Hotel 24 South

Originally the Stonewall Jackson Hotel, built in 1924 in Colonial Revival style. One of Virginia's most prominent historic hotels, recently renovated and rebranded.

The Hotel 24 South, originally known as the Stonewall Jackson Hotel, opened its doors in May 1924 as one of the most elegant hotels in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Designed by the renowned New York architectural firm H.L. Stevens & Company in the Georgian Revival style, the five-story red brick structure cost $440,000 to build and quickly became the crown jewel of downtown Staunton. The hotel would never have existed without Alexander Tobie Moore, described by the Staunton News-Leader as "one of the best-known hotel men of the South." Moore came to Staunton in 1909 and dreamed of building a grand hotel worthy of the Queen City.

The hotel's original features were magnificent: a grand two-story lobby with fine walnut furniture and a balustraded mezzanine, the Fountain Dining Room with crystal chandeliers and a small fountain topped by a statue of a boy with a fish, and the elegant Colonnade Ballroom. Most notably, a custom-built 1924 Wurlitzer organ graced the mezzanine level - believed to be the only one of its kind still in operation today.

Tragedy struck in 1935 when Moore died in an automobile accident, leaving his widow Elizabeth to manage the hotel alone. The property saw both glory and decline over the decades, closing in 1968 before being purchased by the Persinger family and converted to an assisted living facility. A $21.1 million restoration in 2005 returned the hotel to its original grandeur.

Staunton is widely regarded as the most haunted town in Virginia, and the hotel sits at the heart of this paranormal reputation. Ghost tours operated by Black Raven Paranormal regularly begin at the parking garage beside the hotel, and an alleged photograph of "ectoplasm" captured outside the hotel circulated among paranormal enthusiasts for years. Guests have reported hearing phantom big band music echoing from the Colonnade Ballroom when no event is taking place - perhaps residual energy from the hotel's glamorous early decades. A woman in white has been spotted walking the upper floors, and some overnight guests claim to have felt an unseen presence sitting on the edge of their bed during the night.

The limestone bedrock beneath Staunton, combined with underground water sources, has led paranormal investigators to theorize that the geology may absorb and release electromagnetic energies that contribute to the area's extraordinary paranormal activity. Whether Moore himself returns to check on his beloved creation, or whether the spirits are former guests who simply cannot bear to check out, the hotel remains an atmospheric destination in one of America's most haunted towns. The restored Wurlitzer organ still plays, and on quiet evenings, some say they hear music drifting through the halls from an era when the Queen City's grandest hotel was young.