1918 Red Shield Inn Turned Army Museum
4320 Main Street, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA 98433
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free admission. Visitors without DoD credentials must obtain a base pass through the Joint Base Lewis-McChord Visitor Center.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Three-story converted inn with elevator; some exhibits require stairs.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1918 · U.S. Army Museum · World War I Camp Lewis · Salvation Army Red Shield Inn
Camp Lewis was established in 1917 on land donated to the federal government by the people of Pierce County, Washington, becoming the largest military training installation in the country during the First World War. In 1918 the Salvation Army built the Red Shield Inn at a cost of $107,000 to provide overnight accommodations for soldiers, their visiting families, and civilian friends. The building was the only inn on the post and the only one of its kind in the Pacific Northwest's military system.
With the post-war drawdown, the Salvation Army sold the inn to the U.S. Army for $1 on July 1, 1921. The Army converted it for institutional use; over the next several decades the building hosted bachelor officers' quarters, administrative offices, and finally, beginning in the 1970s, the consolidated military museum that became the Lewis Army Museum.
During the 1918 influenza pandemic, more than one hundred and fifty soldiers died of Spanish flu on the grounds of Camp Lewis. The young performer Linnie Love, then on a USO-style tour of military bases, also died of the disease while at Lewis. The inn served at the time as one of the post's medical overflow spaces.
In 1927 the building hosted cast and crew during the Paramount silent film The Patent Leather Kid, parts of which were filmed on post. The film's residency at the Red Shield Inn is the source of the museum's most-recounted ghost story, although no documentation has been found to confirm a death of a film crew member during the production.
The building today operates as the museum, open Wednesday through Saturday with free admission. Joint Base Lewis-McChord civilians without DoD credentials must arrange a base pass through the JBLM Visitor Center before visiting.
Sources
The most-recounted story at the Lewis Army Museum dates to 1927, when the inn was housing extras and crew for the Paramount silent feature The Patent Leather Kid. The folklore holds that a worker on the production was murdered in a second-floor room and that maids and front-desk staff afterward described an apparition of a man dressed as a cowboy walking the corridors. Army historians have investigated this account and have not been able to confirm a death on the property during the production. The story persists in regional ghost-tour material.
Museum staff have reported lights coming on and off in displays after closing and the sound of doors opening and closing during the close-out routine. The original Shadowlands account submitted in February 2006 described these as the principal phenomena. A subsequent update on the same account stated that activity diminished sharply after a posted exorcism, and that nothing significant had been reported for several years.
A secondary account links the building to soldiers who died during the 1918 influenza pandemic, when more than one hundred and fifty deaths occurred on the post and the inn handled overflow medical use. Soldiers stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord have reported being followed at night and have described the apparition of a soldier on or near the property, accounts compiled in the regional ghost-story literature.
The museum's official position, recorded in a 2012 U.S. Army article, is that no documented evidence supports the ghost stories and that the building's reputation rests on oral tradition and earlier guest accounts. The Army's article remains the most cautious and authoritative public statement on the subject.
Notable Entities
Free admission to the only certified U.S. Army museum on the West Coast, housed in the 1918 Red Shield Inn. Exhibits cover the history of Camp Lewis and Fort Lewis from World War I through the present. Civilian visitors must arrange a base pass in advance through the JBLM Visitor Center.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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