Elevator Malfunctions

Elevators, the easiest and most efficient mode of transportation throughout large buildings. Billions of people use these things every day, whether in their work buildings or in their own apartments. However, since there are billions upon billions of elevator riders, there would have to be some odd accusations or strange occurrences reported within these contraptions... right?

Among all of the resourcefulness of the things and their cheery, albeit corny, musical insides, a lot of elevators have dark pasts, and numerous strange accusations have been made about many of them. These accusations normally have some great eyewitness evidence backing them up, and in most cases a supernatural entity haunting the place wouldn't be a surprise, as elevators can become much more dangerous than they seem. It's quite easy to get stuck in and eventually decapitated by the mechanical doors, right in front of your family, and even easier to fall down an empty elevator shaft, depending on your obliviousness. You could be in the wrong place at the wrong time and plummet hundreds of feet to your demise, trapped within the deadly room-like structure, or simply be trapped inside of one, slowly being melted by scorching hot flames, which was exactly the case for many unlucky folks during numerous hotel and apartment fires. All in all, despite elevators' helpfulness and usage in billions of people's daily lives, terrible things happen in them nearly every couple months.

As I stated before, many elevators do indeed have dark pasts, and some strange occurrences have happened inside of them because of this. Some occurrences are just plain strange, and others downright disturbing. Here are a list of three accounts of strange occurrences taking place within elevators, all recorded by guests and employees that rode the structures...

The Winecoff Hotel
The Winecoff Hotel, now known as the Ellis Hotel, has had an incredibly dark past. The hotel was built in the year 1913, and is now known as the "Titanic of Hotels". You see, when the hotel was built, it was claimed to be unable to be lit aflame, and some unlucky folks believed the accusation, leading to many people becoming overly confident about the safety of their hotel. However, just like the titanic, eventually, their promises were broken. On December 6th, 1946, the building was lit on fire by a cigarette that was thrown on to a mattress by a guest. Soon after, the mattress was set aflame, shortly followed by the entire hotel. Following this, the Hotel became a real life towering inferno, and led to over 119 casualties. Normally, fires wouldn't be as deadly as this one, but there was a huge problem with the layout of the hotel. The hotel, as said before, was said to be unable to be lit aflame, thus, the building was not equipped with sprinklers, fire alarms, or anything to alert anyone of a fire, which eventually led to the building's downfall. The hotel's main exit route just in case of a situation like this, was a main stairwell that led from the bottom floor to the top, and vice-versa. However, during the fire, amid all of the blistering flames and chaos, the stairway became shrouded in dense smoke, making it impossible to navigate through and also overall making it incredibly deadly to walk in. Seeing no alternative escape, many people jumped out of their rooms into the streets below, leading to about three fourths of the casualties. That day was a historic day that revolutionized the way hotels and other large complexes are built today.

In present day, the Hotel has been rebuilt and renamed to the "Ellis Hotel", and luckily no fires have occurred since that fateful day in the 1940s. However, there are numerous strange things that have been said to be taking place inside of the hotel even today, mostly including the elevators.

Whilst inside of the elevators, guests have reported smelling the noxious stench of smoke pervading throughout the air, even though there are no fires going on inside or outside. Sometimes, actual smoke will randomly come up in the elevators for no reason, and there still is no rational explanation for such occurrences to this day. Another thing that is claimed to occur every once in a while, is the mysterious suited man. The suited man will enter elevators randomly throughout the day, each time entering with a passenger nonchalantly like he is just an average every day man. The man is said to always be wearing a slightly damaged suit and a grey fedora, and is always described as having a completely charred face. After the man leaves the elevator, the guests who have come in contact with him normally report feeling incredibly nauseous and light headed. Many investigations have gone on within the hotel to find this suited man, but no results have ever showed up, and his identity is yet to be found. Even still, neither of these strange happenings match up to one of the single most strange and mysterious things to ever occur inside of a hotel.

While riding inside of the elevator to their rooms, many people have recorded the elevator just stopping midway through floors and right below their destination. The doors would then open up, and to the surprise of many, there would be a whole new part of the hotel. All that is known about this area is that it shouldn't be there, and that it is empty. There is seemingly nothing in there other than destroyed furniture and the ruins of what once was an elegant area of the hotel. Guests are alerted not to enter this hidden area should they come across it, and the reason for that is also speculated to be the reason why the area has not been explored, and why many people have gone missing. Cameras show that all people that go into the area never seem to come out, and many other strange things happen with the camera once someone ventures in. When the doors open to the strange area midway through floors, the camera just picks up blackness in the open doors, and then simply the foolish guest walking into said blackness. Immediately after they walk in, the doors slam shut and the elevator continues moving up, leaving the passenger into the blackness.

