Built circa 1904 as the Elite Hotel, the Murray has housed tourists and celebrities alike over the years. Though it fell into decline with the decline of railroad travel in the 1960s, it has since been revived and remains a popular local rendezvous place and watering hole. As the story goes, it would appear that not all of the guests who have checked in over the years have checked out. In the following article Bozeman Magazine dug into the story of the hotel's "permanent" inhabitants.
A Haunted Hotel Over The Hill
by Pat Hill, photos by Zach Hoffman | Thursday Oct. 1st, 2015
The Murray Hotel in Livingston has had many guests since it was first constructed over a century ago, and if the stories are to be believed, it could be that some of them have never left.
Originally called the Elite Hotel when it was first constructed in 1904 to accommodate railroad passengers riding the Northern Pacific Railway, its construction was financed by the family of a future U.S. Senator from Montana, James E. Murray. The railroad traffic brought a wide array of guests to the hotel, renamed the Murray after the Senator’s family took possession of the place following financial hardship by the original owner. Owners, employees and guests alike claim that ghosts are lurking in the shadows of the Murray. Dan and Cathleen Kaul have owned the historic hotel since 1991.
Livingston has it roots with the railroad, and one of the Murray ghosts Kaul has heard about may be the mistress of a railroad magnate’s son. James J. Hill brought the railroad to Livingston and much of the Old West. His son, Walter Hill, was reportedly somewhat of a “black sheep” in the family, and the younger Hill kept an elegant upstairs suite at the Murray... ...One of Hill’s mistresses is said to be one of the hotels haunts.
A former female employee of the Murray who once stayed in another upstairs suite claimed the sounds of girlish giggling once brought her out of her sleep.
“She wondered who was wandering around the hotel, and then went back to sleep,” said Kaul. “Then she heard a young girl’s giggling again. She got up and opened the door in the two-room suite, and saw a young girl, about 11 or 12, standing there in a white dress. She thought she was walking in her sleep, but then the little girl sort of faded out and was gone.”
The hotel suites are not the only place where spectral scenes occur. It is said that a woman can be observed at times in a second-story window on the Park Street side of the establishment, and upon further glance she’s gone. Of course, the room is always empty when the sightings occur.
One of the strangest stories comes from a former guest who felt compelled to share her experience with hotel staff in a letter she wrote years after the incident.
“This is most likely the strangest letter I’ve ever written,” penned the woman, from Columbus, Ohio. She had stayed in an upstairs two-room suite at the Murray with her sister in 1999. “I woke up in the middle of the night to what looked like a man in old-fashioned clothes and dark facial hair, standing in the frame of the bathroom doorway. The figure moved toward and around my bed, getting close to me. I would still believe that I was dreaming, but something else happened. My sheets and covers shot up my body toward my neck. Then I ran out of the room and spent the rest of the night in my sister’s room.”
From Bozeman Magazine