This hotel in Homestead was the scene of a tragic fire. Is it haunted by ghosts?
After focusing on Coral Castle, El Nuevo Herald’s Miami Oculto podcast continues its journey to the south of Miami-Dade County to downtown Homestead for a visit to The Hotel Redland, a 13-room gem that is a tribute to to the simple life of early 20th century Florida.
Built in 1904 as a store for railroad employees, The Hotel Redland was renovated in 2000 and is now in perfect working order. It offers guests –many of them on their way to the Keys– cozy rooms decorated with antique furniture.
The Hotel Redland is also known to be “haunted,” the memory of a terrible fire that occurred one night in 1913 in which many guests died still feeds the imagination.
Watch the podcast video here:
Urban legend states that the hotel had ghosts and the guest of this episode of Miami Oculto, David Pierce Rodríguez, a “ghost hunter” who has a team of experts and machines to check if places are really haunted, affirms that he heard and recorded voices.
Founder of the organization Paranormal Research and Investigative Studies Midwest (PRISM), Rodríguez was very clear in his interview with Miami Oculto: There is a room in The Hotel Redland that has a presence that can be felt and his equipment captured it.
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Where did the female voice that the machines recorded come from? Could it be the woman who says she was thrown out of the window, perhaps pushed by an abusive husband? And who is this young Lee who gives his name when the ghost hunters ask his identity? Is it suggestion or do we really hear his name?
David Pierce Rodríguez, who heard his first “weird” noises and had contact with ghosts from a very young age, says he no longer wants people to believe in them. Whoever wants to believe, believes, he says.
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Did you know that animals can be ghosts too? And that a house doesn’t have to be old to be haunted.
Listen to the podcast here:
Believe it or not, you can visit the Redland Hotel. If you don’t run into a ghost—you have to understand they’re choosy about who they associate with—you can at least try the hotel restaurant and have a drink, or visit Homestead’s first movie theater, Seminole, built in 1913 when the town had fewer of 1,000 residents.
Tune in on Tuesdays to watch the episodes on YouTube and the el Nuevo Herald website. Find all the episodes of the Miami Oculto podcast on your favorite audio platform:Spotify Podcast, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music.