No matter what happens to you, if you come across this area it is said to be one of the most petrifying moments of your life, and that means both if you venture into the mysterious area, or if you stay in the elevator. If you don't walk in, you're stuck inside the elevator for a good minute, staring into the desolate, forbidden area of the hotel that should not exist. Even worse is if you get out of the elevator, as you must watch your fate get sealed when you watch the doors slam shut behind you and see the elevator go up more floors, leaving you there with the ruins of the old Winecoff Hotel. As I said before, nobody knows what happens in that room, as it is so rare to come across it, and it is nearly impossible to be found purposely. The elevator shafts have been inspected multiple times in an attempt to find the room, and nothing has shown up, save for the strange smell of smoke...

As you can see, the elevators in the Ellis Hotel are incredibly strange and dangerous, which lead to many warnings being posted up on the walls, and limits on who can ride the elevators. These incidents are commonly thought as some of the strangest things ever to occur inside an elevator, and very few incidents match up to the sheer amount of terror evoked from these occurrences. The reason why it is said that the fallen victims of the hotel fire haunt specifically the elevator, is because it was something that the hotel manufacturers didn't add onto the building, even though if they had prior to the fire, they could've saved many of the lives lost.

The Avalon Theater
The Avalon Theater is a historic building located in Easton Maryland. The Avalon Theater was built back in 1921 and like most other older buildings, is the home to at least one resident specter. The supernatural entity that supposedly haunts the Avalon Theater is strange in the way it works, and doesn't spread too much ground in the building. The ghost is of a vaudeville actress that was found dead inside one of the elevators in the theater. Nobody for sure knows what happened, but forensic evidence led many to believe that the cause of death was foul play. To this day, the killer, if there truly is one, has never been caught, and there still have yet to be any leads to the unknown murderer's identity or whereabouts.

The theater today is a hot spot for tourists, as there are numerous strange occurrences reported to have happened in the building, specifically in the elevators. Since the actress was murdered inside of one of the hotel's elevators, of course, said elevators are a hot spot for supernatural activity. There have been many reports of strange events inside of the elevators, and many of them have made a multitude of employees quit their jobs in fear.

At night, it is said that the actress' spirit will simply stand in the elevator, not really doing anything but cycling between the floors and staring at employees and guests in the hotel. The most commonly reported occurrence by new employees are the strange things that happen to the elevators whilst nobody is inside. The elevator will do many strange things, such as cycling between floors at random, going at speeds faster than it should, and many other strange things. Employees all say that the most shocking things to go on in the elevator happen at the recurring time of 9:17 PM sharp. The elevator lights will begin flickering, and for whatever reason, strange, eerie music will begin emitting from the contraptions. The music is reported to sound vaguely like it was from the early 20th century, and the cause for the music being played has never been found.

Something that many people familiar with the theater don't know, is that at one point the inside of the elevators had two mirrors on the sides. However, the mirrors were quickly removed after a few shocking incidences that both were hazardous, and also in some cases just horrifying. One strange happening with the mirrors was something that was reported to have occurred one out of every five times that the elevator was used. Whilst a passenger was inside, occasionally the mirrors would shatter, which led to a hazardous work environment for employees, and a lawsuit waiting to happen. If this wasn't enough to get the mirrors removed, an abundance of employees quit their jobs after a horrifying elevator occurrence similarly reported by all of them. They all reported that whilst riding the elevator and looking in the mirror, they would sometimes see a woman with a translucent body beside them in their reflection, but upon looking to their sides, they would be the only ones inside. Just like the last few incidences, the reason for these strange happenings never has been discovered, and it most likely never will.

The Dragil Steed Hotel
The Dragil Steed hotel, despite its misleading marvelous exterior and interior adorn with many whimsical and ornate paintings and structures, has an incredibly dark past that is seldom mentioned to the guests or tourists. The Dragil Steed is located in Orlando, Florida, and before the year 1986, the hotel was revered as one of the safest and most pristine hotels in all of the United States. The hotel had an immaculate view of the city below, many recreation centers for guests to unwind and relax, top notch rooms with large TVs for the time and beds that were nearly too comfortable to be true, and most importantly, it had one of the largest and most refreshing hotel pools in the country. The Dragil Steed was a great spot for tourists to spend the night in and truly just relax in an affordable, high class hotel. However, like I said, that all changed in 1986.

In the year 1986, 17 deaths were recorded in the pool. Soon, an area that was treasured as one of the best hotel additions in the country, was turned into a crime scene for the deaths of 17 children. Now, these deaths weren't your average careless pool mishap or horseplay gone wrong, no, these were all... more peculiar to say the least.

All of the deaths shared the same few similarities, and all of them still perplex researchers to this day. All of the deaths occurred at 3:00 AM sharp, where the kids would sneak out of their rooms and somehow find a way into the pool area. All of the deaths were also recorded as suicide, and all of them in the same manner. The video footage, now held confidential to the public, showed all of the seventeen kids in a somewhat zombie like state, and all with their eyes glazed over. They'd all make their way to the deep end, where they would collapse into the pool, sink to the bottom, and sit there until the inevitable happened and they drowned. No struggle for oxygen, hell, not even so much as a look of distress as they plunged in. Of course, after the first few deaths, guards were sent out to protect the pool from guests at night, but that led to many children jumping out of their windows from the rooms surrounding the pool, which led to even more deaths. In 1987, the hotel wised up and got rid of the pool, thus halting the mysterious suicides.

