Haunted by a Homeless Man? Hotel Fort Shelby, Detroit

This real Michigan haunted location was built in 1918 as the Hotel Fort Shelby. It started out as a ten-story building but as Detroit kept growing, so did the hotel...21 more stories were added in 1927.

By 1951, the hotel was sold and renamed the Pick Fort Shelby by the new owners. The hotel struggled for the next few years and finally closed in December 1973.

It was sold again and became The Shelby Hotel in February 1974, attempting to attract the younger generation. That turned out to be a bad move. Rock concerts were booked inside the hotel’s Rainbow Room, but with the shows came people in their late teens and 20s who were not interested in paying their bills. Numerous fights occurred in the hotel lobby and the place reeked with marijuana.

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Fed up with the hassles, the owners closed the place down that same year. Over the next decade it sat abandoned, riddled with trespassers and vandals and left to rot. Even so, it became an entry on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

A 90 million dollar renovation took place and the building re-opened in December 2008 as the Doubletree Guest Suites hotel with 203 suites and 56 apartments.

As for the haunting legend, a homeless man by the name of Al used the abandoned building as a place to sleep. As he was sleeping, a pipe burst, pouring sewage all over him. The thick muck was too overpowering for Al and he died on the spot. Before the massive renovation began, Al’s skeleton was discovered, still stuck in the sewage muck. It is Al’s spirit who has been seen taking his walks through the halls and lobby.

On the Michigan Haunted Houses site, one witness wrote, “out of the corner of my eye I saw what looked like a large dark shadow move in my hotel room.....The shadow went in the direction of the bathroom.....When I got in the bathroom I quickly realized that the plug was left in the drain so water was just about to spill out from the tub all over the floor.....I can't help but think the 'known' ghost of this hotel--was trying to warn me that my bathtub was about to overflow.”

Others who had experiences say the ghost is more helpful than harmful or scary.

Maybe a night’s stay is in order, hmm?
The location is 525 W. Lafayette Boulevard in Detroit.