Check out our Room 311 Ghost Tour to get Halloween Boos on!
For Halloween this year I wanted to do something a little different and share our trip we took a few months ago that had a creepy little twist and a great ghost story with LIVE pictures! This year for our anniversary we decided to take a quick road trip to Chattanooga, and we stayed in the historic Read House. This is where our Room 311 Ghost Tour all began.
The Read House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the longest continuously operating hotel in the southeast. This hotel has seen The Civil War, the Great Depression, epidemics and floods while remaining a beautiful part of downtown Chattanooga today. Originally built in 1847 as The Crutchfeild House, it was a vital part of the civil war and glimpses of these soldiers are said to still be seen in the silver ballroom, which was once part of the hospital. 
However, the most haunted room of all is the infamous Room 311. Believed to be haunted by the ghost of Annalisa Netherly, a guest who was allegedly beheaded in the bathtub by a jealous lover in 1927. Over the years, many guests have reported paranormal activity in the room, including unexplained noises, flickering lights, running water, and shadowy figures. You can even stay in this room around Halloween if you dare! However we were told no one has ever made it through the night, they always change rooms.
You may notice a manual lock on the door which requires the use of a physical key, just like hotel guests would have used in 1927, is still used. Our tour guide told our little group of 4, it was to keep Annalisa safely inside the room. While Room 311 was restored to its original 1920s state during the hotel’s latest renovation, many of the original elements from Annalisa Netherly’s time remain, including an AM radio that does not work, the vintage clawfoot tub, an original pull chain toilet, antique furnishings, and distressed hardwood floors, just like it would have been in the early twentieth century and no television.
You can see the radio directly behind the wife, of the other couple on the tour with us. This picture is also significant since she is also wearing a green dress. I will add that I was wearing a royal blue dress, because in later photos and video you will see a blonde woman in a black dress, which was not on the tour with us in the mirror. I believe this is Annalisa! It has been said that guests that have stayed in Room 311 have felt Annalisa’s presence, and some say they have even seen her, like I actually did!
The room is beautiful for the time period, and completely on point with the time with vintage furniture, carnival glass, antique rotary phones and crystal doorknobs, every detail evokes a sense of having stepped through the looking glass and going back in time. When you walk in you will notice that it is 10-15 degrees cooler than the rest of the hotel. Now it might just be for an overall effect to add to the creepiness. It could be that a ghost is living in this space, I really cannot say. I just know that the room was very cold for a late July day.
In the more simply decorated bedroom, I have to say I personally love the eye-catching artwork above the bed. It was a floating piece that moved from the breeze of the ceiling fan, which gave it a very ethereal ghostly feel. It was a picture of a black dress, with white linen hanging over the top in an outline, it was haunting in its own way and perfect for the room. The very black dress you are going to see again on the Annalisa, which is why the artist that made this piece for the room is brilliant.
The bathroom is where the murder is said to have taken place. While there are several versions of the story, the one the hotel has accepted, is Annalisa was, “getting around” or cheating on her husband. Her husband took exception to her behavior and ended her life in the bathtub.” Now there are variations of: he slit her throat, beheaded her, etc… However here is the bathtub, so you be judge.
While I was in this room taking a few pictures after the other couple and my husband had left. I noticed a shadowy figure out of the corner of eye, across the room. I should say this is usually how most of my ghost stories start, it’s always out of the corner of my eye, never directly, always in my peripheral vision. So, I quickly took a photo, which I have done several times in the past and have caught several ghosts or spirits before. 
As I exited the bathroom, I asked the tour guide if any one had ever seen a woman in black in the mirror before and he turned as white as a sheet. Apparently, a college of his had seen such a woman and he had a photo of her on his phone, but he had never actually been in the room with Annalisa before. At this point I could see his discomfort as he started to move us out of the room quickly. 
We had dinner reservations, so I did not really think too much about it and he hustled us out of the room. I mentioned that I have regularly seen ghosts on ghost tours, and apologized if it made the other couple or him uncomfortable. It was just something that happens pretty regularly, and I am kind of used to it, but I do realize that it can catch others off guard. 
As we headed off to dinner to celebrate our 26th Anniversary, I pulled out my phone to look at my photos a little bit closer when I realized that I indeed, had captured Annalisa Netherly while snapping those pictures. However, to my surprise I noticed a really cool thing, the photo was a LIVE, this translucent figure moves! So check out this short clip video here: Video of the Room 311 Ghost JENRON DESIGNS which I happily offered to share with to nice people at the front desk of The Read House for their collection, after dinner and my creme brulee’ of course.
Did you Know Al Capone also Stayed in The 311 Room?
Another fun tidbit about Room 311 is the fact that this room also housed Al Capone, while traveling through the city on his way to Chicago from Atlanta for his federal tax evasion trial. 
They had to secure the windows in the room with rebar to stop him from escaping, a feature The Read House reinstalled during the renovation to give guests an authentic feel of the space during that time. As legend has it, Annalisa didn’t like Capone’s cigar smoke one bit and she hates all men that smoke in her room or the smell of smoke.
