Today on The Grave Talks, the historic and haunted Eldridge Hotel.

Before the Civil War began, Kansas was embroiled in its own battle.

The pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions fought over the issue of allowing slavery in Kansas

in a battle known as Bleeding Kansas or the Border Wars.

Lawrence, Kansas was at the epicenter.

And in 1855, the anti-slavery side built a hotel,

so like-minded people new to the territory would have a place to stay.

They named it the Free State Hotel.

There was no question about what it represented. On the day of its grand opening,

it was burned to the ground. Colonel Shaler Eldridge rebuilt the hotel and vowed to

rebuild it every time the pro-slavery forces attacked it. In 1856, it was burned down again.

The hotel was rebuilt. In 1926, it was burned down again. The hotel was rebuilt.

In 1926, it underwent extensive renovations, and that is the hotel you see today.

It is said that Colonel Eldridge loved the hotel so much that he's never left.

In fact, room 506 is the hotbed of activity at the hotel.

Today on The Grave Talks a conversation about the historic and haunted Eldridge Hotel in

Lawrence, Kansas with Dennis Sneed. Now, Dennis, what do you do at the hotel?

I handle all the marketing and social media, and I also

created the website. So I developed the website and do all the upkeep and maintenance on the

website. And Lawrence is an incredible town. It's a really interesting place in Kansas. I live there

at one time when I was right out of high school. It's been a while since I live there, but I still have family that lives in Lawrence. And Lawrence itself has such an interesting history. In this hotel, the Eldridge Hotel, it really represents the history of the city of Lawrence. So let's go way,

way back and start with a history because Kansas was a free state. So as with a lot of free

...