its ghostly music
- OnlyInYourState: The history behind this Victorian hotel in Alabama
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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