Haunted hotel guide · Greeneville, Tennessee
The Haunted General Morgan Inn, Greeneville: Greene Room Grace, Front Desk Bill and the General
An 1890s railroad hotel on the site of a frontier tavern, named for a Confederate raider killed a block away, with a spoon-stealing ghost in its restaurant.
The General Morgan Inn stands on Main Street in the historic center of Greeneville, in the mountains of East Tennessee. It was built between 1887 and 1890 as the Grand Central, a four-story brick railroad hotel, ran for most of the twentieth century as the Hotel Brumley, and reopened in 1996 after a long restoration. It takes its name from Confederate cavalry general John Hunt Morgan, who was shot and killed nearby in 1864.
Local TV’s Haunted Tri-Cities series counts three resident spirits: Greene Room Grace, a former server who takes spoons off the tables in Brumley’s Restaurant; Front Desk Bill, a former employee who never quite clocked out; and General Morgan himself, said to have claimed the best suite in the house.
General Morgan Inn at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address 111 North Main Street, Greeneville, TN 37743
- Opened Grand Central Hotel 1887 to 1890; Hotel Brumley 1908 to 1981; General Morgan Inn 1996
- Most haunted spots Brumley’s Restaurant and the inn’s best suite
- Best-known ghosts Greene Room Grace, Front Desk Bill and General John Hunt Morgan
- Booking the haunted room The suite tied to General Morgan is not named publicly; ask the front desk on (423) 787-1000
- Good to know Brumley’s serves dinner Tuesday through Saturday; the inn is a member of Historic Hotels of America
The ghosts of the General Morgan Inn
Greene Room Grace
The inn’s best-known spirit is Grace, said to be a former server who still works the dining room. Her habit, according to WJHL’s Haunted Tri-Cities, is stealing spoons off tables in Brumley’s Restaurant. Diners and staff tell of place settings missing a spoon that was there a minute ago. The paranormal site Southern Spirit Guide adds that she favors the Greene Room, takes only spoons, and likes to leave the pictures on the walls hanging crooked.
Front Desk Bill
Bill is described as a former employee who enjoys haunting the hotel he once worked in. Southern Spirit Guide says the story holds that he worked at the old Depot Street Hotel next door and stayed on out of devotion to the job. No specific sightings have been published for him.
General John Hunt Morgan
Morgan, the cavalry raider, arrived in Greeneville on September 3, 1864 and spent the night at the nearby home of his friend Catherine Williams. Union cavalry surrounded the town before dawn, and on the morning of September 4 Morgan was shot dead as he ran through the grounds toward Depot Street.
Some accounts, including WJHL’s, say he was killed on the hotel grounds; the inn’s own history places his death in the Williams family’s yard as he tried to reach the stables, a short walk away. Either way, local lore says the general moved into the inn named after him and has claimed its best suite.
Room 207
The one room number that turns up in the stories is 207. Southern Spirit Guide says guests in and around it report strange experiences, and that the front desk takes noise complaints about the room when nobody is booked into it. The inn has not commented on this publicly, so treat it as a guest and investigator story.
The tavern before the hotel
The corner has been an inn for more than two centuries. The Dewoody Tavern was built here in the 1790s, later becoming the Bell Tavern and the Lane House, which hosted Union and Confederate visitors during the war. Some guests feel that long run of travelers, soldiers and railroad men explains why the building never feels quite empty.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- Brumley's Restaurant: Grace’s dining room. Book dinner and watch your spoon.
- The best suite: Said to be claimed by General Morgan; the inn does not name it publicly, so ask at the desk.
- Room 207: The room paranormal writers single out for noise complaints when it is empty. You can ask for it by number.
- The lobby and front desk: Front Desk Bill’s territory.
- The lounge bar: Hangs the blue etched glass mirrors from the Brumleys’ 1948 General Morgan Room supper club.
History of General Morgan Inn & Conference Center
The first building on this site was the Dewoody Tavern, a wooden inn built in the early 1790s for travelers on the Great Wagon Trail near Greeneville’s Big Spring. It later traded as the Bell Tavern and, during the Civil War, as the Lane House.
