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Reported phenomena — as catalogued
+ 2 further entries on record
A Wyndham boutique hotel in a converted 1837 Moravian cotton mill steps from Old Salem, where the ghost of a mill worker named Sally haunts Room 401 and a spirit called Eddie roams the lobby.
200 Brookstown Ave, Winston-Salem, NC 27101
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Boutique hotel rates. Rates vary by season; includes complimentary hot breakfast.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Interior hotel; level access, elevator available
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1837 · Founded 1837 by the Moravian congregation of Salem as the Salem Manufacturing Company · Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 as the Arista Cotton Mill Complex · One of the first mills in the American South to use electric lighting · Preserved as a boutique hotel steps from the Old Salem Museums & Gardens historic site
The building that houses the Historic Brookstown Inn was erected in 1837 as the Salem Manufacturing Company — a textile mill founded by members of the Moravian congregation that had established Salem (later consolidated with Winston as Winston-Salem) in the eighteenth century. The Moravians were known for communal industry, and their cotton mill became one of the first in the American South to be illuminated by electric lighting, an early technological distinction that reflected the congregation's progressive relationship with industry.
The mill expanded through the nineteenth century. In 1880, F. and H. Fries constructed the Arista Cotton Mill Complex as the second major building on the site, and it was under this name that the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. The complex's brick construction, exposed timber framing, and large mill windows have been preserved through its conversion into the present hotel.
The Brookstown Inn opened as a boutique hotel after a multi-million dollar rehabilitation project, retaining the original wide-plank wooden floors, exposed brick walls, and heavy timber beams. Today it operates as a 70-room inn with 28 suites under the Wyndham Trademark Collection brand. The hotel is located steps from Old Salem, the restored eighteenth-century Moravian village and museum that forms the historical core of Winston-Salem.
The fourth floor of the inn occupies what was originally a workers' dormitory, where young women employed in the mill lived and worked under the paternalistic boarding-house system common to nineteenth-century textile operations. It is this floor — and specifically Room 401 — that is most associated with the hotel's haunted reputation.
Sources
The Brookstown Inn's haunted reputation is well-established across regional media, Visit Winston-Salem's official tourism content, and the hotel's own guest ghost log. The most frequently reported spirit is known as Sally. According to local tradition, Sally was a young woman employed in the mill during the nineteenth century who died on the fourth floor — Room 401 — after a violent confrontation with a coworker. The details of her death are passed down as lore rather than documented fact: accounts describe one mill worker shoving another down an elevator shaft or stairwell. Sally's full-body apparition is reportedly seen most often on the fourth floor, particularly walking the corridor outside Room 401.
A second spirit, called Eddie, is said to inhabit the lobby and lower floors. Guests describe the sound of deliberate footsteps on the original wooden floors even when the lobby is empty, as well as the sense of being followed. Unlike Sally, Eddie has no specific tragic backstory attached to him in the circulating lore.
Guests across decades have reported additional phenomena: women's voices calling out individual guests' names from empty hallways, and the repeated cry of 'Mercy' — a detail corroborated by multiple independent guest accounts documented in the hotel's ghost log and reported by Visit Winston-Salem, Country 103.7, and regional hospitality writers. The hotel actively acknowledges its haunted reputation and maintains the guest ghost log as a curated historical record of reported experiences.
Because the specific identities of Sally and Eddie cannot be independently verified from historical records, all paranormal claims are presented here as local tradition and guest lore rather than documented history.
Notable Entities
Stay in the converted 1837 Moravian cotton mill. Request Room 401 to be near the site of Sally's reported sightings. Browse the hotel's ghost log in the lobby for guest encounter reports spanning decades.
The Brookstown Inn maintains a guest ghost log in its lobby documenting decades of reported encounters. Open to guests during regular lobby hours.
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