Hotel Wayne

 Hotel Wayne from Expedia

Charles Forbes built the first public house in Honesdale in 1827 on the corner of Park and Main Streets (1202 N. Main Street is its exact address). The two-story wood frame building, redone in brick in 1895, measured 50 by 100' with a livery stable in the rear and was then known as the Forbes House.

It shortly thereafter became the Wayne County House (or Hotel) and provided accommodations for the superintendents of the D & H Canal company and for travelers who stopped in at the popular stage coach station. It's now called simply the Hotel Wayne, a 20-room hostelry with the restaurant/tavern Bistro 1202 at street level.

The psychic Crystal Boehmer investigated the Hotel Wayne for paranormal activity. And boy, did she ever encounter a houseful of eerie guests!

Taking the grand tour, she first felt the spirit of a race horse in the Philip Hone room, which when the hotel first opened was a passageway to the stables. Boehmer even came up with a name, more or less - she thought the quarter horse answered to either "Sparky" or "Spartacus."

When she passed the office, she sensed a Civil War soldier who paced the Hotel and seems to be a chivalrous guardian for the womenfolk who visit the hotel. Boehmer also heard gunshots from the basement, and when she went downstairs, she could smell gunpowder.

Crystal also found the shadow of Paul, who provides a noticeable presence in the basement and likes to move things around. The hotel says that could be the spirit of their old cook who was named Paul and who spent a lot of his working hours in the cellar.

She had a talk with the spook of a young alcohol and drug abuser named "Cookie" who had OD'ed and died in one of the Wayne's rooms. Beohmer told him he was forgiven and to go to the light, so there may be one less spirit in the hotel to deal with if he took her advice. In Room 208, she discovered Margaret still occupying her old room, along with an elderly schoolteacher who likes to gaze out from the balcony overlooking Main Street.

On the third floor she found a prostitute in red, a much battered lady of the night who died there, possibly at the hands of a client. She kept referring to "the Captain," perhaps recalling her seafaring boyfriend.

There was lots more ethereal flotsam floating around the hotel. She also said that she found:

• A doctor in the bar area,
• An "Adams" and a "Smith" in the building, 
• A few children in the hotel, and
• A mother who sits in Room 210 singing "Rock-a-Bye Baby" to her child and cooking.

And hey, that's nearly not all of the haunted roster. A couple of paranormal teams have probed the building including “Ghost Finders,” who have their findings posted on youtube, and come away with readings, messages, EVPs and visions from the many spirits who are said to inhabit the Hotel Wayne. They added to the ghostly list:

• A tall man with a long beard who strongly resembles Abraham Lincoln (but isn’t),
• A baby crying in Room 208,;
• A man in Room 321 who told one of the psychics to “lie on the bed” in a chilling voice (maybe one of the lady in red's clientele), and
• Shadowy reenactments of lively parties that used to be held on the third floor in the hotel's main hall.

Hey, hotels are always hotbeds of paranormal activity. They're frequented by a transitory crowd, and those who meet their fate in one often have no where else to go until they cross over. So if you're in the mood for a weekender and don't want to risk feeling lonely on the trip, book a visit to historic Honesdale and get a room at the Hotel Wayne. You'll have lots of company.