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REPORT

Investigation: REDLAND111007

Historical Place: Homestead, FL

History:

History of the Redland Hotel

In 1904 W.D. Horne opened the Homestead Inn, a supply store rooming house. It was the first commercial building and first hotel in Homestead, and located across the street from the train depot. On January 25, 1905, Horne was granted the post office, which he ran in the store until 1908. Business was very good, so Horne built a separate supply store on the south side and expanded the boarding house. He sold the supply store to his brother-in-law in 1907.

Tom and Floretta Evens bought the hotel 1912. On November 10, 1913, while under the management of Ms. Coleman, the hotel caught fire. Within 2 hours the hotel, a barber shop, the Mercantile Company, L.A. Loves new real estate office and a house recently purchased by J.E. Cochran, all burned. The entire damage was valued at $6,000.00.

On November 19, 1913, it was announced that a new hotel would be built. The new modern structure was to be wood throughout and have 22 sleeping rooms upstairs. The ground floor would be public rooms: dining rooms, parlors, etc. There would be a ten-foot porch facing the streets and the mansard roof would be replaced with a flat roof. The construction was finished in 1914 and Mr.. & Mrs.. Evens renamed it the Hotel Evens.

Dr. Schlegel purchased the hotel in 1919 and in 1920, according to building permit news, built an addition on the south side. The new concrete building was divided into a "very large cafe, a fine kitchen and a public comfort station". The existing dining room was divided into bedroom suites, bringing the hotel to 30 rooms. A bathroom was added to the second floor. The contractor for the constriction was W.O. Webster. Dr. Schlegel renamed the hotel "Hotel Redland". The sign on the front of the building we believe to be the same sign.

J.W. English, Owner of the Seminole Theatre, bought the Hotel Redland in 1934 and changed the name to the Redland Hotel. Mr.. English remodeled replacing the drop cords with outside wiring and modern electric fixtures with concealed wiring. Hot and cold running water was brought into a lavatory in each of the 40 rooms. The hot water was supplied from a 500-gallon solar heater. Six bathrooms with showers and tubs were added, bringing the total to 10 bathrooms.

Date: 11/10/07

Weather Condition:

Temperature: 61°

Moon: New

Sun: Solar x-rays - Normal geomagnetic field - Quite

Time:

Start: 7:30 pm End: 12:30 am

Investigators (alphabetical order):

Ana, Ashley, Atena, Bill, Ed, Jack, Jerry, Lourdes, Melanie, Robert, Steve, Tim, & Urvashi.

Equipment:

Digital Camera, Casio

Digital Camera, Olympus FE-100 11.0

Digital Camera, Powershot GI

Digital Camera, Sony DHSCS

Digital Camera, Samsung S730

Digital Voice Recorder, Olympus, VN-3100PC

Digital Voice Recorders, Sony

Camcorders (Digital-8 and Hi-8), Sony Handycam Hi8, Night Vision

EMF, E.L.F.-Zone

Infrared Thermometer, Mastercool

Trifield Meter

Baseline Reading Equipment:

EMF, E.L.F.-Zone

Infrared Thermometer, Mastercool

Photographs:

Poltergeist Activity:

Yes (See Investigators experiences, Ed's).

Videos:

Start: 8:00 pm End: 12:00 am

Blurs: N/A

Interference/Static: N/A

Moving Orbs: Yes

Other Anomalies: N/A

EVP Recordings:

Start: 8:00 pm End: 12:00 am

Voices: There were some rappings and unexplained noises in the hotel but one disembodied voice was apparently trying to communicate with Lourdes and Urvashi in Room #202.

Right after Lourdes began talking to Urvashi there is an overlapping whisper:

Lourdes: “...I feel something...”

Voice: “...yeah right here, not right there...”

Long Version - Conversation between Lourdes and Urvashi. Female voice overlaps after "I feel something."

Short Version - The female voice

EVP Class: Class C

Temperature Irregularities:

No relevant changes through out the building.

Investigators Experiences:

Ed's:

Click here for Research Document on Poltergeist activity

Jack's:

"My overall impression of the place is that paranormal activity and feelings of invisible presences occurred in isolated areas both up and downstairs. Primarily I noticed these around the bar area (where I spent a lot of time) and in Room 201/202... In conclusion, while I did not capture any full-body apparitions, or witness any first-hand poltergeist activity, I DID have personal experiences (and significant photographic evidence) that would make me lean towards calling the Redlands Hotel “paranormally Active.”"

Melanie's:

"...In the bar area, sitting area, I was taking pics of the bar itself when I heard what sounded like about a half a cup of water being poured, then dripping down from one of the exposed AC openings. It was to my side and I didn't look immediately because I was taking a control pic in the other direction. When I turned I couldn't see much in the dark but took 2 pics anyway. When Ana joined me in that area I cautioned her to watch out for the wet spot and told her what I heard and thought had happened. She turned on her flashlight and there was no water anywhere. There was no dripping from the ceiling at anytime that night in that spot. I checked several times. Nothing came out in the photos."

Tim's:

"...personal feelings: In the laundry room - Heaviness and nausea. There were no EMF spikes throughout the room. There were 2 exits. In the middle of the laundry area. I held a compass. the compass corredted itself to the correct direction then stopped. A few seconds later, it made a 1 turn rotation, while I stood still."

Conclusion:

Based on the evidence collected, we have deemed the property as not haunted. We did not collect enough evidence to declare a haunting, but there is a significant amount of paranormal activity. The explanation for the results of our findings is as follows:

We were able to collect some EVP's (disembodied voices), that seemed to have been acknowledging our presence there by the response received. All photo and video evidence was solely orb activity. The property could not be deemed as haunted because of the nature of the evidence. The EVP's collected were ran through 2 different audio programs to try and provide a better explanation. There is no definite photographic or video evidence of any spirits collected in the property. The most active areas according to our investigation, was Room #203, Room #208, the Bar area, and the Kitchen. We did conduct some poltergeist research that night in certain areas of possible activity and those results were positive. Our Research Manager who was conducting the poltergeist research utilizing a program called Ghost Lab, was able to document the poltergeist activity (object moved without reason). We did have some psychic impressions in the property that night, but no documentable evidence was collected. The psychic impressions did produce some photgraphic evidence of orb activity at the time of and in the place of the impressions on several occassions.