The Lafayette Hotel was built in 1918 and was named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolution, who visited the area in 1825. The Lafayette, known as one of the country's last riverboat-era hotels, now has 77 guest rooms, including 30 rooms added during renovations in 1937.

But the Lafayette is not only occupied by tourists and weary travelers. According to many current and former employees and guests, the old hotel has a few permanent residents. Front desk clerks and bellhops tell tales of strange things in the corner of their eyes and the elevator moving from floor to floor in the middle of the night...with no visible passengers. Others report the sensation of a silent, eerie presence in the room with them.

Many are convinced the dominant entity at the Lafayette is that of Durwood Hoag, former owner and manager. In fact, the third floor, which is where the presence is most strongly felt, is called the Hoag Addition.

Mona Belser of Strongsville, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland) stayed at the Lafayette in October 2001. "My husband and I just returned from a weekend getaway at the Lafayette Hotel in Marietta," she said. "We stayed in room 308. From the very start, there were strange things happening in our suite.

"First, the toiled flushed all by itself. Secondly, the hot water in the shower was turned almost to the off position in the middle of my shower. When drifting off to sleep the first night, I saw a very strong vision of a young women dressed from the early 1900's. Lastly, the blind to one of the windows in the room zoomed up all by itself at 3:30 in the morning.

"Later that weekend, we heard another family trying to comfort their teenage daughters as to the strange happenings in their suite on the third floor. Is this hotel haunted? I've never experienced anything like this before."

So if you're passing through Marietta and decide to stop over at the Lafayette Hotel, who knows what you might find. You may just round a corner and bump into Mr. Hoag himself!