Franklin Hotel
A hotel in Strawberry Point, Iowa, Franklin Hotel is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Hotel associated with documented cultural history. The name the accounts keep returning to is Lily; Leo. The dossier holds 1 reported claim and 1 legend, every one filed as account rather than fact. Visitor status is unverified; confirm before making the trip.
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Is Franklin Hotel haunted?
The record holds 1 claim, 1 legend, 1 named entity — filed as reported, not verified. The heaviest filing is classed local folklore. The archive documents the claim; it takes no position on the ghost.
The record — long form
The Franklin Hotel is Strawberry Point's corner landmark — the two-story brick hotel that went up in 1902 on the site of the old Blake stagecoach inn, built by the Franklin Hotel and Land Company to serve the railroad passengers coming through the junction of Highways 3 and 13. Its curved corner follows the intersection; the limestone-railed porch is still plumb after a hundred and twenty years.
The hotel's ghost is Lily — the 1920s working girl who is said to walk the hall toward the dining room, seen by owner Doug Schmidt himself on a night he was alone in the lobby. The Schmidts have owned it since 1989, restored it room by room, and host the ghost hunters who come with their equipment; Doug stays skeptical, but he tells the story.
The file keeps the Franklin: the 1902 railroad hotel, the curved corner, Lily in the hall, and the Iowa small-town hotel that's still taking guests — living and otherwise.
The Franklin is the archive's Strawberry Point file — the railroad hotel, the ghost named Lily, and the town with the giant strawberry.
Why this file matters
The Franklin is the archive's Strawberry Point file — the 1902 hotel, the Lilly sightings, and the owners who preserve it anyway.
A hotel on the corner keeps its ghost — the file's suggestion being that the Franklin's hold is the hospitality: the building that served travelers for a century and the guest who never left the dining room.
The Franklin Hotel is a historic building located in Strawberry Point, Iowa, United States. The Franklin Hotel and Land Company was established in 1902 for the purpose of building a modern hotel to serve the community. They hired the Independence, Iowa architectural firm of Netcott and Donnan to design the building, which was constructed by E. M. Loop of Hopkinton, Iowa and opened on February 12, 1903. It has operated as a hotel ever since. The two-story brick building combines the Neoclassical and Romanesque Revival styles. It sits on the northeast corner of the intersection of Elkader Street and Mission Street, and its rounded corner follows the curve of the intersection. The commercial sp
Franklin Hotel (Strawberry Point, Iowa)The record of claims
Local stories name spirits Lily and Leo. The figure answers to Lily; Leo in the retellings. The Strawberry Point hotel's reports are the kind old lodgings accumulate — footsteps after hours, presences in rooms, the house working the night shift. Local lore carries the account; no documentation has ever caught up with it. The report is preserved in sources like '12 of Iowa's Most Haunted'. The reports keep the place on every haunted list it qualifies for.
Local stories name spirits Lily and Leo. A hotel in Strawberry Point, Iowa with more than a century of check-ins gives the reports plenty of rooms to work with. It survives as local folklore, which is to say it survives because people keep telling it. '12 of Iowa's Most Haunted' carries the account. Every community keeps one story like this; this is theirs.
Alleged entities
Local stories name spirits Lily and Leo. The presence goes by Lily; Leo. Franklin Hotel, a hotel in Strawberry Point, Iowa, has kept the story in circulation longer than most of its guest registers. The name travels further than the proof; the sightings keep renewing the lease. The claim holds its place in the ledger.
Sources on file
- 0112 of Iowa's Most HauntedTravel Iowa · tourism · A3
Field notes & open questions
Discovery pass. Earliest attestation, primary history, precise location and current access require independent enrichment.