Sleepover with ghosts: Haunted hotels and rentals across NC

With Halloween just around the corner, many people are searching for haunted houses, corn mazes and spooky activities for October. If you're looking to find ghost stories based on real legends, there are plenty to be found around the state.

If you've ever dreamed of staying the night in a haunted hotel room or Airbnb, there are a few bone-chilling rentals with eerie stories that allow guests to visit overnight.

Part of a human skeleton was found during the remodeling of this century-old hotel, sparking ghostly lore almost immediately.

Construction workers uncovered bones and a skull in the boiler room and abandoned elevator shaft while cleaning out the 11-story hotel in 1988, according to a newspaper clipping from the Charlotte Observer.

"He had found one leg bone, and I saw that one and another. Then I saw the pelvis inside some pants," said George Neal, a laborer for the company, who spoke with the newspaper. The skull was intact.

The building had been vacant for around seven years prior to the remodeling and opening of The Dunhill Hotel. During that time, police said people without homes often slept in the empty building.

"The body could have been buried down there for God knows how long," a police officer told the Charlotte Observer at the time.

For years, the story was mentioned in ghost tours of the city -- a decades long mystery that had turned into a legend.

The man had served in the Army during World War II and fought in several key battles. He had a tough time in later years and often slept in the streets. His neice said her father always worried about his big brother.

The building's legends date back even father, however. It had originally opened in 1929 as Mayfair Manor, is the only historic hotel in Charlotte. It opened just after the great stock market crash. One of the tallest buildings in the city at the time, it was considered a grand and fine addition to the skyline.

According to legend, the hotel's ties with the Depression explain why so many people, desperate and in financial ruin, jumped to their deaths from the 10th floor.

The grand old dame began to deteriorate for many years, giving it a 'spooky' appearance that stirred eerie legends.

Guests at the Dunhill have claimed to hear thumping footsteps in their room when they are alone. Others have claimed to hear laughter and giggling echoing in their bathroom. One woman said she actually saw what looked to be a man 'falling' past her window.

Some refer to a friendly prankster ghost named Dusty who tries to scare guests.

Guests have reported hearing footsteps in the hallway or echoing upstairs, even when no one is home. The hall and basement lights flicker off and on overnight, as if a playful spirit is teasing visitors. People have also claimed to see a shadow figure in the kitchen and glowing orbs in the living room. There's even a creepy music box that plays chilling music all by itself.

The owners say the incidents have never caused any harm or seemed malevolent. Interested parties can reach out for a haunted tour of the home – or stay the night, if they dare.

Chapel Hill was named after an actual chapel that once stood on a hill at the crossing of two main roads, back in the 1700s.

Built in 1924, the inn may have more than one ghost. But the main paranormal activities seem to center around Room 256, where the spirit of long-time resident Dr. William Jacocks supposedly resides.

Guests have reported the room's door locking them inside, followed by the radio turning itself on and playing eerie songs or static with voices. They've also seen wet footprints on the bathroom mat even when no one has used the shower.

Some guests have seen an elderly man dressed in old-timey clothes wandering the hallways at night.

Like the ghost of the Shroud House, the spirit seems playful and friendly, simply wanting to tease and prank guests.

It was originally an office building meant to help accommodate all the successful mills springing up around the Triad area. Their elevator, added in 1920, was the first electric unmanned elevator in Greensboro, according to the hotel's history on their website. In the 1930s, a widow named Ava B. Taylor rented the upper floors and turned them into furnished, private rooms known as the Greenwich Apartments. Some locals believe, however, these 'apartments' were only rented out to beautiful young women – a secret brothel in the heart of downtown Greensboro.

According to legend, multiple ghosts haunt this hotel.

Long before it was a hotel, back when the Cone brothers were still using it as a highly "up-to-date" office building, their accountant Philip was found dead in the alleyway next to building – murdered. Some legends say his throat had been sliced open after he confronted the brothers about financial misdealings. Some guests at the hotel claim to have seen Philip's ghost standing over the foot of their bed at night. Others have heard his anxious footsteps and shuffling papers, as if he's still working, stuck in a ghostly loop in his old room: 332.

Other guests, however, have seen a lady with red hair – perhaps the spirit of poor Lydia, a lady of the night who lived in Ms. Taylor's brothel. She was thrown from her window after a fight with an angry client, and her spirit still lingers in room 223.

The Grove Park Inn was built back in 1913 by a man named Edwin Wiley Grove, who was often afflicted with various ailments and diseases. Grove's passion was pharmaceuticals, and the Grove Park Inn served as a resort where visitors could find health and reprieve. Grove owned a pharmacy in Tennessee and had focused his life's work on formulating a quinine to prevent malaria, which was far more common in those days.

He created a concoction known as Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic, and made his millions. He became known as the "Father of Modern Asheville."

The ghost of the Grove Park Inn, known as the Pink Lady, also seems interested in health and healing. Some children, who are sick while visiting the inn, have claimed the lady sits by their bedside.

Out and About has ghostly experience at Asheville's Grove Park Inn

The Pink Lady has roamed the inn since the 1920s, and her spirit seems particularly active in room 545. For over a hundred years, people have claimed to see her wandering the halls in a pink ballgown, sometimes flickering the lights or rearranging objects in rooms. Not everyone has seen her full-fledged apparition; many claim to have just seen an unearthly pink mist or orb.

There are multiple legends about how the Pink Lady died back in the 1920s. Some say she threw herself from the balcony in grief after a love affair gone wrong. Others say she simply slipped and fell to her death. Regardless, her tragic end does not seem to have made her bitter. She's known as a kindly and playful spirit that has brought much "life" to the Grove Park Inn.