Paranormal Investigators Host Ghost Hunting Event At St. Pete Hotel

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — The Spirits of St. Petersburg, a paranormal investigative organization, will take over the Mari Jean Hotel Saturday evening, starting at 7 p.m., for the National Day of Ghost Hunting.

The group, founded by Brandy Stark, has organized a paranormal investigation in the city for this annual event, which was formerly called the World’s Largest Ghost Hunt, for a number of years.

The Mari Jean, a nearly 100-year-old hotel that first welcomed guests in 1927, is a new location for the group to investigate, Stark told Patch.

The hotel’s owners actually reached out to them about hosting an investigation and the group is “super stoked” to conduct archival research at the site, she said. “They were really open to it.”

The building, located in the Grand Central District, has had several identities over the past century - hotel, retirement center, a mental institution, low-income housing, according to Stark.

Today, the Mari Jean is a 21-and-older hotel above Cocktail, an LGBTQ bar. The restoration of the building retained many of its historic elements, she said.

With such a storied history, there’s the potential to search for and interact with various spirits.

“There’s an entity from the time it was a retirement home just hanging around because they like to,” Stark said.

An employee also told her that after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, they heard “people in the stairwells and voices talking,” though they were alone in the building, she said.

Tickets for Saturday’s event, which includes a Paranormal Investigation 101 session and an interactive paranormal investigation, are $40. They can be purchased online here.

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