Scary Times at the Skirvin Hotel

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
In 1910, William Balser Skirvin, a millionaire and real estate developer built a hotel in America's heartland. In its 100-plus history it has seen many pass through its doors, so it's not so strange that it's developed a reputation for being haunted.

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Albert Meyers was crushed to death in an elevator shaft within months of the Skirvin Hotel opening c.1910

In the spring of 1910, construction started on the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City.

On November 30, William Henry Proctor was killed by being hit on the head by a falling scaffold while at work. He was a stonemason. A man working at the top of the building accidentally knocked the timber off.

Two weeks later scaffolding on which 50 men were engaged in laying brick gave way without warning. Two men were killed. Ray Peppard, 33, and Irvin Walter. Others near the men caught hold of hanging timbers or window sills and escaped falling. The two men who fell five stories, landed on a pile of bricks nearly at the exact spot at where Proctor was killed, which was the north side of the building. Onna Peppard his widow eventually won $12,000 from Skirvin and the construction company, but only after they refused, blaming him for the accident.

Eventually five men were killed during the construction of the ten-story hotel, before it opened its doors on September 26, 1911. 

The hotel was designed to cater to upscale guests, and William Skirvin furnished the suites on the ninth floor with the best decor. He occupied the floor with his three children, Pearl, Marguerite and Orren. His wife Hattie had died in 1908, from pneumonia. 

Within a month of the hotel's opening, Albert Meyers (Myers), 20, a bellhop was killed. He was on the sixth floor attempting to repair the door of the freight elevator. He had stepped out on the beam in the elevator shaft, and had his foot braced against the weight attachment. When the bell rang for the elevator he called out, but the boy in the elevator did not hear him. His foot became caught as the elevator started up from the first floor and as the weight dropped from above, and he was crushed against the side of the shaft. None witnessed the accident.

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Frederick W. Scherubel committed suicide at Skirvin Hotel only after 2 years as its manager

Within 18-months another death occurred at the Skirvin Hotel. This one was not so inconsequential to Mr. Skirvin who owned the hotel. Frederick W. Scherubel, 37, managing director of the hotel shot himself in the head. He had just been complimented by the stockholders for his good management style, however the reason given for the rash act, was an excruciating headache due to his adenoids. No suicide note was found. He shot himself while his wife entertained a group of friends at a social function in the parlor of the hotel. A few minutes before he had been circulating among the guests and attending a board meeting.

Assistant County Attorney Archie Hilpirt opened a murder inquiry despite Skirvin's assurance his manager was overworked and suffering from different ailments. Investigators confirmed the gun found in the bathroom was the one that had fired the deadly shot, however Scherubel's face was bruised, and he had no gunpowder burns that were usually found with a close range shot. 

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The Skirvin Hotel was raided for liquor and gambling devices c.1914

Mabel Luty the hotel bookkeeper and Skirvin's secretary, told investigators Scherubel had kept the firearm for protection since he was having problems with the hotel's cooks.

Dr. T.A. Buchanan testified at the inquiry that adenoids would not have been painful enough to cause a person to take their own life.

Despite inconsistencies, investigator could not prove the manager had been murdered, and the death was ruled a suicide.

Scherubel was a member of the Masonic and Elks lodges, and the Oklahoma City Commandery Knights Templars. In full uniform, members of the Blue Lodge, along with friends and relatives accompanied the line of procession. It was headed by the Masonic band of twenty-one pieces where it proceeded to the First Christian Church. Despite the pomp and circumstance of his funerary entourage, no memorial was erected over Scherubel's grave in Fairlawn Cemetery to mark his death in 1913.

No further mention was made of Mr. Scherubel's strange timing for doing away with himself, or if indeed it was an act of self-destruction. 

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W.B. Skirvin, the millionaire who built the Skirven Hotel in 1910

In September, 1914 less than a year after Scherubel killed himself, the sheriff M.C. Binion battered down doors at the Skirvin Hotel. He found nearly a barrel of fine wine, and six barrels of bottled bond whisky stored in the linen rooms on the 9th floor of the hotel. From rooms on other floors smaller quantities were found, including from guest rooms. Inside the "linen room" police found gambling apparatus, including poker tables.

