21 of the Spookiest Haunted Hotels in America

And you thought that big, giant, scary hotel set in the middle of nowhere in the film "The Shining" was just for the movie? Think again. That place is real, and it's really haunted.

Which got us thinking-which hotels in America, still operating or shuttered, are said to be the most haunted?

After copious research, here are 25 of them we wouldn't exactly visit by ourselves. Maybe not even with a group.

Oh, and remember-all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Bwahhh!

Stephen King has a brilliant mind. So when the author wrote "The Shining," which was later adapted into the classic Jack Nicholson horror film, it wasn't without personal experience. King stayed at the hotel with his wife in 1974 and experienced some of the paranormal activity.

During the 1930s and 40s, three people died at the hotel. Not unusual. Except that all three came from the same family and in the same room-Suite 870-where hotel owner Henry Doherty kept an apartment. Doherty's housekeeper, wife and daughter all died-at separate times. The housekeeper died at 4 a.m., and there have been claims of noises, doors shutting for no reason, furniture moving and all of it coming at 4 a.m.

You want to see lights turning off and on for no reason? Stay in room 621 or 325 of this nearly 100-year old hotel. It doesn't hurt either that the hotel is in a city renowned for its witch trials in the late 1600s.

This hotel was previously a ballroom, a theater, a convent and an orphanage. Maybe that's why guests and staff say they have seen a Confederate soldier, women, children and a dancer.

There was a couple and their daughter, Molly, who attended an event at this hotel many years ago. For some inexplicable reason, the couple and Molly went to the top of the hotel and leapt to their deaths. To this day, people say they still see Molly in the hotel's hallways wearing a white dress and carrying a red ball.

This just might be the most haunted house in America. Let's see, you've got Theodora; people see her a lot. And then there's Michael. Oh, and you can't forget Morris. He's a cat apparition that appears from time to time. Tell us that place doesn't already look spooky from the outside?!?

Did you ever think to yourself, 'Boy, I would have loved to meet Marilyn Monroe.' Um, this might be your chance. The ghost of the famous actress is said to haunt the full-length mirror that was in her suite. Former famed actor Montogomery Clift is also said to have a presence here.

According to Vogue magazine, the innkeeper of this hotel recently told Ellen Brill, the set decorator of "American Horror Story: Hotel," that the footsteps she heard and a door slamming for no reason was Grandpa Helmuth Deetjen, the founder of the hotel.

Several decades ago, Emily Balsam died in Room 308 of this upstate New York hotel. It's not her ghost that haunts the Saranac, however. It's her cat, which is said to cry and scratch at the walls looking for her.

If you're outside on the grounds of this magnificent and very pink hotel, look up toward the fifth floor. Rumor has it that the ghost of Thomas Rowe, who helped found the hotel in 1928, still occupies the hotel and has even been spotted on the nearby beach.

The famous hotel of D.C. power brokers, built on the site of a former mansion owned by John Hay and Henry Adams, is apparently haunted by the ghost of Adams' wife, Marian Hooper Adams. Marian was frequently a guest there.

So, yeah, when your hotel was formerly a hospital, including a morgue and a crematorium, you've got a pretty good chance of being haunted. If you're on the 12th or 14th floors, be on the lookout.

The spirit of Col. Jesse Driskill, who founded the hotel in 1886, is one of the spirits who roam the property. Depending on your proclivity to be scared, or not, ask for Room 525, or not. That's where two brides committed suicide 20 years apart and whose spirits remain in the room.

Well, if you're going to see an apparition, at least it can be civilized. Guests have reported seeing a couple dinking at this high-end resort on New York's Lake George-as well as a woman in white and a boy from the 1950s.

Two 'visitors' here. One is a bit of a celebrity-John P. Slough, Chief Justice of the Territorial Supreme Court, was shot to death in the hotel lobby in 1867. They say he still hangs out at the Inn. The other was a salesman who jumped to his death into the hotel's well. Where do people see the vision? Coming out of the hotel fountain, of course.

The ghosts? Oh, those aren't hearsay. The legendary ship itself, now docked in Long Beach, actually offers a few different ghost tours so you can see for yourself the sailor, the woman in white and several kids who haunt the boat.

Jane Stanford, the co-founder of Stanford University, died at this hotel in 1905 under dubious circumstances. Guests and hotel staff insist that, more than 110 years later, Stanford wanders the halls looking for her room.

What a tragic story. In 1936, Patricia Wilson came to the Seelbach to meet with her ex-husband. There was talk of a reconciliation. She was told that he was killed in a car crash on his way to the hotel. Consumed by grief, Wilson committed suicide by throwing herself down the elevator shaft. Today, many still see the 'Lady in Blue' on the eighth floor.

The Congress Plaza revels in its reputation for being haunted, hosting a Haunted Halloween Ball every year. One of the more famous apparitions floating through the hotel? None other than Al Capone.

Built in 1886, the hotel is said to be haunted by a former maid nicknamed "Mrs. Clean," who apparently wanders the hotel room picking up after the current housekeeping staff.

One of the oldest establishments in America has been a magnet for ghostbusters, er, paranormal activity investigators. Sorry. Staff and guests have both said they've seen a young girl carrying flowers and a man in a top hat.