When I first started college, I, like many people who came before me, started looking for a college job. I needed something where I was going to have ample time to do my homework and that wouldn’t control my free time outside of work and school. That job search led me right to the Windsor Hotel in good ol’ Americus, Georgia.
This job does, in fact, control all of my free time. Frankly, however, I wouldn’t have it any other way. This hotel is very well known around Georgia for reasons I never looked up before applying. It may make one wonder what secrets this gorgeous 133-year-old hotel could be hiding…It’s hiding ghosts.
There are three known ghosts in the hotel. Knowing this, I poured every fiber of my being into knowing everything that I possibly could about this hotel and those who remain there.
I started my job as a haunted history tour guide in Feb. of 2024 after four months of studying and training. I had to learn the art of storytelling; you can’t just look at someone and blandly tell them what happened here because they won’t believe it. I went from being a nervous, stuttering mess of a guide who carried around her notes to a confident guide who is funny and witty, someone who is capable of keeping the attention of 20 or more people at a time.
Some of the key things that I tell people before I start my tours and that I’ll refer back to while walking around include, “If something seems suspicious, or you see something move, your brain is going to reject whatever it is that you just saw,” and the one that puts people on edge, “If it feels like you’re being watched, it’s because you are.” This is something that took me months to realize when walking around doing my job. It wasn’t until a door shut in my face that I realized that this building is, in fact, actually haunted.
This job has definitely shaped my perspective on how the paranormal behave. I see a lot of times on my tours that people believe that all ghosts are evil, malicious, or just unhappy. I take great pleasure in informing people that these ghosts are none of those things.
My ghosts are relatively happy and not the slightest bit malicious! I do not even see them as ghosts. I see them for the people they were when they were alive. For example, one of the ghosts here is named Floyd. I see Floyd not as a creepy man wandering the halls, but as our former bellhop and elevator operator who loved his job and the place he worked so much, he stuck around after death.
I see the housekeeper Emily and her daughter Emmy Mae who lived, worked, and played in this building and who met a horrific end in life,
yet still choose to be happy in this building throughout their afterlife. There is a special kind of empathy you find yourself having, and a respect that grows for the beings who hide within the veil between the living world and the afterlife.
These ghosts have helped shape me into who I am today and have taught me a new form of empathy: a love for the paranormal and the unknown. They have also given me a love for historic old buildings and turned me into a master of public speaking, someone who can keep control of a room.
To receive information about the ghost tours, please call the Windsor Hotel in Americus, GA. (229) 924-1555 ext. 1.