Upfront, I need to explain why I was so jazzed to be able to stay at this location. There are certain aspects of historical locations that ping with me. I haven’t done a personal deep dive yet to understand why, but I have my suspicions. I am fascinated by asylums, mental hospitals, locations associated with nuns, the 1850s-1920s (roughly), and Romanesque and Gothic-style architecture. This isn’t even necessarily limited to paranormal investigating. I will find myself gravitating towards these places just to be in their presence. I feel at my most connected in these spaces.
So while I was looking for places to stay on my travels to the East Coast, I stumbled upon the Richardson Hotel. The initial images of the building alone piqued my interest, because it looks simultaneously imposing yet welcoming, and resonates with history.
The History
The Richardson Hotel was not originally a luxury hotel, but was the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane (1872 – cornerstone) and later the Buffalo State Hospital. It is also known as the Richardson Olmsted Complex, which is 45-acres and 500,000 sqft. The facility was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson (H.H. Richardson), featuring the Richardsonian Romanesque design which is named after him. This design utilized rocky masonry, massive towers, beautifully dramatic arches, and a very asymmetrical design. Despite its asymmetry, the structure feels strikingly balanced without simply using mirrored wings and substructures in its architecture. Richardson is most well known for the Trinity Church (1877) in Boston, Albany City Hall (1883) in (naturally) Albany, and the Allegheny County Courthouse (1888) in Pittsburgh- to name only a few of his works. Richardson died before the completion of this particular project, but his successors tried valiantly to maintain his vision, a few alterations aside.
The landscape architecture was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, who notably designed Central Park (1858) and the landscaping of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. Olmstead was also featured at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition (1893) and contributed to the design of the Niagara Falls State Reservation and the Buffalo Parks System. Olmstead is known for building sanctuaries out of nature for the people who will engage with the natural space and his skills are still at play in the walking paths on the Richardson Hotel/Richardson Olmsted Complex property.
This hospital’s layout utilized the Kirkbride Plan, which was a popular design plan developed by American psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride. His style of mental hospitals was popular during the mid-to-late 1800s. The structure typically included a main administrative building in the center and two wings on either side, but not straight out. The wings were often staggered or curved, like a bat’s wing. These structures became popular in the United States in the wake of the Civil War and the growing call for taking mental health more seriously in the country. Kirkbride based his design on a philosophy of Moral Treatment of patients, with an emphasis on environmental effects (sunlight, fresh air, privacy, etc.).
The famous Dorothea Dix is one of the people who led the charge to improve the way in which mental health patients were being treated in that era. At the time mental health patients were being imprisoned in jails, basements of public buildings, residential buildings turned “homes” and even private homes (I inevitably think of old stories of mad women in attics). Dix believed in Kirkbride’s construction philosophy and led the effort for the first Kirkbride asylum to be built: New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum.
The Kirkbride Plan lost popularity towards the turn of the century due to governmental budget cuts for mental health care. These structures were massive and often costly to maintain in regards to staff and general care quality. Many of these structures built during this time are, today, rendered inactive, have been demolished, or have been partially demolished and rebuilt for modern convenience. One of the most famous locations associated with the Kirkbride Plan for paranormal investigators is the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia.
I actually live near Oshkosh, Wisconsin and the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in that city followed the Kirkbride model. I was disappointed to hear it had been demolished in stages over time, but the echoes of the structure are still present. Even though all Kirkbride related structures are long gone from the premises, I might take a little trip over there someday to visit the Julaine Farrow Museum located in the superintendent’s residence. The museum provides great insight into the institute’s history.
My final note of connection to this style of architecture and method of mental healthcare from a bygone day is my upcoming stop at what was previously the Danvers State Hospital. I’ll be publishing about my visit and the echoes of the past that still resonate at that location. That location also used the Kirkbride architectural method, but, like so many others, the facility was eventually shuttered. The administration building is still in use, but everything else on the grounds was torn down to make apartments, condos, and amenities, like a pool area. A quick reminder that Danvers State Hospital was the inspiration for Arkham Asylum in Batman, influenced H.P. Lovecraft in his writing, and was also used to film the 2001 film Session 9.