J.F. Hartwell, alleged to be one of the owners of the hotel, along with Jack Medley, a clerk were arrested. A warrant was issued for Ed Cummings another stockholder who was out of the city. The charge was "conducting a place where intoxicating liquors are sold." 

The outcome of the incident was hushed up, which is not surprising considering Skirvin's connections.

The next death at the Skirvin Hotel was not an employee but a guest. In July, 1918 Rue Mitchell, 23, died unexpectedly. She lived at the Skirvin Hotel with her husband who was traveling on business. She had complained of a sore throat, but died before being operated on.

​In 1928, Nancy Jones, 43, a former missionary to China committed suicide by taking poison while staying in one of the rooms in the Skirvin Hotel. She had been in Oklahoma City for five months, and had plans to find a job as a nurse. For an unknown reason she told her friends at the boarding house where she was staying that she planned to "end it all". She was widowed and had left a postcard with her sister's name, who was married to the city manger.

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There were several mysteries tied to the suicide of Nancy Jones in the hotel c.1928

The police started an investigation as to what happened to $1,700 that Nancy had withdrawn from the bank, but it could not be found in the hotel room, and she never mentioned it in the short note she left. Nothing more is written about why she took the money out, or where it went.

​In 1930, four more floors were added to the hotel, building over the infamous 10th floor which had hosted illegal gambling and drinking, including reports of a rigged roulette wheel. There were 525, well-appointed rooms, a roof garden and a cabaret club.

It's not unusual for a hotel to host celebrations, but many other events occurred under its roof, and not all of them pleasant or made public.

In 1933, Bob Anderson, a well known traveling salesman died suddenly in his room at the Skirvin Hotel following an attack of acute indigestion.

Only a few months later on July 5, 1933, Charles N. Haskell, Oklahoma's first governor after statehood in 1907, died in his suite at the Skirvin Hotel. He was sick and collapsed in the hotel lobby, dying from pneumonia. He was 70 years old.

In 1937, George H. William, owner of the Willis Tailoring Co. which had operated in the Skirvin Hotel since  1918 died. He was one of the best tailors in the city. Pneumonia claimed him after two months, He was 70 years old.

​In 1938, Skirvin's daughter Pearl (later changed to Perle) filed suit for accounting of her father's Globe Pipe Line Corporation and other companies, alleging that her father had transferred irregularly to his own name stock, which she held in the firm. She was joined by her siblings. Two months later they settled after meeting in private without any attorneys present. However this was only a temporary treaty.

Surprisingly Pearl Skirvin Mesta was not short of money. She had married George Mesta, a man 20 years older than her in 1917. He died in 1925, and left her a fortune of $15 million.

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The Skirvin Hotel was decorated in English Gothic style

On March 12, 1944  William Skirvin was thrown into the windshield of a car in which he was riding with a friend. He suffered several broken bones, and then pneumonia set in. He died on March 25, at the age of 83. 

Only two weeks before his death, he regained control of his extensive oil and hotel fortune, which was restored to him by federal court decree concluding long litigation with members of his family.

The best known ghost story of the Skirvin Hotel is tied to Mr. Skirvin. Rumors are that during Prohibition, he took up with a maid who worked at the hotel. She became pregnant, and he locked her up on the 10th floor, Room 1015 to be exact. Someone with his reputation could not have withstood the notoriety of having impregnated one of his own employees. After she had the baby, they kept her locked up. Supposedly one day she jumped out with the baby in her arms. Problem is there is no story of anyone jumping from the Skirvin Hotel.

​The ghost was dubbed "Effie".

Skirvin was a womanizer, and it's not a stretch of the imagination to believe he had a fling with a maid, but none of the Effie story has been verified one way or another.

