Walking Horse Hotel - Wartrace, TN

In the tiny horse-country town of Wartrace, The Walking Horse Hotel is the kind of place where history doesn’t feel “behind glass”—it feels right beside you. Built for rail travelers, reborn as the cradle of Tennessee Walking Horse lore, and whispered about for generations, this is a stay for guests who love old hotels, creaky corridors… and the possibility that something unseen still roams the upper floors after midnight.

Brief Hotel History

• The hotel was built in 1917 as a railroad hotel, originally called the Hotel Overall.

• In 1933, it was purchased by Floyd and Olive Carothers and later became a base for horse trainers involved with the early Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration (first held in 1939)—after which it took the name Walking Horse Hotel.

• The famous horse Strolling Jim (the first Celebration winner, owned/trained by Floyd Carothers) is buried behind the hotel, and the on-site restaurant is named for him.

• The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and is part of the Wartrace Historic District.

👻 Haunted hot spots & paranormal activity reported

The hotel has a long-running haunted reputation that shows up in multiple sources:

• Ghost of Floyd Carothers: the hotel is “supposedly haunted” by former owner Floyd Carothers.

• Strolling Jim sightings: reports have claimed guests saw the horse’s ghost “prancing” near the old stable area behind the hotel.

• Soldier apparitions upstairs: ghost-tour style writeups describe guests seeing soldier apparitions on upper floors, peeking into rooms or lingering in doorways.

• General phenomena frequently described in haunted-place listings include voices, footsteps, running/walking sounds, and other “classic hotel haunting” reports.

• Pop-culture notoriety: it has been featured on paranormal TV, including My Ghost Story (segment “Dead Horse Walking”) and Haunted Live investigations.

(As always: these are reports/legends and guest claims—not proof.)

Most haunted rooms or areas to request

If you’re staying specifically for the paranormal angle, these are the best-known targets:

1. Room 205 – A TripAdvisor reviewer explicitly suggests requesting it, saying it has “touch of paranormal activity.”

2. Upper-floor hallways (2nd/3rd floors) – Commonly associated with apparitions and late-night activity reports.

3. Behind the hotel (Strolling Jim burial / old stable area) – The focal point for the horse-ghost lore.

Check-in request (copy/paste):
“Do you have Room 205 available? If not, could I request a quiet upper-floor room near the historic corridor?”

Recent Guest Reviews

A few publicly visible first-person mentions tie directly to the “haunted stay” angle:

• TripAdvisor (first-person): “Ask for room 205, it has its touch of paranormal activity.”

• Google Travel guest snippet: a reviewer mentions their group came for “documented ghost hunt evidence” (noting the property was under renovation at the time of their post).

(You’ll also find more first-person style accounts in ghost-tour writeups and community posts, but the two above are the clearest “guest voice” style mentions surfaced in this quick pass.)

👻 Ghost rating

Ghost Rating: 7 / 10 — Strong haunted reputation (owner + horse lore, recurring phenomena claims, and paranormal TV features), plus guest mention of activity in specific rooms like 205.

(Temporarily Closed)