The Stanley Hotel, located at 333 Wonderview Avenue Estes Park, CO served as the inspiration for Stephen King’s 1977 novel The Shining and is considered to be one of the most haunted hotels in the U.S. It is a 140-room Colonial Revival hotel located about 5 miles from the Rocky Mountain National Park, and was built by Freelan Oscar Stanley, the inventor of the steam-powered car. It opened July 4, 1909 as a resort for upper class Easteners and a health resort for Tuberculosis sufferers.
The Stanley Hotel has had a rather peaceful history, but in the years following the publication of The Shining, it has gained a reputation as a setting for paranormal activity. Freelance Stanley is said to wander the halls of the hotel and his wife, Flora has been seen and heard in the ballroom at the piano playing away. The fourth floor is said to be one of the most haunted areas in the hotel as well as room 217 where guests find that the room has been straightened up, their clothing folded or put away, or their suitcases organized.
On the second half, we reviewed the 1980 film The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd. It is about a family that heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.
Join us on episode 161 to hear more about the grand and haunted Stanley Hotel!