The Read House is the best haunted stay in the Tennessee Valley, and one of the few historic hotels that openly invites guests to visit its most notorious room. The hotel traces its lineage to the 1870s on a downtown Chattanooga corner whose earlier hotel served as a hospital in the Civil War, and the current building opened in the 1920s, its lobby a showpiece of Jazz Age woodwork, chandeliers and plaster ceilings. A $25 million renovation completed in 2018 restored the period look while modernizing the rooms, and the result feels glamorous rather than dusty. The headline is Room 311: local legend tells of Annalisa Netherly, a woman said to have been killed in the bathtub by a jealous lover in the 1920s, whose presence guests have reported ever since, from running water to a sense of being watched (the legend is unverified history, but the reports are persistent). The hotel offers a ghost tour of the room on request, and the bravest guests book it outright. Beyond the lore, it is a polished city hotel with an indoor pool, a speakeasy-style Bar and Billiards room, in-room dining and 24-hour valet, a short walk from the Tennessee Aquarium, the Walnut Street Bridge and the riverfront. Fit: haunted-stay seekers, couples on a Chattanooga weekend, history buffs and road-trippers linking the South's haunted sites.
The history
The Read family's hotel became Chattanooga's grand address in the railroad era, hosting presidents and celebrities, and the 1920s rebuild set the Jazz Age tone that the 2018 restoration revived. Room 311's legend grew over the twentieth century until the hotel stopped hiding from it, and the room's reputation is now part of the hotel's identity. Some history worth knowing: a hotel has stood on the site since 1872, succeeding the Crutchfield House, which served as a military hospital in 1863; the current 10-story building, designed by Holabird and Roche of Chicago in a Georgian manor style, opened on July 5, 1926, and so turned 100 this year; and the hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Winston Churchill stayed on a 1932 lecture tour, and the guest list also includes Elvis Presley, Ronald Reagan and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Room craft
Room 311 is not on the regular booking engine. The hotel sells it as a limited October package, the Room 311 Experience, booked by phone and bundled with valet parking, cocktails in the Bar and Billiards Room, a dining credit at Bridgeman's Chophouse and tickets for a Chattanooga ghost tour, and it is offered on only a handful of nights.
In-person tours of the room are arranged on request when a guide is free, and a virtual tour is online. For dinner, Bridgeman's Chophouse, named for a longtime waiter, is the hotel's aged-steak room. Other rooms give you the Jazz Age style without the lore. Have a drink in the billiards bar, and walk down to the river in the evening for the lit-up bridges.
Practicals
107 West MLK Boulevard, downtown Chattanooga; 24-hour valet parking; about two hours from Nashville, Atlanta and Knoxville. Fit: a haunted weekend in Chattanooga, and a natural stop between the haunted South and the Midwest prisons.
Why stay here
- ✓Room 311 tours on request
- ✓Restored Jazz Age lobby
- ✓Bar and Billiards speakeasy
- ✓Indoor pool
- ✓In-room dining
- ✓24-hour valet parking
- ✓Complimentary Wi-Fi
- ✓Walk to the riverfront
Good questions
Can I stay in Room 311?+
Only on limited dates. The hotel sells it as an October package, the Room 311 Experience, booked by phone, with very few nights available. If you would rather just look, in-person tours are offered on request when a guide is free, and there is a virtual tour online.
What is the Room 311 legend?+
Local lore says a woman named Annalisa Netherly was killed in the room's bathtub by a jealous lover in the 1920s, and guests have reported her presence ever since. The story is legend rather than documented history.
Is the hotel modern inside?+
Yes. A major renovation completed in 2018 restored the Jazz Age design while updating the rooms and amenities.
