LOCATION
Address: 1016 W. Warner, Guthrie,
Oklahoma 73044.
405-282-0012 * Web-Site: StoneLionInn.com
DESCRIPTION / HISTORY:
This 1907 mansion has 3 stories and
a basement. It is described as being a Greek Revival Victorian "stately
mansion." The third floor housed the main ballroom and a play area,
with a closet used as a storage place for toys. It was built by F.E. Houghton,
a wealthy man with quite a large family of 12 children who needed more
room. He bought the land next to their old house and built this larger
mansion, with some nice touches, like oak panneling in the dining room,
leaded glass bookshelves, huge pocket-doors (doors which slide into the
wall by the door), an Adam's staircase, 3 fireplaces for those cold Oklahoma
winters, ballrooms and a back staircase which leads to the third floor
as well.
In the 1920's, the mansion became
a boarding house, and later became a funeral home, before reverting back
to being a room for rent establishment. In 1986, the Luker family bought
the mansion, renovated this grand home and turned it into an upscale,
charming inn, restoring the place to its former glory, with luxurious
suites, fine food and a grand way to enjoy a taste of life from a former
era.
BACKGROUND OF MANIFESTATIONS:
The mischievous Houghton children
used to sneak up to the third floor playroom after their parents went
to sleep between 10:00 PM to 12:00 AM to play with the toys in the toy
box built into the storage closet. One of the 12 Houghton children, little
Augusta, an 8 year old girl, died when the maid gave her the wrong medication
to combat the child's whooping cough.
During the years that the mansion
housed a funeral home and then another boarding house, perhaps an entity
or two decided that they weren't ready to go to the other side and decided
to stay behind to "help" the living and hang around to enjoy
the ambiance of an upscale inn, not to mention enjoying the murder mystery
show events sponsored by the inn, or being an unseen guest of any of the
weddings and receptions which are also held in the mansion.
MANIFESTATIONS:
1) Little Augusta Houghton
A) Foot steps of a child can be
heard pattering up and down the stairways.
B) One of the Luker boys kept his
toys in the same toy box in the storage closet. Being a neat boy, he
always put toys away after playing with them. Around 10:00 pm, a child's
footsteps could be heard on the back staircase which goes up to the
third floor playroom, and the door opening to the playroom. Everytime,
the Lukers would find the boy's toys strewn all over the playroom floor.
Augusta doesn't like to clean up! This continued to happen, even when
Mrs. Luker put a lock on the closet.
C) Little Augusta likes to pat sleeping
guests' faces, tugs on their feet and has been known to take a nap on
one of the beds. She appears to feel lost and is looking for her mother.
Male Entity or Entities -
A) A male apparition has been seen in
the basement area.
B Maids have seen a male entity
in a tall top hat, dressed in an old-fashioned black suit, hanging out
behind the heating system.
C) Although the owners have established
a no-smoking policy, an entity still enjoys a good cigar, and the living
can smell the smoke and see it in the air as well.
D) When a guest went to bed, and
left the light on the ceiling fan on, because she couldn't turn it off,
she felt a heavy presence climb up on the end of her bed, and turned
off the light for her.
STILL HAUNTED?
Yes Indeed!
The Oklahoma Ghost Patrol has indeed
found evidence of entities in the mansion, and guests still have experiences
with the entities, who are friendly, helpful and well behaved unseen residents
of the Stone Lion Inn.
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