Overnight Stay Booking Required
Overnight stay at the Hillside Inn
30-room boutique hotel overlooking downtown Madison; certain rooms are informally discussed by staff as having recurring guest reports.
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HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
- 01Child's giggle heard in guest rooms in the early-morning hours
- 02Reports of an unseen woman and child talking and laughing around 4 a.m.
- 03Front-desk staff acknowledging rooms with recurring guest reports
Haunted Hotel / Inn
Hillside Inn
Boutique 30-room hotel on East Main Street opened in 1924 as the Hillside Hotel, rebuilt after a fatal 1964 fire, and the subject of guest reports of an early-morning child's giggle in the upstairs rooms.
831 E Main Street, Madison, IN 47250
Wheelchair Accessible
Research-Backed · 3 sources
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Standard small-hotel room rates; varies by room and season.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Hilltop site overlooking downtown Madison; rebuilt 1966 structure has elevator access to most rooms.
Equipment
Photos OK
1924 Hillside Hotel, one of Madison's first stucco buildings · Hosted the cast of Some Came Running (1958) and other notable guests · Fatal December 15, 1964 fire (one death, $350,000 damage) · Rebuilt and reopened in 1966 as the Hillside Inn
The Hillside Inn sits at 831 East Main Street on a bluff overlooking downtown Madison, Indiana. The property was opened in 1924 as the Hillside Hotel by Dr. George Denny, and was noted at the time as one of the first stucco buildings in Madison. Over the next four decades the hotel hosted many notable guests, including the cast of the 1958 MGM film Some Came Running — Shirley MacLaine, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra — and entertainer Tiny Tim. The hotel also hosted the 1929 selection of the 'Queen of the Bridge.'
In the early hours of Tuesday, December 15, 1964, a fire broke out at the hotel. Outside temperatures were below freezing at roughly 17 degrees. One guest, 45-year-old chemical salesman Richard Brown of Lutherville, Maryland, was killed. Brown had been staying in Room 205 on the second floor; his body was found in debris on the floor below. Nine people were hospitalized and five sustained minor injuries; all 33 guests that night were men. The fire caused an estimated $350,000 in damage, devastating the building shortly after the owners had completed roughly $150,000 in renovations over the preceding 14 months.
The property was rebuilt and reopened in 1966, this time under the name Hillside Inn. The rebuilt structure has continued in operation through multiple ownership groups, including the Harneds, Thomassens, Jerry Fuhs, and Gary Zaveri.
Today the Hillside Inn operates as a 30-room hotel listed by Visit Madison and Madison Main Street, and the lobby includes period photographs of the original 1924 hotel.
Sources
- https://www.madisonmainstreet.com/post/discovering-hillside-inn
- https://roundaboutmadison.com/InsidePages/ArchivedArticles/2018/0118HillsideInnCover.html
- https://visitmadison.org/directory/hillside-inn/
Child's giggle heard in guest rooms in the early-morning hoursReports of an unseen woman and child talking and laughing around 4 a.m.Front-desk staff acknowledging rooms with recurring guest reports
According to HauntedPlaces.org's Madison roster and David Kummer's regional feature 'Most Haunted Places in Madison, Indiana Part 1,' the Hillside Inn is most often associated with reports of a child's giggle heard in guest rooms during the early-morning hours.
These accounts are independently corroborated by multiple TripAdvisor guest reviews. A reviewer (FarAway203659, April 2023) described being woken three times in a single overnight stay by 'the sound of a child giggling in different areas of the room' — at 10:30 pm, 2:30 am, and again at 6:30 am. The reviewer checked the room and found nothing that could explain the sound. The front-desk clerk confirmed: 'she said that there were no kids on site during our stay' and 'admitted that we're not the first to experience strange happenings during our stay.' A second independent guest reviewer (flypiggy, January 2024, 5 stars) reported hearing 'a kid and a woman talk and giggling around 4am' for approximately ninety minutes, with no children present in the hotel.
A paranormal investigation team documented a locked-down overnight investigation at the Hillside Inn in February 2020 (YouTube: 'Hillside inn part 3 The haunted lockdown lights out').
The property's most concrete documented tragedy is the December 15, 1964 fire, which killed guest Richard Brown of Lutherville, Maryland. Local ghost-tour material occasionally references the fire when discussing the property, but the published paranormal accounts do not directly tie any specific apparition to Brown's death.
Notable Entities
Unidentified child (auditory only)Unidentified woman (auditory only)
Media Appearances
- TripAdvisor guest review (FarAway203659, April 2023) — independent first-person child-giggling account
- TripAdvisor guest review (flypiggy, January 2024) — independent first-person child and woman auditory account
- YouTube — 'Hillside inn part 3 The haunted lockdown lights out' (Deathbat team, February 2020)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Hillside Inn family-friendly?
Working family hotel during normal operations; ghost lore is mild and tied to early-morning room reports. Overall family fit: High.
How much does it cost to visit Hillside Inn?
Standard small-hotel room rates; varies by room and season.
Do I need to book in advance?
Yes, reservations are required.
Is Hillside Inn wheelchair accessible?
Yes, Hillside Inn is wheelchair accessible. Terrain: Hilltop site overlooking downtown Madison; rebuilt 1966 structure has elevator access to most rooms..