Connor Hotel

Jerome, Arizona

Property type: Hotel

Business Website: http://www.connorhotel.com

Investigation Date: 09-2008

Property Description and History:

Built in 1898 by David Connor, the Connor Hotel of Jerome has a colorful past, ranging from the heights of luxury to the depths of squalor and back again.  Originally designed with 20 rooms upstairs, this first-class lodging establishment also offered a barroom, card rooms, and billiard tables on the first floor.  Rooms were rented on the “European plan” for the princely sum of $1.00 per night.  The Connor’s telephone number was 8.  The stone foundations were quarried from the hills around Jerome, and the brick was fired in nearby Cottonwood, in the yard of essrs. Britton and Sharp.

Before the turn of the century, David Connor’s hotel had burned to the ground twice, along with many other fine buildings in Jerome’s crowded downtown. However, as the fortunes of the mines waned, so waned the fortunes of the Connor Hotel.  In 1931, the hotel closed.  David Connor’s son and heir continued to rent out the shops downstairs, but the rooms sat idle upstairs.  Through the ensuing decades, various merchants renting space in the Connor eked a living out of the dwindling residents remaining in Jerome.

When the mines closed in the 1950s, the town came close to becoming a real and true ghost town.  Soon thereafter, the town began to attract some slight notoriety for the dubious distinction of being a ghost town, and the merchants shifted gear to try and make a living from the scant tourist traffic wending its way through the formerly bustling town.

Claims of Activity

Claims include makeup and woman’s perfume being moved around in Rooms 1 and 3, and Room 5 having electrical interference for no reason including the alarm clock going on for no reason, lights turning on and off.

After speaking to the front desk clerk, she also mentioned that the owners had spent a long time renovating this old hotel and that is when the activity picked up (this is a theory among other paranormal investigators).  She also mentioned that she felt a ‘presence” in the basement and adjoining shop.

The Investigation

We stayed and investigated in Rooms 1, 3 and 5 which claimed to be the most haunted in the area.  The team set up cameras and audio equipment in all three rooms, the hallway and the shop area.  We investigated most of the night.

Investigation Findings:

During the investigation the bathroom door of Room 5 was slammed shut and the door knob of the main door was being moved as if someone was trying to come in.  This was witnessed by 2 investigators and caught on audio and video.

Personal experiences include an investigator’s name called by someone down the hall when the cameras were being set up.  This was heard by 2 investigators when no-one else was in that area of the hotel.  A shadow figure was seen in Room 5 and an apparition of a man was seen at the foot of the bed in Room 1.  Once again these are personal experiences, and with no physical evidence we do not present these as confirmation of activity.

Andy Rice, Founder believes that the Connor Hotel in Jerome to have some paranormal activity.  It is still undecided if this is residual, intelligent or both.