The Stay and Investigation
The Richardson Hotel is not a place you can actively investigate. I chose to stay at the Richardson Hotel as a waypoint for my journey east because it appeared to provide a comfortable and unique respite for my travels. That said, I went in being open to what experience the old building and its possible ghosts had to offer me. While I was traveling with paranormal equipment, I did not intend to break any of it out at this stop. The extent to which I would investigate would be to appreciate the architecture and enjoy the museum gallery that is in the lower level of the Tower Building. Being a sensitive individual makes it difficult to sometimes avoid feeling spiritual energy when you encounter it. I did not go to this place in search of interactions, but my inner channel nevertheless remained tuned to any spirits that wished to communicate. And I did encounter several spirits on the property by simply walking around and photographing the impressive location.
The reason that I feel it is important to explain this is that research has revealed to me that those who run the hotel and the rest of the complex are opposed to ghost hunting. Now, the research I found concerned the Hotel Henry, which was the name of the Richardson Hotel before its most recent change in management, but I found other information that described a board of directors being involved in the decision. I had to go into this place operating under the assumption that this stance was still being held. The Hotel Henry previously prohibited unauthorized ghost hunting and actively avoided promoting hauntings. I read another interview with a board member who said they were against opening the facilities on the complex grounds to ghost hunting out of respect for the patients and staff, both past and present.
According to Roadtrippers.com, published on December 3, 2019, the Richardson Olmstead Campus itself does not support paranormal investigations on the grounds:
“Respecting the Past: Why There are No Ghost Tours Here
In fact, while some former hospitals have capitalized on the public’s fear, offering dedicated ghost hunting and paranormal activity tours, the Richardson Olmsted Campus instead focuses on the complex’s goal of hope and healing. ‘We are trying to be respectful of the history here, especially because we have people who come on tours who were patients here, or had family who lived here or worked here in the past,’ Krolewicz says. ‘So many people have connections to this building. If we were to cater to [the ghost hunting] audience, I think it would alienate some other audiences.’”
On the flipside, there have been several articles since 2019, as recent as this year (2025) that have been published promoting it as a paranormal hotspot and a must-visit haunted location. I prefer to err on the side of caution in these situations and, as I said, engage when the spirits reach out to me.
I only had one night’s stay at the Richardson Hotel. Leading up to my arrival I had experienced a number of annoying travel snafus and by the time I arrived, a lot of my anticipatory excitement had been drained. I really just wanted to get to my room and relax so I could make the drive to Salem, my final destination, the next day. But the travel gods weren’t done with me yet. My reservation seemed to have disappeared from their system. Luckily I kept copies of all of my reservation information and a new room was assigned to me. Not just any room, mind you- an upgraded room! I have to say that kind of apology flex makes my heart swoon and resparked the dying embers of my excitement to see what this place had to offer in the way of a “boo-tique experience.
The Richardson Hotel has all the architectural stimulation that you could ask for. From the window glass to the original woodwork and the gorgeous grand stairway, you could spend a few hours just luxuriating in the beauty this location has to offer. And you can feel the history of it as well. That combined with the modern art brought into the space by its current owners makes the entire atmosphere of the hotel refreshing and pleasant. I’ll put some pictures down below so you can get a sense for the aesthetic. The homesite for the hotel hosts an impressive collection of professional images that you can see here. Otherwise, here are some of my vacation snapshots.
The place is a maze, as many hospitals and administrative buildings are from the time period. Each wing has its own set of elevators and various stairwells. My Fitbit was on fire that night, despite my being so physically exhausted from travel. I couldn’t believe I was walking around this giant place. But I had promised myself that I was going to see all the things I could. This was my only chance and I very much wanted to look around the building. This also included spending time in the lower level museum gallery, learning more about the hospital and the renovations done to the structure over the years.
Paranormal Encounters
On the lower floor of the Towers Building is a 24/7 museum gallery that focuses on general Buffalo architecture, as well as the mental health history of the site, curated and exhibited by the Lipsey Architect Center Buffalo. They are also the group that provides interior and exterior architectural and landscape tours around the Richardson Olmsted Campus. Due to my attendance in November, many of these options were not available to me, but the gallery on the first floor was and it is here that I encountered my first spirit.
