Virginia Beach's Cavalier Hotel to host paranormal investigator conference

Author: Rita Frankenberry, The Virginian-Pilot

Demonologists, renowned paranormal researchers and expert exorcists are just some of those who will be in Virginia Beach during the Eastern Paranormal Investigators Co-Op Conference this weekend.

Famous haunting survivors who inspired the movies “The Sixth Sense” and “Haunting in Connecticut” will also be at the three-day conference that starts Friday.

But perhaps the biggest draw of the event may be the Grande Dame of the Shore herself – the Cavalier Hotel which is hosting the conference.

The hotel, which dates back to the 1920s, has seen a number of famous guests, including seven former U.S. presidents and celebrities such as writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and actresses Judy Garland and Bette Davis. During World War II, the building was used as a naval training center.

Throughout its 83-year history, many famous and not-so-famous guests have come and gone. And, apparently, some have stayed.

“We selected it because of its historical value,” said Teddy Skyler, a Virginia Beach resident and producer for the conference. “But it also has been written up in books as having a haunted history. The ambience is definitely there.”

Although the hotel doesn’t promote its haunted history, ghost stories abound on the Internet, and one Web site in particular – www.scaryforkids.com/haunted-hotels/ – has included it in a list of the most haunted hotels in America.

For anyone interested in hearing some of the stories related to the hotel, local author and storyteller Al Chewning will be at the event.

In addition to conducting ghost walks at the Oceanfront, he has written a book, “Haunted Virginia Beach.”

The book chronicles the hotel’s more famous ghost stories. Chewning said he interviewed former hotel employees, and has heard stories from people who have gone on his ghost walks.

Typically, Chewning said, he starts his tours off by holding up a picture of one of the hotel’s most famous ghosts, Adolph Coors, founder of Coors Brewery.

“I held it up this one day, and this woman just gasped,” Chewning said.

Apparently, the woman had been to a wedding at the hotel in the 1970s. The wedding party had taken pictures that day, Chewning said. It wasn’t until the family was looking at them later that they noticed an unfamiliar older gentleman in some of the snapshots.

“When I held up Adolph Coors’ picture, she shrieked,” Chewning said. “It apparently resembled the face that was in those pictures.”

Coors died at the hotel in 1929, during a stay on the sixth floor. He fell from a window, and since then, guests have reported seeing him in several locations throughout the hotel.

Another spirit that turns up frequently at the hotel is that of a cat. Chewning said guests often call the front desk and complain about seeing a cat in the building. It may be related to another death that occurred, he said, when a little girl drowned in the hotel pool.

“She went in and tried to save her cat, and they both drowned,” he said.

Since then, people have reported hearing water splashing in the indoor pool, when it is empty.

Skyler, who also conducts paranormal investigations, has had her own ghostly encounter while attending a party at the hotel.

“It was a little warm, so I went to the pool area to cool off,” she said. “I heard a splash and the pool water rippled, and I was the only person there.”

There are other stories about the hotel – reports of towels that mysteriously change color and a bellman in his uniform who walks down the back stairway at the hotel – and has also been spotted on the sixth floor, warning guests of ghosts ahead.

“As you pass him, he says, ‘Don’t go up there, there’s ghosts up there,’ ” Chewning said.

Chewning’s book reports other stories, including one involving calls originating from rooms that are closed for the winter season. It’s these anecdotes, Skyler said, that drew her to the hotel.

“They don’t embrace their hauntedness,” she said, “but it’s just the perfect venue for this type of thing.”