{"id":1611,"slug":"american-hotel-staunton-virginia","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The American Hotel is the hospital — the 1855 railroad hotel that became a Confederate hospital in 1862, the luxury lodging where the wounded filled the rooms and the basement was the morgue. Hunter's Union troops threw the Confederate sick out in 1864; the owner's friendship with a Union colonel saved the building from the burning.","The hotel was the war — the Virginia Central Railroad's finest hotel, the 250 beds that took the Antietam and Gettysburg wounded, the amputations in the rooms and the bodies in the basement. The building survived the burning and the 1972 collapse; the ghosts are the soldiers.","The building is still there — the Wharf-area landmark, the banquet hall, the basement that was the morgue. The file keeps the hotel: the 1855 railroad palace, the Civil War hospital, and the soldiers who are still in the basement.","The American Hotel is the archive's hospital file — the 1855 hotel that was a Confederate hospital, the morgue in the basement, and the building that survived the burning."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The American Hotel is the archive's hospital file — the railroad hotel turned hospital, the basement morgue, and the soldiers who are the ghosts.","A hotel that was a hospital keeps its basement — the file's suggestion being that the American's hold is the morgue: the 250 beds, the amputations, and the soldiers who are still in the cellar."]}],"name":"American Hotel","aliases":[],"type":"HISTORIC_HOTEL","type_label":"Historic Hotel","cats":["HAUNTING"],"groups":["hauntings","lodging"],"desc":"Staunton landmark with a published haunting reputation.","full_desc":"A historic hotel in Staunton, Virginia, built in 1855, American Hotel is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Staunton landmark with a published haunting reputation. The archive files it under haunting reports. The dossier holds 1 reported claim, 1 legend and 1 documented fact, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. Visitor status is unverified; confirm before making the trip.","address":null,"city":"Staunton","county":null,"state":"Virginia","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":38.157978,"lon":-79.061876,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"UNKNOWN","access":"UNKNOWN","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":1855,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"Discovery or enrichment; earliest report and independent corroboration remain under research. Confidence measures source provenance, not supernatural reality.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":53.1,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.6,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":826,"type":"UNSPECIFIED_HAUNTING","description":"Tourism recounts basement voices, shadows and footsteps. The reports at American Hotel are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. The account appears in 'Staunton Haunted Locations'. The reports keep the place on every haunted list it qualifies for.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.75,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Staunton Haunted Locations","url":"https://visitstaunton.com/things-to-do/haunted-staunton/","publisher":"Visit Staunton","type":"TOURISM","authority":3},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"Built1855; later used as a Civil War hospital. American Hotel's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath whatever lore attaches. The press recorded it; the detail stands as reported history. Sources including 'Staunton Haunted Locations' carry the record. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.","evidence":"MEDIA_REPORTED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Staunton Haunted Locations","url":"https://visitstaunton.com/things-to-do/haunted-staunton/","publisher":"Visit Staunton","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Tourism recounts basement voices, shadows and footsteps. American Hotel in Staunton, Virginia carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. It's a documented legend: the telling is real, the contents remain folklore. The legend does what legends do — it explains the place in a way the records can't.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Staunton Haunted Locations","url":"https://visitstaunton.com/things-to-do/haunted-staunton/","publisher":"Visit Staunton","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access details are unverified; research before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Staunton Haunted Locations","url":"https://visitstaunton.com/things-to-do/haunted-staunton/","publisher":"Visit Staunton","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"American Hotel (Staunton, Virginia)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Hotel_(Staunton%2C_Virginia)","desc":null,"extract":"The American Hotel was a historic hotel located at 125 South Augusta Street in Staunton, Virginia. It was built in the downtown wharf district, directly across from the railroad station. It has since been repainted and houses several different businesses. Earlier in its existence, the hotel had a set of two pillars in the front of the building.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/The_American_Hotel.gif/330px-The_American_Hotel.gif?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":86,"lat":38.14775,"lon":-79.07211111},"counts":{"claims":1,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":0,"sources":1}}