The Haunted Lafayette Hotel, Marietta: Durward Hoag and the Maid in Black

The Lafayette Hotel stands on Front Street in Marietta, at the point where the Muskingum River flows into the Ohio. Marietta was founded in 1788 as the first permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory, and the hotel is named for the Marquis de Lafayette, who landed here in 1825. It opened in 1918 on the site of the Bellevue Hotel, which burned in 1916, and it recently joined Historic Hotels of America.

It is one of the best-known haunted hotels in Ohio, and in 2024 TourismOhio put it on its Haunted Ohio list of 24 must-visit places. The ghost most guests talk about is Durward Hoag, whose family ran the hotel for decades. Others describe a maid in a black dress, footsteps and voices in empty rooms, and luggage that will not stay where it was left. For a second haunted stay in town, the Hackett Hotel is a short walk away.

The ghosts of The Lafayette Hotel

S. Durward Hoag

S. Durward Hoag was 17 when his father, Reno G. Hoag, began managing the Lafayette at its opening. Father and son bought the furnishings and leased the building in 1921, bought it outright in 1931 and ran it until it was sold in 1973. A 1950s trade magazine called Durward a “one-man chamber of commerce”, and the Marietta Times says he lived in one of the hotel’s rooms for much of his life. He died in 1982.

He gets the blame for most of the hotel’s odd moments. Heritage Ohio lists light bulbs that flicker or blow out, sudden flashes of bright light, elevators that open with no one there and small objects rearranged in rooms, and puts him mainly on the third floor, where a wing carries the family name. The Marietta Times places him on the second floor and in the Gun Room restaurant. General manager Sheila Rhodes told Ohio Magazine that a lot of people think it is Mr. Hoag still watching over his hotel.

The maid in a black dress

The second ghost is a maid in a black dress seen in the hallways, as the Marietta Times put it in 2024. Guests report seeing her briefly in a corridor before she is gone. Nobody has given her a name. Ohio Magazine adds that some guests describe a woman in Victorian-style clothing, which may be the same figure or another one.

Voices, footsteps and misty shapes

The Marietta Times lists the reports that come up again and again: footsteps and voices in empty rooms and hallways, appliances switching on and off, doors opening and closing by themselves and misty apparitions.

Sandwiches, doors and a cold shower

Ohio Magazine’s account of the hotel stresses that most reports are “innocent or funny”, in the general manager’s words, and that when guests say they experienced something it is usually on the third floor. One guest’s sandwich vanished and turned up the next morning on a coffee table. Another left the room door open a crack to fetch ice and came back to find it shut. A third said the shower ran ice cold for a moment mid-wash.

The Marietta Times adds visitors’ claims that luggage and furniture were moved while they were out. Whether you put that down to Mr. Hoag or to a busy night, it is a story you will hear at the front desk.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Third floor, Hoag wing: The wing named for the Hoag family and the place Heritage Ohio links most strongly to Durward Hoag. Ask for a third-floor room when you book.
• Second floor: Where the Marietta Times places Hoag’s ghost, and where guests describe footsteps and voices.
• The Gun Room: The hotel’s breakfast room and restaurant, also linked to Hoag. Photographs of the 1916 Bellevue fire hang nearby.
• Riverview rooms: Riverview Queen rooms look over the Ohio River, the best views in the house.

History of The Lafayette Hotel

The site has hosted a hotel since 1892, when the four-story Bellevue Hotel opened at Front and Greene streets with 55 steam-heated rooms, a bar, a call bell in every room and rates of $2 to $3 a night. On April 26, 1916 a fire destroyed it. Local people formed the Marietta Hotel Company and began a replacement almost at once.

The new building opened on July 1, 1918 as the Lafayette Hotel, named for the Marquis de Lafayette, who visited Marietta in 1825. Reno G. Hoag managed it from the start. Its interiors leaned into Marietta’s riverboat history, a theme the hotel still uses, and the Rufus Putnam dining room became known for its collection of long rifles dating from 1795 to 1880.

Reno Hoag and his son S. Durward Hoag bought the contents and took a long lease on the building in 1921, bought it outright in 1931 and added a wing of guest rooms, the Hoag addition, in 1936, in the middle of the Depression. The family sold the hotel to Bel-Par Realty in 1973. After several renovations, the Lin family of Columbus bought it in 1991 and set about preserving its character.

Today the Lafayette offers queen, twin, junior suite and riverview rooms, breakfast in the Gun Room, the Riverfront Bar & Grill and Café Lafayette. It is a member of Historic Hotels of America and a base for the Ohio River Sternwheel Festival each September.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book directly with the hotel and ask for the third floor in the Hoag wing.
• Have breakfast in the Gun Room and look for the photographs of the 1916 fire.
• The Marietta Times reported in 2024 that the hotel holds a paranormal convention each year; check the hotel’s events calendar for dates.
• Walk to the Hackett Hotel and The Galley on Second Street for a second Marietta ghost story.
• Book early for the Sternwheel Festival weekend in September.

More haunted hotels nearby

• The Hackett Hotel, Marietta: A five-room hotel above The Galley, where staff blame a ghost called Charlotte
• The Blennerhassett Hotel, Parkersburg: A haunted 1889 hotel across the river in West Virginia
• The Buxton Inn, Granville: An 1812 stagecoach inn with the Lady in Blue
• Haunted hotels in Ohio

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.

• The Lafayette Hotel: Our history
• Historic Hotels of America: The Lafayette Hotel history
• Clio: Lafayette Hotel
• Marietta Times: Lafayette celebrating a century (2018)
• Marietta Times: Two Marietta hotels make Haunted Ohio must-visit list (2024)
• Ohio Magazine: Haunted Ohio, the Lafayette Hotel
• Heritage Ohio: 10 haunted Ohio hotels
• TourismOhio: Haunted Ohio 2024 (PDF)

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