Guided Tour Booking Required
Statler City history tour
Periodic public tours of the restored ballrooms, the Terrace Room and Golden Ballroom, the basement Turkish bath ruins, and JFK-era suites tied to Kennedy's 1962 visit.
- Duration:
- 1.5 hr
Haunted Hotel / Inn
Statler Hotel (Statler City)
1923 flagship of Ellsworth Statler's hotel empire on Niagara Square, where 'Paranormal Lockdown' and 'Destination Fear' caught a chair moving on its own during 72-hour lockdown investigations.
107 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14202
Wheelchair Accessible
Research-Backed · 4sources
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Operates as Statler City event venue; ticketed ghost-hunt and Halloween events priced separately. Not currently a working hotel.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Eighteen-story restored landmark with elevators; some basement and upper-floor spaces unrestored
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1923 · English Renaissance Revival hotel design (George B. Post & Sons, 1923) · Flagship of Ellsworth Statler's national hotel chain · Pioneer of modern hotel amenities (private bath, in-room radio, ice water) · Hosted JFK, FDR, Dizzy Gillespie, Bessie Smith, Coleman Hawkins · Restored 2010+ as Statler City event venue · National Register of Historic Places
The Statler Hotel opened on Niagara Square in May 1923 as the third and most ambitious of Ellsworth Milton Statler's flagship hotels. Designed by the New York firm George B. Post & Sons in an English Renaissance Revival idiom, the eighteen-story tower rose at 107 Delaware Avenue with 1,100 guest rooms, a basement-level Turkish bath, multiple ballrooms and one of the most ambitious hospitality programs ever attempted in Buffalo. Statler's chain pioneered the modern hotel: every room had a private bathroom, a telephone, circulating ice water, and a built-in radio.
Through the 1920s and into the 1960s the hotel served as Buffalo's effective civic living room. The Terrace Room, Golden Ballroom and rooftop garden hosted political conventions, debutante balls and major touring acts. Dizzy Gillespie, Bessie Smith and Coleman Hawkins all played in the basement nightclub, and notorious mobster Al Capone was reportedly a frequent guest. Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy both held closed-door meetings on the property.
The hotel's history also includes documented tragedies. A nineteen-year-old woman from Batavia, New York leapt to her death from an eighth-floor window in 1943, leaving a note (per Buffalo News archival reporting). Local oral tradition and Buffalo Rising's reporting also describe two young boys who drowned in the basement Turkish bath in the hotel's early years.
The Statler closed as a working hotel in the 1980s and entered a long period of vacancy and deterioration. Investor Mark Croce purchased the property at auction in 2010 and undertook a multi-million-dollar restoration of the ballrooms and public spaces, reopening the property as Statler City, an event venue. Restoration of the upper guest-room floors has continued under successive ownership groups.
The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and remains the dominant historic landmark on Niagara Square.
Sources
- https://www.wgrz.com/article/entertainment/haunted-history-statler-building/71-ec3183c5-2d65-494d-a09b-4a3c68e93f05
- https://thestatlerbuffalo.com/our-history/
- https://www.buffalorising.com/2019/10/spooky-stuff-statler-city/
- https://buffalonews.com/entertainment/a-skeptical-critic-looks-at-the-visit-of-paranormal-lockdown-to-the-statler/article_e540a96f-ea10-5861-b600-6a316959de4a.html
Apparitions of young boys in the basement Turkish bath areaEighth-floor presence linked to 1943 suicideChair moved on its own (captured on camera, Paranormal Lockdown)EVPs in JFK-era suites with swing musicEquipment anomalies and disembodied voices
The Statler's haunted reputation is anchored to several documented tragedies. The most-cited is the 1943 death of a nineteen-year-old woman from Batavia, New York, who jumped from an eighth-floor window onto Delaware Avenue, leaving a note (per Buffalo News archival reporting). A second strand of the legend involves two young boys who, per Buffalo Rising's October 2019 feature and oral tradition collected by local paranormal groups, drowned in the basement Turkish bath in the hotel's early years.
The building has been investigated on national television twice. In 2017 Nick Groff and Katrina Weidman of TLC's 'Paranormal Lockdown' spent 72 hours locked inside the Statler and captured cell-phone footage of a chair moving on its own in the Terrace Room (per Buffalo News review and the show's IMDb episode listing). In 2019 the Travel Channel's 'Destination Fear,' fronted by Dakota Laden, ran a multi-night lockdown at the property and reported apparitions, disembodied voices and equipment anomalies in the ballrooms and upper floors.
Local paranormal investigators told WGRZ-TV that EVP activity in the suites associated with JFK's 1962 Buffalo visit reaches its peak when period swing music is played, with multiple investigators reporting frenzied responses that have been recorded and analyzed.
A Buffalo News skeptic's column (citing show production claims) has pushed back on the most dramatic 'Paranormal Lockdown' findings, arguing that the chair movement and other phenomena have multiple non-paranormal explanations; HauntBound includes the show's claims as part of the building's media-haunted reputation rather than as confirmed paranormal evidence.
Notable Entities
Nineteen-year-old Batavia woman (1943)Two young boys (early-1900s Turkish bath drownings)
Media Appearances
- TLC 'Paranormal Lockdown' (2017)
- Travel Channel 'Destination Fear' (2019)
- WGRZ-TV haunted-history feature
- Buffalo Rising 'Spooky Stuff at Statler City'
Plan Your Visit
2 ways to experience Ghost Hunt Booking Required
Spooky Stuff at Statler City
Halloween-season ticketed paranormal investigations featuring access to the Terrace Room (where Paranormal Lockdown captured the chair-movement footage) and the basement spaces tied to early-1900s child drownings.
- Duration:
- 4 hr
#buffalo
#new-york
#hotel
#english-renaissance-revival
#paranormal-lockdown
#destination-fear
#niagara-square
Sources & Further Reading
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
- 1.wgrz.com/article/entertainment/haunted-history-statler-building/71-ec3183c5-2d65-494d-a09b-4a3c68e93f05
- 2.thestatlerbuffalo.com/our-history
- 3.buffalorising.com/2019/10/spooky-stuff-statler-city
- 4.buffalonews.com/entertainment/a-skeptical-critic-looks-at-the-visit-of-paranormal-lockdown-to-the-statler/article_e540a96f-ea10-5861-b600-6a316959de4a.html
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Statler Hotel (Statler City) family-friendly?
Daytime architectural tours are fine for older kids; the documented deaths (1943 suicide, early-1900s child drownings) make the ghost-hunt programming better suited to 16+. Overall family fit: Moderate.
How much does it cost to visit Statler Hotel (Statler City)?
Operates as Statler City event venue; ticketed ghost-hunt and Halloween events priced separately. Not currently a working hotel.
Do I need to book in advance?
Yes, reservations are required.
Is Statler Hotel (Statler City) wheelchair accessible?
Yes, Statler Hotel (Statler City) is wheelchair accessible. Terrain: Eighteen-story restored landmark with elevators; some basement and upper-floor spaces unrestored.