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CVHP went to the Olde Park Hotel to interview the owner about the history of the hotel and about the paranormal activity the hotel sees.
History of the Hotel
The current owner of the hotel is Chad Wandel, who bought the hotel back on Friday, June 13th, earlier this year. Wandel explained that he and his paranormal investigations team have been visiting the hotel since 2018. He said that one of the reasons he bought the building is because of the fear of the building being demolished.
“The reason we bought this place is because our paranormal team had been coming here for so long and this place is so consistently active,” Wandel said. “Once we knew that it was going to be coming up for sale, we were like, we have to have this as our home base to do experiments and things like that. So, we jumped at the opportunity.”
Wandel said the center of the hotel was built sometime in 1886.
“We know 1886 because we actually have a rare picture of the town of Ballinger at that time, and you can see our building and the building next door to us and that’s the only thing here,” Wandel said.
Wandel claimed that the picture showed the two buildings and at that time, it was they were the only things there. He said it was built before the courthouse and the railroad that’s in Ballinger. Wandel said the original building was used as a boarding house for the railroad workers.
In the 1890s, the hotel was also a brothel, explained Wandel. He said it was also once used to be a funeral home, as well.
He then explained how the Seacrest Family bought the building and named it the “Seacrest Boarding House,” and then renamed it the Seacrest Hotel.
Wandel explained that the building has gone through three phases of being built, but even the most recent additions are over 100 years old.
Paranormal Activities
During the interview, CVHP asked Wandel if he knew about the earliest stories about the hotel and its paranormal activity. Wandel said that he and his team found news articles dating back to the 1940s about the hotel and the paranormal things going on inside it.
“There was actually a little news article that said reports came in overnight of an apparition on the front balcony of the Park Hotel,” Wandel said.
He also explained that they found a news article from 1929 that reported that the owner was holding seances in the building during Halloween.
Wandel explained that the night prior to the interview, he had paranormal activity going on in the hotel.
“Just last night, sleeping downstairs, like I always do, you hear boots walking upstairs on the hardwood floors, and it’s clear as day,” Wandel said. “I mean, you can hear the scuff of the heel, and then you can hear the spur rattle.”
He also explained that during the same night, he and his wife heard a woman’s voice talking and sounded like a woman having a pretty heated conversation with another woman. Wandel told CVHP that there are cameras all around the building and still couldn’t see where it was coming from, but it sounded like it was coming from the hallway that was outside of the room that the interview was being held.
Wandel went on to explain how active the building is with paranormal activity and said he wouldn’t be surprised if something crazy happened during the interview.
Wandel also told CVHP that one time in the same room the interview was being held in, he and his paranormal team were conducting an investigation with a spirit box and asked what they looked like to the ghost, and the spirit box said “ghost”. Wandel talked about how the ghost sees us as ghosts as well.
Wandel told CVHP that one of the most active rooms right now is the scare room they have set up. He said they just recently cleaned it out and not many investigations have been held in that room, so he assumes that is why it is so active right now.
He then talked about how he was vacuuming the doll room that they have and how a doll turned on randomly.
“In fact, our doll room, which is just one room over and upstairs, I was vacuuming in there Sunday, and a doll came on and tried to literally crawl off the shelf,” Wandel said. “We haven’t replaced any batteries in any of these dolls, and I didn’t even know this doll was there.”
Wandel then explained that he had caught this on camera.
“So when it went off, you can see me on camera, I’m looking around like, what’s going on?” Wandel said. “Like, what is that noise? I finally realized this is a doll doing this number and like making all these baby noises and I’m just like, ‘Oh no, tag, we’re out.'”
The next thing he talked about was transparency with everyone. He said some of the reasons why they put up a lot of cameras around the building in an effort to be transparent and hold themselves accountable. It wasn’t so much just to show people proof.
He went on to describe a situation where the cameras came in handy. Wandel went on and explained that one time, a group was checking into the hotel and they heard a little girl’s voice in the lobby say ‘hi.’ He explained how the group was doing self-check-ins, so no one else was in the building. He then said he checked his doorbell camera to see if it came from outside and there was nothing there.
For anyone wanting to check out this haunted hotel and experience it themselves, Wandel said that the Olde Park Hotel is open to rent out for anyone to come and conduct their own experiments. He said for skeptics who don’t believe to come on by and find out for themselves. Ghost hunters can book their next investigations oldeparkhotel.com.
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