Omni William Penn Hotel

A luxurious landmark hotel that has welcomed guests since 1916, including presidents, royalty, and celebrities. The elegant property in downtown Pittsburgh is renowned not only for its grandeur but also for its spectral residents.

The Omni William Penn Hotel opened on March 11, 1916, as Pittsburgh's finest accommodation between New York and Chicago. Built by steel magnate Henry Clay Frick for $6 million with 1,000 rooms, it was expanded in 1929 to become the second largest hotel in the world with 1,600 rooms and a stunning Art Deco ballroom designed by Joseph Urban. Lawrence Welk debuted his orchestra here on New Year's Eve 1938, and the hotel's staff innovated his famous bubble machine. JFK stayed here, Bob Hope proposed to his wife in the building in 1934, and Count Basie played the Chatterbox lounge.

But beneath the glamour lies a darker history. In 1922, a traveling salesman checked in for the night and was found dead in his room from suicide. He had been dealing whiskey during Prohibition, receiving multiple death threats, and became so distraught he shot himself on one of the hotel's top floors.

The most disturbing haunting stems from a 1976 tragedy. Dishwashers Samuel Bankhead, 65, and Nelson Cooper, 70, were great friends who worked together at the hotel. One night after work in the locker room on the 18th floor, they got into a playful argument about who could take home the prettiest girl. The spat turned violent when Cooper pulled out a gun and shot Bankhead to death. Since then, guests have complained about two drunk men chatting merrily and loudly in the hallways at night—but when security arrives, the men are nowhere to be found.

The hotel has two unused floors—22 and 23—that many believe are the most haunted areas. Due to six unused lower levels, the 16th and 17th floors are technically the 22nd and 23rd. Visitors who have accessed these forbidden floors describe interiors untouched since the 1970s, with vintage carpeting and furnishings frozen in time. One guest experienced "the coldest chill I've ever felt" on the 16th floor.

Paranormal investigators have captured EVP recordings of a man with a formal, clipped speaking style saying "This is my hotel"—believed to be Henry Clay Frick himself. The ghost of author Ruth Harkness, who died here in 1947 after writing "The Lady and the Panda," is accompanied by reports of ghostly panda bleats echoing through the halls.