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Skirvin Hotel postcard c.1930s

Effie is said to accost men, mostly by touch, but others have claimed to see her in the nude. Sometimes she opts for clothing, in the form of a red dress. She has been experienced throughout the hotel. Effie is known for playing pranks on people by knocking on doors, whispering and opening drawers.

​During those years "beer parties" and gambling took place in the hotel, making it a well visited speakeasy. No doubt the flirtatious ghost nicknamed "Effie" could have found her origins there. Perhaps a flapper, but not the unfortunate chambermaid if she ever existed, and definitely not Nancy Jones, the missionary nurse who died by ingesting poison.

But it's not only Effie's antics which are felt. Others report maid's carts pushed down the hall, as well as weird noises. There are also reports of hearing a baby cry, which considering it's a hotel is not an unusual thing, but then who knows. 

​The Skirvin Hotel and Skirvin Tower were sold to Dan James, a well-known hotelier. Throughout the years he renovated the hotel, but it closed in 1988 due to little occupancy.  The building was empty and abandoned for almost 20 years.

It reopened in 2007 as the Skirvin Hilton. In 2025, the hotel completed a $22 million renovation.

In 2010, Bulls' Taj Gibson told of an eerie experience during his stay:

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At one point, at around 12:15 at night, my bathroom door just slammed completely shut. I don't know what it was, but it just completely slammed. It took me a minute to kind of figure out what [it] was." His teammates at the time reported hearing other odd noises throughout the night in the halls.

That same year Bill Simmons a columnist for ESPN stayed at the hotel, and retold the following story: 

.. I woke up at 4:30 with my heart pounding. I swear on Tom Brady's ACLs that the following happened: At first, I heard a baby crying and realized that was why I woke up. I thought it was one of my own kids before remembering that my kids weren't babies anymore, then remembering that I was not in Los Angeles. Suddenly, it dawned on me that I wasn't alone. I had an overpowering sensation that someone else was in the room. Until you've experienced that feeling, you can't understand what it's like. Your blood is swishing through your veins at 200 mph, only you don't understand why. Your body reacts a few seconds before your brain does.

The lobby area is decorated with carvings of Dionysus

Prior to Gibson's story, the New York Knicks famously blamed their loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on the haunting.

In 2012, the Miami Heat were playing the NBA finals and stayed at the hotel. One of their players Eddy Curry believed it was haunted.

​In 2016, Justise Winslow, a player for the Miami Heat said he was taking a shower around 9 a.m. Unexpectedly the bathroom door moved on its own. He was quoted as saying he tried to spend the least amount of time in the room.

Gerald Green was the first one to tell Tyler Johnson about the haunting at the Skirvin Hotel. Green said that on a prior visit he had to share a room with a teammate because of noises they heard throughout the night.

Some players have been so spooked they have paid from their own pocket to stay in another hotel.

The lobby area is decorated with carvings of Dionysus, a Greek god known as the deity of wine, festivity, fertility, and religious ecstasy. He was known as Bacchus by the Romans. These carvings overlook the lobby from the mezzanine level.

Steven Lackmeyer who wrote a book about the Skirvin Hotel, specified that he didn't believe in ghosts but did describe the following eerie event: ​

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​But when the Skrivin closed in 1988, a couple years later, the entire power box was pulled, so there would be no danger of fire. No power, no electric going to that building for the next 15 years. I started covering the Skirvin back in the mid-'90s, and every time you went in that lobby, right where W.B. Skirvin would sit in his chair, there was one light bulb that always stayed lit. There was no power. And that light stayed lit until the destruction phase started the renovations and gutting. I saw it. I can't explain that. There's one other tale I'll tell you. Make out of this what you want. Before the hotel reopened, we were being given a tour of the finished rooms by one of the owners. We went to the 10th floor, which had been totally sealed and locked down. When you're about to open a new hotel, they don't want construction workers going into these rooms once they've been readied for inspection. We went into the suite, the TV was on, and it was playing the kind of movies that amorous Effie might indulge in. So if you believe in those stories, I imagine how those two might add some interest to that. I'm sure there's an explanation.