HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
Built in 1905 for James N. Coombs, this Apalachicola inn's first owners died weeks apart in a hotel after an 1911 fire drove them from the home — and staff report the couple still walks hand-in-hand near the front door.
80 6th St, Apalachicola, FL 32320
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
24 guest rooms across three historic homes. Current room rates on the inn's website. Member of Choice Hotels' Ascend Hotel Collection.
Access
Limited Access
Three adjacent historic homes converted to inn use. Some rooms have private verandas. Multi-floor structure without full accessibility adaptations throughout.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1905 · Built 1905 by James N. Coombs as a private residence in Apalachicola's late-era prosperity · 1911 fire displaced the Coombs couple; Mrs. Coombs died of grief at a hotel, Mr. Coombs died three weeks later of heart failure · Both buried in Chestnut Street Cemetery, directly across the street from the house · Now a 24-room inn across three historic homes; Ascend Hotel Collection member
James N. Coombs completed his house at 80 Sixth Street in 1905 during Apalachicola's late-era prosperity, when the town still had active waterfront commerce and a civic life built on the oyster and fishing industries. The house was designed as a private residence and served the Coombs family in that capacity for six years.
In 1911, a fire broke out and caused enough damage that the couple was forced to vacate while repairs were made. They relocated to a hotel in town. The displacement proved fatal: Mrs. Coombs, unable to return to the home she had built her life around, died of what accounts consistently describe as grief or emotional distress while displaced. James Coombs died of heart failure three weeks later. The Coombs, who never saw their repaired home again, are buried side by side in Chestnut Street Cemetery, directly across the street from 80 Sixth Street.
The property was eventually converted into a bed and breakfast and expanded to incorporate three adjacent historic homes, creating a 24-room inn. Travel and Leisure magazine once named it one of the thirty outstanding small inns in the United States. It now operates as an Ascend Hotel Collection member under the Coombs Inn and Suites name, with antique-furnished rooms, private verandas on some suites, and complimentary bicycles for exploring Apalachicola's historic district.
Sources
The haunting tradition at the Coombs House Inn is grounded in the specific circumstances of the Coombs family's deaths — the couple who built the house and then died, in quick succession, in a hotel while displaced by fire, never returning to the home they had intended to spend their lives in.
Staff have reported seeing apparitions of a couple near the front entrance, holding hands. The identification with James and Mrs. Coombs is inferential — based on the tragedy's emotional logic rather than any documented encounter — but it is the consistent interpretation among people who have worked in the building.
Beyond the apparitions near the entry, the reported activity is environmental: unexplained footsteps moving through the house, doors opening and closing without anyone near them, and a general sense among long-term staff of a presence that has not left the building. The phenomena have been documented across multiple independent accounts in regional paranormal literature and by guests who arrived with no specific expectation of activity.
Notable Entities
Stay in one of 24 antique-furnished rooms in the historic Coombs property, where staff report seeing the apparitions of James and Mrs. Coombs near the front door and hearing unexplained footsteps throughout the house.
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