Haunted hotel guide · Greenville, South Carolina
Haunted Westin Poinsett, Greenville: The Man in the Black Coat and the Third-Floor Window
Greenville’s 1925 grand hotel spent 13 years empty before it was restored. Guests now tell of an elderly man who vanishes around corners and a figure at a third-floor window who takes off a black coat and disappears.
The Westin Poinsett rises 12 stories over South Main Street in downtown Greenville, a red brick and white stone tower designed by William Lee Stoddart, the architect of Charleston’s Francis Marion Hotel. It opened in 1925 as the Poinsett Hotel, closed in 1975, became a retirement home, and then stood empty and vandalized until a restoration brought it back on October 22, 2000.
South Carolina’s tourism office lists it among the state’s haunted inns. The stories are about guests’ rooms rather than public spaces: an elderly man who appears and is gone a moment later, a figure at a third-floor window who takes off his black coat before vanishing, and a woman held inside a closet. It is the best-known haunted hotel in the Upstate and one of the grandest stays on our list of haunted hotels in South Carolina.
Westin Poinsett at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address 120 South Main Street, Greenville, SC 29601
- Opened 1925; designed by William Lee Stoddart; National Register (1982); reopened October 22, 2000
- Most haunted spots Upper-floor guest rooms and hallways, the third-floor windows
- Best-known ghosts An elderly man in the halls; a figure in a black coat at a third-floor window
- Booking the haunted room No room is linked to the ghosts. You can request the third floor, but it is not guaranteed.
- Good to know A Westin with a restored Gold Ballroom, a short walk from Falls Park on the Reedy. A member of Historic Hotels of America.
The ghosts of the Westin Poinsett
The elderly man in the hallway
In his 2011 book Haunted Greenville, South Carolina, Jason Profit tells the story of a businessman who heard odd sounds coming from his bathroom and found the light on after he had switched it off. When the noises seemed to move into the hall, he opened his door and saw an elderly man disappearing around the corner.
He called the front desk. No one was cleaning, he was told, and he was the only guest on the floor. Discover South Carolina describes the same figure as an elderly man popping up unannounced in rooms, then vanishing into thin air.
The man in the black coat
The Greenville News and Discover South Carolina both describe a figure seen at a third-floor window. He takes off a black coat, then disappears. The state tourism office jokes that if you find a coat in your room, you should not hand it in to lost and found.
Who is he? A 2019 Greenville360 blog post weighed three ideas: a resident of the retirement home the building became in the 1970s, a homeless man who sheltered in the empty building in the 1990s, or Dr. Robinson Earle, who was shot in the street outside the earlier Mansion House hotel on this lot in 1885. All three are guesses.
The closet
The most unsettling story, also from Profit’s book, involves a young woman who was hanging clothes in her room when she felt herself pushed into the closet. The door shut behind her, and the knob felt as if someone was holding it from the other side.
She struggled for nearly 15 minutes before she got out, called her boyfriend, and checked out of the hotel.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- The third-floor windows: Where the figure in the black coat is seen. Look up from Main Street after dark.
- The upper-floor hallways: Where the elderly man is glimpsed turning a corner.
- Your closet: The setting of the hotel’s strangest story, if you are brave enough to hang your clothes.
- The Gold Ballroom: The restored 1925 ballroom; no ghost is reported here, but it is the best surviving piece of the old Poinsett.
History of The Westin Poinsett
The Poinsett replaced the Mansion House, a hotel of about a century’s standing where John C. Calhoun had been a frequent guest; it was torn down in 1924. The new hotel, named for Joel R. Poinsett, the South Carolina statesman and former U.S. Secretary of War, opened in June 1925 with a reception, dinner and dance.
William Lee Stoddart designed it as a 12-story Beaux-Arts tower with a lounge, grill room, convention hall, nearly a dozen shops and the Gold Ballroom. It had 210 rooms at opening, and about 60 more were added before the Second World War. J. Mason Alexander ran it from 1930 for about 30 years, and guests included Amelia Earhart, John Barrymore, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Robert F. Kennedy and Liberace.
As travelers moved to motels on the edge of town, the Poinsett declined. It closed as a hotel in 1975, operated as a retirement home, and was closed by the city in January 1987. For the next decade it stood empty, was repeatedly vandalized and damaged by fire, and was named one of South Carolina’s most endangered historic places. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
In November 1997, P. Steven Dopp and Greg Lenox, who already owned Charleston’s Francis Marion Hotel, bought the building. A restoration of about $20 million, using federal historic tax credits, brought it back as The Westin Poinsett on October 22, 2000. It joined Historic Hotels of America in 2002 and was sold to Highline Hospitality Partners in April 2026.
Tips for a haunted stay
- Walk Main Street after dark and look up at the third-floor windows before you go to your room.
- Request a third-floor room when you book; it is not guaranteed, but it puts you closest to the story.
- Greenville has downtown ghost walking tours; ask at the front desk which ones run that week.
- Falls Park on the Reedy and the Liberty Bridge are a short walk down Main Street.
- Pair it with a night at the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston, designed by the same architect and restored by the same owners.
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.
- Thomas House Hotel Ghost Hunt & Sleepover, Red Boiling Springs, TN: a ghost hunt and overnight stay in a famously haunted 1890 hotel
- USS Battleship North Carolina Ghost Hunt & Tour, Wilmington, NC: investigate a WWII battleship on the Cape Fear River
More haunted hotels nearby
- Grove Park Inn, Asheville: the Pink Lady, about an hour north
- Balsam Mountain Inn, North Carolina: a historic railroad-era mountain inn west of Asheville
- Belmont Inn, Abbeville: a historic Upstate inn about an hour south
- Francis Marion Hotel, Charleston: the Poinsett’s sister hotel by the same architect
- Haunted hotels in South Carolina
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 the Westin Poinsett haunted?
South Carolina’s tourism office lists it among the state’s haunted inns. Guests report an elderly man who vanishes in the halls and a figure at a third-floor window who takes off a black coat and disappears.
Who haunts the Westin Poinsett?
No one knows. Theories include a former resident of the retirement home the building once was, a man who sheltered in it while it was empty, and Dr. Robinson Earle, shot outside the earlier Mansion House hotel in 1885.
When did the Poinsett Hotel open?
In June 1925. It closed in 1975, became a retirement home, stood empty from 1987, and reopened as The Westin Poinsett on October 22, 2000.
Which floor is haunted at the Westin Poinsett?
The best-known sighting is a figure at a third-floor window. The other stories come from upper-floor rooms and hallways.
Who designed the Poinsett Hotel?
William Lee Stoddart, who also designed the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston and the Lord Baltimore Hotel in Baltimore.
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.
- Discover South Carolina: 10 haunted South Carolina inns
- Southern Spirit Guide: The glory that was the Poinsett
- Greenville360: The Man in the Black Coat (2019)
- Greenville News via AOL: 9 haunted spots in Greenville
- Historic Hotels of America: The Westin Poinsett history
- Wikipedia: Poinsett Hotel
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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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