Hotel Morgan, Morgantown: The Story of Room 314

Hotel Morgan has stood on High Street in downtown Morgantown since October 16, 1925. It was the town’s grand hotel, with a two-story ballroom and guests such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy. It was restored from 1999 and ran for years as the Historic Clarion Hotel Morgan. New owners bought it in 2019, renovated it again and reopened it in 2021, and it now operates as Hotel Morgan, a Wyndham Hotel, a short walk from West Virginia University. Our old guide used the Clarion name, so you may know it that way.

Its ghost story centers on one room. Room 314 is said to be haunted by a girl who drowned in the bathtub, and guests who stay there describe a heavy sadness in the bathroom. The owners have publicly said they have never heard of a haunting, and nobody has found a record of a drowning. We include it on our list of haunted hotels in West Virginia because it is still one of the most searched haunted hotels in the state, and because we think you should hear both sides.

The ghosts of Hotel Morgan, a Wyndham Hotel

The girl in Room 314

The story that put Hotel Morgan on haunted lists is simple. A girl is said to have drowned in the bathtub of Room 314, and her presence is still felt there. Guests who have stayed in the room describe a sense of someone in the bathroom with them, and some say they were suddenly overwhelmed with sadness.

No one has found a record of a drowning at the hotel. A local ghost history blogger who looked into the story in 2012 could not confirm the girl’s death, and a former housekeeper commented that she cleaned Room 314 a couple of times “with no little girl.”

The 2009 ghost hunt and the owners' reply

In February 2009 a psychic and paranormal conference planned at the hotel advertised it as haunted and offered a ghost hunt. The organizer, a local student named Anthony Atha, said the claim came from a hotel guest’s own experience.

Owner Richard Brant responded publicly. He said that since his family bought the hotel in 1999 he had never heard any stories of a haunting, and that he did not believe the hotel was haunted. The Brants have since sold the hotel, and the current owners have not commented on the story.

The third floor and the back elevator

Most of the other stories come from comments left by guests and former staff. One guest who stayed in December 2012 described an uncomfortable energy on the third floor, “bad mojo more than a spirit.” A former housekeeper said the whole hotel made her look over her shoulder, and that she disliked the back elevator, which she said John F. Kennedy once rode.

Another visitor wrote in 2019 that the elevator stopped on the third floor with nobody waiting, and that a door latch closed with no one near it. A guest from 2005 described a dark mass moving across the ceiling of his room. None of these accounts can be checked, but they keep returning to the same floor as Room 314.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Room 314: The room in the drowning story. Ask for it when you book, and ask the front desk whether anyone has reported anything lately.
• The third floor: Where several guests and staff say the atmosphere changes. If 314 is taken, any third-floor room puts you nearby.
• The back elevator: A former housekeeper’s least favorite part of the hotel, and the elevator a later guest said kept stopping on the third floor.

History of Hotel Morgan, a Wyndham Hotel

Construction began on January 15, 1925, for the Morgantown Hotel Company, formed in 1922, and Hotel Morgan opened on October 16 that year. At the request of the Monongalia Historical Society it was named for Zackquill Morgan, the founder of Morgantown. Chicago hotel specialists Albert Pick and Company did the interiors, and it was counted among the grandest hotels in West Virginia.

Famous guests followed. Eleanor Roosevelt stayed in 1934 during her visits to Scotts Run and Arthurdale, Harry Truman stayed in 1954 shortly after leaving office, and in 1960 Senator John F. Kennedy addressed supporters at a reception in the ballroom during his presidential campaign. The Metropolitan Theatre (1924) and the Warner Theater (1931) nearby made this block the center of downtown entertainment.

In later decades the hotel slipped, and by the 1990s its decor dated from the 1970s. R. Ted Brant bought the hotel in 1999 and began a renovation that restored the two-story ballroom, turned small rooms into suites and added a restaurant on the eighth floor. He died in 2000, and his family finished the work, reopening it as the Historic Clarion Hotel Morgan.

In 2019 the Thrash Group of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, bought the hotel for $2.5 million. They sold the original furnishings, rewired the building and spent more than a year renovating, finishing with 81 refinished rooms, two suites, the restored ballroom and a new bar and restaurant, Anvil + Ax. West Virginia Public Broadcasting put the cost at $15 million. The hotel reopened in March 2021, with Governor Jim Justice at the celebration, and now operates as Hotel Morgan, a Wyndham Hotel.

The hotel stands within the Downtown Morgantown Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996, a few blocks from the WVU downtown campus and the Monongahela riverfront.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Request Room 314 when you book; it cannot be guaranteed, so ask again at check-in.
• Book early on WVU home football weekends, when downtown hotels fill quickly.
• Look for the old Clarion name in reviews and older listings; it is the same hotel.
• Walk the Downtown Morgantown Historic District after dark, from the 1891 courthouse to the Metropolitan Theatre.
• The West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville is about an hour and a half away for a darker day trip.
• Keep an open mind: the owners say the hotel is not haunted, and the story has never been confirmed.

More haunted hotels nearby

• The Wells Inn, Sistersville: an 1890s oil boom hotel on the Ohio River
• The Blennerhassett Hotel, Parkersburg: West Virginia’s best-known haunted hotel
• Haunted hotels in Pennsylvania: just over the state line
• Haunted places in West Virginia: from the state penitentiary to Harpers Ferry
• Haunted hotels in West Virginia

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.

• Clio: Hotel Morgan
• The Dominion Post: Renovated Hotel Morgan to open this month (2021)
• WV Public Broadcasting: Historic Hotel Morgan reopens in Morgantown (2021)
• Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State: Hotel Morgan, haunted or not?
• Wikipedia: Downtown Morgantown Historic District
• Booking.com: Hotel Morgan, a Wyndham Hotel

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