Do you see a face in this mirror? Because several people believed they did.
A few years ago I snapped this picture of the Canopy Room and posted it. Someone wrote us and asked if there was a face in the mirror? They thought that a woman was standing in the mirror, and wanted to know if we planted it there. We hadn't. They had it enlarged and pointed out what looked to them like a woman, standing, with long black hair. They said it looked like the creepy woman from the movie The Ring.
We didn't even know if we saw something in it or not. The photo has since been examined by many people. Some people saw it and some people didn't. But it made a good story because not only was it the Canopy Room (yikes!) but it was also furniture donated from a supposedly other haunted location. So there was more than one possible source if there was any truth to a spirit face turning up in the mirror.
I don't post most of these stories because I don't want new people to have their experiences colored by earlier guests and paranormal investigators. So the face in the mirror story remained untold save for a few specific people. For a while I even removed the photo from the virtual tour.
Anyway, earlier this summer at the Gothic Party, Adam Blai and Rosemary Ellen Guiley did a fast sweep through the entire building. One of the things they found? "There are spirits in that mirror." They turned it against the wall, and even suggested destroying it.
And again, another group, the Pennsylvania Ghost Hunters Society, just came through here last month. They said a lot of dramatic stuff about the Canopy Room. (I'll save that story to post at another time.) But one of the consistent things their group believed they saw? "There are spirits in that mirror upstairs."
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Dr. Ipps writes:
seriously
i'm a diehard skeptic, but i'm personally of the belief whatever one could quantify phenomena by, you've seriously got a battery of it in that old hotel, Blair.
i don't necessarily see that as a bad thing, though...
"It was a dark and stormy night..... well... no actually it was quite cold and snowy and I find myself in the Grand Midway once again for a night of debauchery. This night was a bit different though... no party... no concerts.... no mass populous of artistic se-vaunts gracing the halls... sans the Bridge City Bombshells and a few close friends out to do a show at 'that other hotel' up the street. Blair was gracious enough to lend us some rooms for the night and in this he is eternally thanked. My only other option was to stay in one of the cars at the railroad graveyard, and given the 2 feet of snow outside... this option had me lamenting. (any other night.. bring it on!) I brought my friend Melanie with me so that she could see the grandeur that is the Grand Midway Hotel in all it's spookiness and horror. Little did we know that we would find ourselves some real horror inside it's walls. Being that we were special guests this time around we were given the rare opportunity to choose the room in which we stayed, and upon this news I immediately chose the Canopy Room for it's super sexy visage and it's renowned reputation for ghostly activity. Once we'd moved in the 1/2 ton of blankets and sweaters we brought with us, struck by the decor, Melanie decides to take some photographs to send to her sister. With her camera phone she snapped a picture of the Canopy bed to which the room's name was derived and this is where we got our first shock of the night. In the photograph there seemed to be the shaking face of a skull or woman floating over our bed. We did not see this "head" in our room, but the camera does not lie. I, immediately excited at our find, proclaim that this place is not a joke or a hoax and this is one of many experiences that I have had here. Melanie was, I think, taken aback by the vividness of the photo and the clarity of a human form hovering over where we were to be sleeping. The rest of the night was spent enjoying the sultry performances by the girls of the Bridge City Bombshells, but it was said by passers-by and late night hooligans, that later in the evening, through the halls of the Grand Midway there were heard more ghastly and ghostly noises emanating from our place of slumber. My only regret was that none of these were caught on film. I highly look forward to my next trip to Windber Pa. and the Grand Midway and as well, the rare opportunity to sleep with the dead. "
-Chad Hammitt
(Melanie Stone took this photo above one night in the Canopy Room)
"When Chad and I got to the hotel for the evening, it was decided that we would be staying in the Canopy Room (per his request). He gave me a quick tour of the place, then we went to our room to unpack and get settled in a bit.... The whole while, I was texting my younger sister details about the hotel (she is an artist and all-things-spooky enthusiast). She told me to "take lots of pictures!" So using my cell phone, I snapped this picture of the bed in our room.
It was the very first picture I took at the hotel, and... "uh, Chad... do you see a face in this photo?" haha...
I sent the picture to my sister and she told me that I would be crazy to sleep in that room that night... :) " -Melanie Stone