When the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad built a new depot in Greeneville in 1886, Col. John H. Doughty bought and demolished the Lane House and built the Grand Central Hotel, a four-story brick building with marble trim and about 60 rooms, with shops at street level and sample rooms for traveling salesmen. It was one of four railroad hotels around Main and Depot Streets, linked by a second-floor bridge.
Mrs. E.J. Brumley ran the hotel from 1907. Colonel Doughty died in 1910, and Mrs. Brumley bought the hotel from his children in 1920, and with her son Judd renamed it the Hotel Brumley. William Jennings Bryan was honored with a luncheon here in 1925 on his way to the Scopes trial, and the Brumleys added a Crystal Ballroom in 1928 and the General Morgan Room supper club in 1948. Mrs. Brumley and Judd both died in 1964, and the last part of the hotel still operating, the Brumley Coffee Shop, closed after Sunday dinner on May 24, 1981.
Greene County Bank, which bought the empty building in 1981, donated it to Main Street Greeneville in 1986. After nine years of planning and fundraising, and a restoration overseen by preservation agencies including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it opened as the General Morgan Inn on September 18, 1996. The inn joined Historic Hotels of America in 2002, and the Tennessee Historical Commission has placed a marker nearby. (Historic Hotels of America gives 1884 as the opening year; the state marker and the inn’s own timeline put the Grand Central’s construction after the 1886 depot, between 1887 and 1890, which is the date we use.)
Tips for a haunted stay
- Book dinner at Brumley’s (Tuesday to Saturday) and sit where Grace can reach your spoon.
- Ask at check-in which suite is said to belong to General Morgan; the inn does not advertise it.
- Walk to the nearby markers for Morgan’s death and the Dickson-Williams Mansion to see the ground he crossed on his last morning.
- Look for the 1948 blue etched mirrors behind the lounge bar, a survivor from the Hotel Brumley days.
- Jonesborough, the state’s oldest town and home of the haunted Eureka Inn, is about half an hour east.
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.
- Haunted Thomas House Hotel Ghost Hunt and Sleepover: Our overnight event at the Thomas House in Red Boiling Springs, Middle Tennessee.
More haunted hotels nearby
- Martha Washington Inn, Abingdon: a haunted inn across the Virginia line
- Grove Park Inn, Asheville: the famous Pink Lady, over the mountains
- Haunted places in Knoxville: the nearest big city
- Haunted hotels in Tennessee: Room 311, Union Station and more
- Haunted hotels in Tennessee
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 General Morgan Inn haunted?
Local TV’s Haunted Tri-Cities series says it has three resident ghosts: Greene Room Grace, Front Desk Bill and General John Hunt Morgan.
Who is Greene Room Grace?
A former server said to haunt Brumley’s Restaurant, where she is known for taking spoons off the tables.
Was General John Hunt Morgan killed at the General Morgan Inn?
No. He was shot on September 4, 1864, in the grounds of the Williams house a short walk away. The tavern that stood on the inn’s site is said to have had guests who watched the skirmish.
How old is the General Morgan Inn?
The building went up between 1887 and 1890 as the Grand Central Hotel, on the site of a tavern from the 1790s. It reopened as the General Morgan Inn in 1996.
What was the General Morgan Inn called before?
The Grand Central Hotel, then the Hotel Brumley from about 1908 until 1981.
Which room is haunted at the General Morgan Inn?
Room 207 is the one most often named, for noise complaints when it is empty. General Morgan is also said to have claimed the inn’s best suite, which the hotel does not name publicly.
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.
- General Morgan Inn: history
- General Morgan Inn: official site
- Historic Hotels of America: General Morgan Inn
- WJHL: Haunted Tri-Cities, ghosts and glamour at General Morgan Inn (2019)
- HMdb: General Morgan Inn historical marker
- Southern Spirit Guide: A general and friends, Greene County
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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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