Est. 1962 · Former student housing (Sunrise Hall) for the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale · Originally the Carriage House Motor Lodge / River Inn motel, converted to dorms in 1992 · Part of the Art Institutes system that closed in December 2018
The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale was a for-profit college offering programs in art, design, media, and culinary arts, part of the national Art Institutes system. Among its facilities was a residence hall known as Sunrise Hall, which provided housing for students attending the school.
The Sunrise Hall building was not originally built as a dormitory. According to local accounts, the structure began around 1962 as the Carriage House Motor Lodge, a roughly 60-unit motel, and was later renamed the River Inn. In 1992 the building was converted into student housing for the Art Institute.
The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale's parent company announced in July 2018 that the school would close, and operations ceased on December 14, 2018, displacing students mid-program — part of a wave of closures that affected the Art Institutes system nationally. With the institution shuttered, Sunrise Hall ceased to function as a dormitory.
The building's pre-college history is murky. Ghost-lore accounts claim that decades earlier the site, or an earlier structure on it, operated as a 'house of ill repute' before burning in a fire, but these claims are not supported by documented historical records, and even the local press that has covered the legend treats the vice-and-murder backstory as unverified.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Institute_of_Fort_Lauderdale
- https://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/ghost-hunter-6333150/
- https://wsvn.com/news/local/art-institute-of-fort-lauderdale-to-close-parent-company-announces/
Moans heard from the third floor around 1 a.m.Sound of metal pipes dropping and rolling inside the ceilingFootsteps and the click of high heels in the second-floor hallway, sometimes turning to running
The haunted reputation of Sunrise Hall rests on a backstory that local sources themselves treat with skepticism. According to ghost-lore accounts and a feature in the Broward Palm Beach New Times, the site is said to have once been a 'house of ill repute' where, in earlier decades, prostitution, gambling, and violence were common and 'multiple murders allegedly occurred' before the original building burned in a fire. None of these claims is supported by documented historical records, named victims, or contemporary news coverage, and the New Times reporter who covered the legend was openly doubtful, joking that the strange sounds were probably just ordinary dorm noise.
The paranormal reports themselves, as relayed by a local ghost hunter and circulated through the Shadowlands index and ghost-tour aggregators, describe moans heard from the third floor around 1 a.m., the clatter of metal pipes rolling across the floor inside the ceilings, and the click of high heels walking — then running — down the second-floor hallway. US Ghost Adventures lists the site among Fort Lauderdale's notable hauntings.
The haunting is also documented in John Marc Carr's published regional ghost book *Haunted Fort Lauderdale* (History Press, chapter beginning page 95), which dedicates an entire chapter to the dormitories. Carr is also the founder of Fort Lauderdale Ghost Tours, which has featured the site.
HauntBound records this as a documented local legend attached to a now-closed institution. The venue is not a public attraction, and the underlying 'brothel and murders' narrative should be regarded as folklore rather than documented historical fact.
Notable Entities
Unidentified spirits associated with the alleged 'house of ill repute'
Where this legend is told
Aerial survey · USDA NAIP