No strange deaths occurred from the years 1987 to 1990, so eventually the pool was brought back, and luckily no other strange drowning incidents have occurred. The owner of the hotel retired in the year 1993 and was replaced by a new owner named Jon Gambil who attempted to completely cover up the hotel's bad history. In fact, he did a surprisingly good job, as a lot of the mystery still remains under wraps to the public. Gambil renamed the hotel to the Roundly Hotel in the year 1995, and for a while there were no deaths not caused from natural causes in the hotel. However, the hotel's state of bliss ended in the year 1999, where a tragic elevator incident led to another mysterious sequence of events that still continue to this very day.

The incident involved a young man who decided to go "Elevator Surfing" an extreme and seldom done sport in which the "Surfer" will ride the top of an elevator whilst it is in motion. The thing is, elevators in reality aren't the same as they are depicted in movies, and the real tops of elevators are shrouded in wires and high powered mechanical structures, of which are incredibly easy to get stuck on or to lose balance on. So of course, the poor fool disregarded the facts he was shown about elevators and decided to climb up the top of one for his deadly sport.

As expected, once the foolish man reached the top of the elevator, he got his foot trapped and crushed under a mechanical structure, and his immense pain caused him to fall off the top of the elevator and down into the incredibly large shaft below. After this idiotic death, the hotel has been on a bit of a clean streak, with no deaths in the past 16 years. However, this doesn't mean that things are all well, as many strange things do occur in the hotel; specifically in the elevators.

Over the years, there have been numerous accounts of the elevators sometimes having an overbearing, rancid chlorine odor to them, even in the elevators farthest from the pool. Sometimes, guests will report feeling their shirts being tugged on or childlike laughter coming from behind them, even when they are sure that they are alone in the elevator. Another auditory occurrence, and one of the strangest ones, is something that is an incredible annoyance for both the local authorities and the hotel staff. Occasionally whilst riding within a full elevator, guests and staff members will report hearing quick footsteps atop their heads on the elevator roof, followed by a shrill scream and a thud at the bottom of the shaft. This has resulted in multiple false alarms for the police, as once the bottom of the elevator is checked, there is never a body there. However, these smaller occurrences pale in comparison to one of, if not the single most strangest oddity to ever occur revolving around elevators.

As it is right now, the building only has 23 floors, however, a minuscule amount of guests have recorded being taken up to an ominous 24th floor. Occasionally, normally at around 11:00 at night, guests will be on their way up to their rooms when the elevator won't stop moving up. The elevator somehow reportedly stays in constant movement for about five minutes until a light flashes on saying, "Floor 24" and the doors open. What the 24th floor contains normally varies among witnesses, but for the most part they all carry the same basic structure. All that the floor really contains is one room and a dreary hallway. The floral wallpaper is dirty, stained, and is falling off. The only thing to illuminate the small area is a small lamp that was seemingly delicately placed on the rotting wooden floor. Not many souls were brave enough to enter the area upon seeing this, but there were a few either foolish or brave enough to enter, and they were certainly in for a shock. All of the people brave enough to enter hesitantly walked over to the door and opened it. What was inside nearly made the majority of them faint.

Sitting inside of the room were a group of children in a circle, and all of them were holding an object of some sort. These objects ranged from mere teddy bears to even small pocket knives. Those who entered the room also claimed that no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't leave the room, and in some cases couldn't even move, making them almost literally paralyzed with fear. Some people were able to break out of their paralyzed state and rush back to the elevators, but the others were stuck there for upwards of 10 minutes. However, before anyone became unparalyzed, the children would always drop their objects and stare at the guest in unison. It is said that the children all had bloated stomachs and blue tinted skin. After a moment or so of constant staring, the guests were let out of their trance like state and rushed back to the elevator, after which they were brought down to their original destination.

After numerous reports came in of people sharing similar stories about the hidden area, the police were sent in to investigate, and nothing was found. However, in the year 2013, ten FBI agents boarded the elevator to conduct a secretive investigation. The FBI Agents came out of the elevator into the lobby about an hour after they boarded, except there were only nine agents who got off. Since then, no reports of this strange occurrence happening have came in, and nobody knows what happened during the investigation, or what happened to the missing agent.

Nobody knows exactly what caused the horrifying seemingly supernatural occurrences that happened in these three buildings, or why specifically strange things happen with the elevators. Elevators may not always be as safe as they seem, and sometimes you may see or experience things you never wanted to whilst aboard one. Always be sure to read up on the history of a hotel you're staying at, you never know what grim apparitions of the past may come up and shock you when you least expect it.

~Incorrect3