I walked through and read the various placards about the history and thoughtfully took in the artifacts that allowed me to envision a more relatable picture of the hospitals – relatable in a hyper-positive way. All evidence seems to indicate that nothing other than meaningful wellness practices existed on campus. There were concerts and plays, dances and group exercise inside and outside the building. I did appreciate the information on the agricultural program the old hospital boasted which comes up often in relation to insane asylums, debt farms, and other holding homes for the less financially secure.
As I took in the history being strategically shared with me, I received an energy zing or, as I like to call them if you are familiar with my work, “ghost fuzzies”. They were on my arm, as if someone gently grabbed my arm to stop me from moving. In those few seconds I knew several things that were going on: 1) I was on camera and was unsure if I could overtly talk to this spirit, 2) I had no equipment with me to help them communicate, and 3) I knew she wanted to talk, but I felt I couldn’t do it out in the open. So I tried to identify where the noticeable cameras were and then turned away from them in order to quietly speak.
I said,”Hi hun. I can feel you here. Follow me when I leave and we can talk privately.”
I was touched again and I immediately knew the spirit was a woman. She had been a patient here. She was from the West Wing. She wanted to talk here and didn’t want to leave this area.
“I don’t think I can converse with you here, because they don’t want me to.”
Then the most interesting thing happened. It’s like I felt a switch in her go off and her mental state shifted. She started getting a little jittery and I felt an almost incomprehensible stream of thoughts pass through my mind about the stairs and how “you can’t leave if you can’t go up the stairs”. She then planted images of stairs that had once existed in the room but had long since been removed.
The stairs she was speaking of had originally connected the basement to the first floor. You can still see the staircase anchors in the wall of the museum with a sign explaining what they are and photos of what the staircase looked like originally.
I explained to her that she could just follow me and that there are new stairs. But the thoughts that kept floating back to me were her being upset about the missing stairs. I apologized to her and tried to redirect things to talk about if she needed anything – the stairs. I asked if I could pass along a message for her – the stairs. I asked for her name – missing stairs. Finally I wished her love and best wishes as kindly and as heartfelt as I could, truly understanding her mental struggle, and I went back to my room.
The rest of the night was quiet and I was exhausted. So I went to bed, relishing the pillows and super comfy mattress.
At 2:04 AM, I woke up. It wasn’t sudden. I merely drifted out of my sleep. I slowly opened my eyes and I saw a tall woman in a white nurse dress or habit, with a white veil or maybe a nurses hat? It was hard to tell, because she felt so bright. She was standing next to the end of my bed. I started to prop myself up to get a better look, adjusting my eyes and she walked to the other side of my bed and sat down with her back to me. Then she turned to look at me. The images were not crisp, so I couldn’t really make out her face or hair. Everything just felt so white. And as she looked at me, her hand reached out on the bed, not touching me, but as if to say, “Are you okay?” I remember thinking or hearing, “Why are you here, dear?”
By 2:06 AM she was gone and sleep had reclaimed me.
Nighttime visits can be difficult, because you don’t know if you’re awake or dreaming, but it didn’t really matter to me. My mind processed this woman as a nun, but of a nursing variety. She felt pre-1900. And she was confused why I was there with her in that room. I did immediate research the next morning and found information indicating that there were nuns who were nurses at the Buffalo State Hospital, but more recent research has turned up nothing concrete. Nuns most certainly worked and volunteered frequently at Catholic Hospitals in Buffalo, New York. Maybe this visitor I had was a nun who, after having passed on, chose to make this her home. There are all sorts of options, but I did need to entertain the option that she could have simply been a pre-1900 nurse in her white uniform and I was too sleep-brained to interpret what I was seeing.
As I gathered my things, preparing to check-out on time so I could get to Salem with time to spare, I finally put out two pieces of equipment. Both were EMF readers and I tried to speak to the spirit if they were still there. I did not receive any interactions and it was soon time for me to go.
The Richardson Hotel is an amazing historical relic. The work that has gone into restorations and celebrating the positive history of the place is evident and full of love. I recommend visiting or touring or even staying at the hotel. I would very much like to go back, if not to work through my paranormal experiences, but to once again bask in the history of this indelible space.
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