THE READ HOUSE Hotel — Chattanooga, Tennessee Status: Operating · Access: Open to public · est. 1927 Dossier: https://haunthunt.com/place/the-read-house-chattanooga-tennessee/ Hotel in Chattanooga; research record. A hotel in Chattanooga, Tennessee, built in 1927, The Read House is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Hotel in Chattanooga; research record. The name the accounts keep returning to is Annalisa Netherly. The dossier holds 3 reported claims, 2 legends and 2 documented facts, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. It still takes guests. Room 311 at the Read House in Chattanooga is kept locked with a physical key, period furniture, a clawfoot tub, a pull-chain toilet, and no television — restored to the condition the hotel says it was in when Annalisa Netherly stayed there. Annalisa, as the legend is told, was a guest from San Francisco who was beheaded in the bathtub by a jealous husband in 1927, or possibly 1929, or possibly never — the archive notes that no one has produced a police report, a death certificate, or a newspaper item for the murder. What is documented is that the hotel tells the story anyway, and has built something rare in American hospitality: a crime scene you can book. THE DOCUMENTED RECORD A hotel has stood on the site since before the Civil War — the Crutchfield House, left in rubble by the war, was where Dr. John T. Read and his wife Caroline built their hotel, opened New Year's Day 1872 with rooms from a dollar a day, a restaurant, café, grill, Turkish bath, and an in-house railroad ticket office. Their son Samuel took over in 1879 at nineteen and eventually replaced the old pile: in 1925 most of it was demolished for the present ten-story building. The guest register is unusually quotable. Winston Churchill stayed, as did Gary Cooper and, later, Oprah Winfrey. Al Capone passed a stretch in the hotel in the early 1930s while in town for a federal matter, and custom iron bars were fitted to the window of the room he occupied — the iron survived into the modern building as a talking point, the only amenity in the archive credited to a federal prosecution — room 311, which is either a coincidence the archive declines to explain or the room's second famous tenant. THE LEGEND LAYER As the accepted version goes — hotel management's own phrase for it — Annalisa was, shall we say, getting around; her husband took exception and ended the relationship in the bathtub, taking her head with the gesture. Variants put the year at 1927 or 1929 and trade the husband for a jealous lover. The hotel tells the story with a straight face and a wink at once; general manager Ken Merkel delivers the line that the husband ended her life in the bathtub, then declines the details, on grounds of taste. Local researchers have noted that the city's ninety-year-old records appear never to have yielded the crime, which is the sort of detail that would end most legends and has not ended this one. WHAT GUESTS FILE The claims for 311 are the standard suite, filed consistently for decades: unexplained noises, flickering lights, running water, and shadowy figures, plus the harder-to-catalogue sense of not being alone in the bathroom. Guests report feeling Annalisa's presence; some claim to have seen her. The hotel's 2018 renovation under Avocet Hospitality — roughly twenty-five to twenty-eight million dollars, depending on the count — deliberately restored 311 to its 1920s state rather than updating it, and the room now books as the Room 311 Experience, seasonally, at a premium. The dead, it turns out, can be excellent for occupancy. At least one guest interviewed by the local paper reported arriving as a disbeliever and leaving as a paying convert — the hotels preferred ratio. FILED CLAIMS — 3 on record, reported not verified · [Documented legend] haunting: Tennessee Tourism recounts apparitions at the Read House associated with Annalisa Netherly — the woman said to have been murdered in Room 311 by a jealous lover in the hotel's early decades. The room is kept intentionally 'authentic' — old-fashioned, no TV — and remains Chattanooga's most requested haunted room. source: Fright: Tennessee’s Creepiest Haunted Locations (https://www.tnvacation.com/trip-inspiration/articles/fright-tennessees-creepiest-haunted-locations) · [Disputed] named ghost legend: Room 311 lore describes Annalisa Netherly, allegedly murdered by a lover in 1927 — the Read House's named ghost, said to react badly to male visitors, smoking and strong perfume. The hotel keeps her room deliberately dated, and it's booked solid every October on her reputation. The room stays dated on purpose. source: Read House Hotel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_House_Hotel) · [Documented legend] named ghost legend: Room 311's murdered woman is the Read House's named ghost — the guest reportedly killed there in the hotel's early decades. Staff lore says she dislikes men, cigarettes and perfume; the hotel preserves the room in period style, which keeps both the legend and the bookings alive. October books her solid. source: Read House Hotel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_House_Hotel) HISTORY — 2 documented facts · [1927] A hotel named Read House has operated on the site since 1872; the current building opened in 1927. The Read House's history is documented rather than told — this entry is part of that spine. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The detail is preserved in 'Read House Hotel'. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry. · [1927] Opened 1927 on the Crutchfield House site. A hotel with this much documented history gives the dossier real substance underneath the lore. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The record appears in 'Read House Hotel'. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context. SOURCES — 3 cited · Fright: Tennessee’s Creepiest Haunted Locations — Tennessee Department of Tourist Development https://www.tnvacation.com/trip-inspiration/articles/fright-tennessees-creepiest-haunted-locations · Read House Hotel — Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_House_Hotel · The Read House — official site — The Read House https://www.thereadhousehotel.com — HauntHunt is a research archive. Claims are filed as reported — documented where sources exist, marked as folklore or unverified where they do not. Methodology: https://haunthunt.com/methodology/ · Corrections: https://haunthunt.com/report/