Edwin and Jeanette Barnhill had big dreams when they built the DeLand Hotel in 1924. Sadly, the life they hoped to build together would never come to be. Just four years after they built the hotel, Jeanette Barnhill died. A year later, Edwin was declared insane.
Some say it was Jeanette’s ghost that drove him mad. Even before she died, she had hounded him about his drinking, and she was fanatical about turning lights off to save money. After she died, they continued to disagree. Employees and guests would hear the widowed hotelier arguing with his wife’s spirit about how the hotel should be managed. He would also shout furiously at her, demanding that she stop looking over his shoulder while he was doing the books.
Over time, the hotel slowly spiraled into a deep decline. A prostitute was strangled on the premises. At one point, a troubled guest refused to leave his room. When the police came, he told them that an old woman in 1920s clothing had told him not to leave.
