May 15, 2020 – St. Petersburg
Case information:
Original Investigation: http://paranormalarchives.homestead.com/Pennsylvaniahoteldowntownstpetersburg2008.html?_=1589685648818
May 15, 2020: The return investigation has been considerably less smoothly run. Initially scheduled for April, the Covid 19 issue closed down St. Petersburg. We rescheduled for May 15. When I arrived to check in to the hotel, after requesting the second floor #208, I was put on the 7th floor. The hotel is working through Covid-19 restrictions and had closed the 2 – 5th floors. They could not change the room. I had to cancel the reservation to reschedule for another time when I could gt the room I had requested twice.
Due to Covid – 19, I also had to keep the group small. We had five spots for this case; one person cancelled the night of the event. It was too late to get a replacement, so three women from Tampa who had signed up joined me. Without the hotel room to use as home base, I was discouraged as to what we might find. However, we were allowed to walk in the hotel. We made small Facebook Live videos on each floor that we stopped on to document sensations. Though this was not a complete case, we will try again when things open up a bit more to get the desired room.
First floor lobby: Female presence, Claire, 1940s. She associated with a male, Alexander, slicked back hair, Cuban, tan. He “loved the real estate” in this area.
Older woman, white hair, looks like Betty White but thinner, wearing clothes from the 1960s.
Ghosts were coming out to see what we were doing. Sensitives felt a call to go to the third floor.
First floor: Cafe. The cafe was still closed and had been remodeled since the last time we were there. The only thing left of the original 1925 building were the support columns. Here, sensitives felt a Daniel or Danny who liked to argue. He liked to give people a hard time and to be a brute. He was a blonde, may have worked at the hotel. He likes to move stuff. There was also a portal on the first floor.
https://www.facebook.com/stpetersburgparanormalinvestigation/videos/886158898876690/
7th floor (original hotel): Not much. https://www.facebook.com/stpetersburgparanormalinvestigation/videos/2318933921743794/
6th floor: The storage area — felt like there was an assault there. There was a pulsating energy there. Sensation of a manager, cruel, sexual, 1930s. Taking money or prostituting women. One sensitive heard ‘no, no, no, no” and there was a sensation of fear. https://www.facebook.com/stpetersburgparanormalinvestigation/videos/617196412206657/
5th floor Everyone had a moment of dizziness as soon as we stepped out of the elevator. https://www.facebook.com/stpetersburgparanormalinvestigation/videos/1828931543916807/
4th floor: Felt fine. https://www.facebook.com/stpetersburgparanormalinvestigation/videos/540603876625074/
3rd floor: Rooms 311, 312, 313: Terrible energy, dizziness. Feeling unwell. https://www.facebook.com/stpetersburgparanormalinvestigation/videos/847192132457464/
2nd floor: For the first time, we had EMF. The EMF meter had not registered at all the entire investigation until the end and it stopped on 3.0 EMF from the second floor back to the lobby when we shut it down again. One sensitive thought she saw movement (a low shadow) down the hall from us. The second floor has no guests and is closed down along with the 3rd and 4th floors. https://www.facebook.com/stpetersburgparanormalinvestigation/videos/263499188358865/
After thoughts: The energy that we had recorded on the original investigation indicated that the 2nd, 4th, and 6th floors had the most reported activity. This time through, we had energy on the 1st, 3rd and 5th. Is it possible that there are levels of energy that have shifted over the years?
History of the hotel is that it was built and opened in 1925. It was expanded in 2007 to include th enew section of the hotel. From there, the cafe was remodeled five years ago.
We need to do research on the following: any mob connections to the hotel, former managers, any illegal activity that might have happened there (prostitution?).
Experimental idea: What if we could rent multiple rooms and have several investigations going at once?
Final afterthoughts: https://www.facebook.com/stpetersburgparanormalinvestigation/videos/171203500948297/
Research:
Built in 1925 – Feb. 1926 for $325,000. (Compare to the 2006 addition that the Marriott company added to double the size of the building. This cost $6.6 million). Structure is built with steel and concrete. It is also one of the very few examples of Chicago Style architecture in downtown St. Petersburg. The emphasis on vertical lines is an element equating to the rise to greatness.
Henry Case: Building developer who was from Philadelphia. He also ran the street cars in downtown St. Petersburg.
Initially, wealthy snowbirds stayed here during the summer. The hotel also housed baseball players who came down for spring training. One famous occupant included Babe Ruth.
In 1937, Senator Ninian Ulysses Bond, Jr., bought the hotel. He came to Florida in 1921 as a boy; Ninian Ulysses Bond Senior brought him along with his wife Martha, two brothers, and a cow. Ninian, Sr., had wealth due to a lumber business and was able to buy property in St. Petersburg. The family owned land in what is essentially the Allendale area (9th St. North/34th Ave North). The family home was located on the corner of that intersection (820 34th North) but was torn down in 1992 when Kash N Karry (still present) built and expanded store.
Ninian, Jr. was known as one of the “Bond boys” (he and his brothers were powerful figures in this area). He went to Culver Military Academy and Rollins College. During World War II, he flew in the Army Air Force over India.
In addition to the Pennsylvania Hotel, he owned the Ponce De Leon, Colonial, and Bond hotels. He was president of the Squires Club, St. Petersburg and Pinellas County Crippled Children’s Hospital Society, and the St. Petersburg Hotel Association.
https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1999/03/17/nin-bond-hotelier-sailor-dies-at-79/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12003589/ninian-ulysses-bond