The Tutwiler

I took a little road trip today and traveled to the famous Tutwiler Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama.  This hotel is famous for it's friendly ghost,  Colonel Tutwiler.  He supposedly likes to turn lights on and off in the kitchen and make a rather large mess from time to time. I have asked as many staff as I have been able to find about this playful spirit and two staff members looked at me like I was insane and another told me the story like he was reading it from a historic brochure.  

I travelled here late at night and found the streets of Birmingham to be virtually deserted.  This city seems to lack the kind of night life, restraunts, or bars that would bring people to wander through it's labrynthian streets.   The tall buildings overshadow empty roads and many buildings seem to be unused.   At night, the city itself seems to be a ghost town.   I am told that with morning, the streets will come to life, but now it seems to be entirely forgotten and it is a Saturday night.

From this quiet, I entered into the Tutwiler and found myself knocked over by noise and comotion.  The hotel is filled with throngs of guests for parties and weddings.  In this frolicing atmosphere, it is hard to imagine that this hotel is the one that is haunted.  The hotel itself is stunning.  It's fascade is intricate and covered in the kind of elaborate molding modern builders seem to have forgotten how to make.   The details within the hotel also adds to the atmosphere.   Despite all this beauty and history,  I have found it impossible to feel any haunting when the hotel is bursting with such life and vigor.

However,  as I have sat staring blankly at the odd building outside my window, I can't help but feel chills creep up and down my spine.  One window even seems to have something in it that looks like a face staring out at me.   The building appears to be an old library and has the quote "Books are the legacy that a great genius leaves to mankind,"  engraved on the stone in very large letters.  I will have to look into the building in the morning.   The pictures above are the pictures of the Tutwiler.  The pictures below are of the library across the street.