The Mark Antony Hotel — Ashland, Oregon's ghostly grande dame

The Mark Antony Hotel in Ashland, Oregon, originally opened in 1925 as one of the finest hotels in southern Oregon, catering to travelers and visitors to the nearby Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The building, which has undergone several renovations and changes of ownership, has been the subject of ghost stories for decades. Employees and guests have reported seeing the apparition of a well-dressed man in a suit and hat from the 1920s or 1930s in the lobby and on the upper floors, believed by some to be the ghost of a former owner or a prominent guest from the hotel's early days. Other phenomena include doors opening and closing on their own, the sound of a jazz band playing in the ballroom when it is empty, and lights flickering in a pattern that seems deliberate rather than electrical. Guests on the upper floors have described hearing footsteps in the corridor at night, and some have reported their room keys being found moved from where they left them. The hotel's location in Ashland — a town with a rich cultural history centered on theater and the arts — gives its ghost stories a particular flavor, as if the spirits are drawn to the performance and creativity that define the community.