LAWRENCEBURG, Ky. — Between Waverly Hills Sanatorium and Bobby Mackey’s, Kentucky is no stranger to the paranormal and spooky places. In central Kentucky, Anderson County is home to the Anderson Hotel; a place many souls checked in, but some never checked out.

What You Need To Know

  • The Anderson Hotel opened in 1935, but closed in the 1980s 

  • From 1965-1980s, The Anderson Hotel saw 14 people die inside its walls from murder, suicide and drug-use 

  • Jeff Waldridge, paranormal investigator, says the hotel is haunted by many ghosts after 300 hours of investigating 

  • The hotel is opened now until Halloween as a haunted attraction

Halloween is just around the corner and there’ll be many haunted house attractions, but none as unique as the Anderson Hotel in Lawrenceburg. Besides the props and people in costume, the building itself has its own past, with many actual hauntings taking place as well.

Built in 1935, the Anderson Hotel was in operation until the 1980s. It became a place where people could rent rooms for around $30 a day in today’s money.

“That brought in a very seedy clientele; people fresh out of prison, people fresh out of mental hospitals, people down on their luck all kinds of things,” said hotel caretaker and paranormal investigator, Jeff Waldridge.

Waldridge said he got involved with the building and its maintenance a few years ago. If the walls could talk, numerous stories would be of death and despair.

“The deaths are ’65 to about late 80s, about 14 deaths. There’s a whole time period from 1935 to the mid 60s we know nothing about,” Waldridge said.

Waldridge estimates he has spent over 300 hours investigating the building; communicating with the lost souls took their last breath in these rooms, but still call the hotel home.

“In the winter of 1978, a guy hung himself in a (bedroom) closet and he’s pretty active, he likes to move things around,” Waldridge said.

According to Waldridge, one side of the hotel is more haunted than the other so he called it the Bad Side. He said it’s where people experience the most activity.

“People have been bitten in the building. Two of the attacks happened on this side where human bite marks appeared on their skin,” Waldridge said.

Since its closure, most of the hotel has remained largely untouched. Personal items from former tenants still sit where they were left, including a cigarette butt, alcohol bottles and two blood stained mattresses. According to Waldridge, in the 1980s a woman killed herself on one mattress, the other they found stuffed under the back stairwell.

“That one is probably from the 1950s if I had to guess,” Waldridge said.

As Halloween approaches, Waldridge is preparing the other side (less haunted side) of the hotel for a haunted attraction. It’s the first year his version of the haunted house will be open to the public. Previously, another group ran haunted houses out of the hotel, but Waldridge’s stories are true.

“We wanted to be different. Most places have the Freddy and Jasons,” Waldridge said. “This haunted house is actually based on the history; the deaths and the hauntings that happened in the building. We have a manager that you meet which she’s her own character and then you meet the other ones face-to-face.”

It’s a spooktacular experience, where the spooky is sometimes all too real.

“You’re going to be coming inside of an actual haunted building to experience a haunted attraction and sometimes the ghosts like to get involved,” Waldridge said.

Entry is $15, a $30 VIP pass lets you tour the Bad Side and “meet” the actual spirits.

Out of season, the Anderson Hotel is open for private investigations and you can sign up online.

Related Stories