The Haunted Seven Sisters Inn, Ocala, Florida

For years the Seven Sisters Inn was the haunted stay in central Florida. The painted Victorian on Ocala’s Fort King Street advertised itself as the most haunted bed and breakfast in the state, its innkeepers kept a folder of photos, recordings and guest stories, and in October 2008 the SyFy series Ghost Hunters featured it in the same episode as St. Petersburg’s Vinoy.

The house has since changed hands and been restored, and it now rents four suites through its own website and Airbnb. The current owners do not market the ghosts, but they have not gone away: recent guests still write about noises in the night and children laughing in an empty house. The cast of characters is the one the old inn made famous, the Rheinauer family who lived here for nearly fifty years, three children and a flirtatious gentleman called George.

The ghosts of the Seven Sisters Inn

The Rheinauers

Ocala businessman Charles Rheinauer moved into the house with his wife Emma in 1895. He died in 1925 at the age of 79, and Emma lived on here until her death in 1942, so between them they spent nearly half a century in the house. Under its old management the inn told guests that both were still at home. Emma is the one most often described, a lady of the house who never quite left. Some accounts call her husband Ben rather than Charles, which tells you how far the stories have drifted from the records.

Three children and the shoe thief

The old inn described three playful children among its seven spirits, and recent guests still mention hearing children laughing when no children are staying. A small figure was also blamed for hiding guests’ shoes, which would turn up somewhere other than where they had been left. Nobody has ever linked the children to a family that lived in the house.

George, the flirting gentleman

The most memorable character is George, a flirtatious man said to date from the 1950s. He has no surname, no known connection to the house and no grim story, which makes him one of the friendlier ghosts in Florida.

What the innkeepers reported

When Ghost Hunters came in 2008, owner Bonnie Morehardt said, in a 2008 report carried by Ghost Theory, that she had seen a dressed-up woman, a young boy and an old man, and heard shouts, footsteps on the wooden floors and doors slamming. Guests reported a woman in white passing through doors and closets. Morehardt said a table in the loft was tipped over so often it broke three times, and that in the themed rooms of the house known as the Purple House, decorated after France, China, Egypt and India, “you will hear fighting and arguing.”

Inn manager Charlie Childes described hearing the front door bells ring when he was alone, seeing a man dressed like Abraham Lincoln walk through a wall, and nearly falling headfirst down the stairs toward a stained-glass window before, he said, “something grabbed me with two hands.” These are personal accounts from the people who ran the inn at the time.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• The second-floor suites: Today’s suites are named Casablanca, Cairo, Beijing and Paris, echoing the travel-themed rooms where the old innkeepers said spirits argued.
• The staircase: Where a former manager said unseen hands caught him as he fell.
• The parlor and porch: Shared spaces open to guests, and the best places to sit and listen to the old house at night.

History of Seven Sisters Inn

The house at 828 East Fort King Street was built in the early 1890s; the inn gives 1891, and other accounts give 1890 and credit Joseph and Linda Lancaster as the builders. It is a Queen Anne Victorian and it was later nicknamed the painted purple lady for its color scheme.

In 1895 it became the home of Charles and Emma Rheinauer. Charles was a local businessman and, according to the inn, a former mayor of Ocala. He died in May 1925, and Emma kept the house until her death in May 1942. The house then served as a private home and later as offices before becoming a bed and breakfast.

As the Seven Sisters Inn it built a national reputation for its ghosts. By 2008 the inn, run by Bonnie Morehardt and Ken Oden, spread across two Victorian houses, the Scott House and the Purple House, and it was one of two Florida locations in the Ghost Hunters episode Ghosts of the Sunshine State, which aired on October 1, 2008.

The house has since been sold, extensively restored and renovated, and is now run as a vacation rental under the Seven Sisters Inn name, with four second-floor suites and access to the parlor and porch. The current website talks about fireplaces, clawfoot tubs and the history of the Rheinauers rather than ghosts, but guest reviews show the stories are still told.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book through the inn’s website or Airbnb. It is not listed on the big hotel booking sites.
• Pick a fireplace suite in cooler months: Casablanca and Cairo both have working fireplaces.
• Do not expect a ghost-themed stay. The current owners run it as a restored historic rental, not a paranormal attraction, so be respectful of other guests.
• Walk Fort King Street after dark to see the other Victorian houses of Ocala’s historic district.
• Combine it with the coast. The Casa Monica in St. Augustine and the Vinoy, which shared the Ghost Hunters episode, are each about two hours away.

More haunted hotels nearby

• The Vinoy, St. Petersburg: featured in the same 2008 Ghost Hunters episode
• Casa Monica, St. Augustine: an 1888 castle hotel in America’s oldest city
• Haunted places in Orlando: more Central Florida ghost stories, about 90 minutes south
• Haunted hotels in Florida

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.

• Seven Sisters Inn (official site)
• Ghost Theory: Ghost Hunters to visit Ocala inn (2008)
• Hauntworld: Seven Sisters Inn
• CrimeReads: A tour of Florida's haunted hotels
• Pogdesign: Ghost Hunters Season 4 Episode 18

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