Landmark Inn: Hotel’s hauntings are the stuff of legend

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MARQUETTE - Waves crash into the Lower Harbor breakwater, the sky is low and dark and a ship disappears on the horizon. Watching from the sixth floor of the Landmark Inn Hotel, a 30-year-old librarian prays for her beloved crewman.

Some guests and employees of the Landmark on Front Street claim to have seen or sensed this librarian, who supposedly lived on the sixth floor of what was then the Hotel Northland in the 1930s. As the legend goes, her lover never returned from the stormy seas of Lake Superior.

"Her heart was broken," said Michelle Cook, director of sales at the inn. "She couldn't work, she couldn't eat. She passed away from a broken heart and she roams the sixth floor, overlooking the lake to look for her love."

The Lilac Room is infamous for evidence of the librarian ghost, Cook said. Allegedly, only women seem to be able to get the door open. Calls from the room have been received at the front desk, even though no one was staying in the room at the time.

The room - which has white wallpaper with a lavender lilac pattern, a small window and bright white furniture - does not seem particularly spooky, yet paranormal investigation teams have reported ghostly activity in the room. A southeastern Michigan group reported activity and the paranormal research team at Northern Michigan University allegedly took pictures of a small white ball of light.

A woman's presence, "Mary Eleanor," was reported looking for her dog and two angry male spirits refused to speak to the investigators. According to information on the Landmark Inn's Web site, both teams agreed that the entire sixth floor is haunted.

In the hotel's Governor's Room, a woman in 19th century clothing appeared to one of the guests, Cook said.

"A couple was sleeping and the woman felt something grab her wrist," Cook said.

The guest was so scared that she closed her eyes again and when she opened them, the ghost sat in one of the room's antique chairs. She woke up her husband, who saw the ghost as well, Cook said.

The Governor's Room has a darker ambiance than the Lilac Room. Heavy, dark wooden chairs, antique dressers and a dark patterned carpet make the room look comfortable - in a mysterious kind of way.

The North Star Lounge, the hotel's sixth floor bar, has windows facing Lake Superior and Ridge Street. A fireplace and black leather chairs give the room an air of nobility. The lounge, often open until late at night, has been the venue for some unusual happenings that have made the toughest bartenders feel uneasy, Cook said.

"Past employees, they noted particular incidents," she said. One bartender was closing down for the night, and she was doing some paperwork when the wine glasses above the bar started moving and falling down. Other workers have said that it felt as if they were being watched when setting up the room early in the morning or cleaning late at night.

In 2002, one bartender said she talked to a guest who used to visit the lounge when it was a restaurant called the Crow's Nest. Dining at the Crow's Nest, the guest remembered seeing a woman standing at the bar. Her skirt was being pulled out as if someone was checking out the fabric, yet no one was near her. Her husband looked and the movement happened again.

The skirt, coincidentally, had a lilac pattern. When the bartender told the guest about the spooky Lilac Room, the guest got so upset, she left the hotel.

Across from the lounge is the Sky Room, also with big windows facing Lake Superior and the south side of town. Special occasions such as tea parties and wine tastings have been held in this room.

Servers have reported their carts being moved and lights being dimmed after they stepped away for a minute early in the morning when setting up the room, Cook said.

In the basement of the hotel is the Harbor Room, with mirrors all over its walls and beams in the center. There are no windows and a winding set of stairs leads to the first floor. Cook said the room used to feature a piano and employees have reported hearing someone playing the piano upon entering the room, yet no one was there when they looked.

"There were times when they were down here and they felt like somebody was watching them," she said.

So many guests wonder about ghosts that the hotel uses the ghost stories as a marketing tool and posted them on its Web site.