Formerly: Crutchfield House (1847–1867)
Chattanooga, Tennessee · Founded 1847 · Building: 1926
A Chattanooga hotel with 1847 site roots, rebuilt as The Read House in 1872 and housed in a 1926 R. H. Hunt-designed building.
The Read House occupies the site of Chattanooga’s 1847 Crutchfield House, a rail-depot hotel that served Confederate and Union forces during the Civil War. After the Crutchfield House burned in 1867, Dr. John T. Read opened a new Read House on January 1, 1872. Most of that building was demolished in 1925 and replaced by the present ten-story hotel, which opened July 5, 1926.
Thomas Crutchfield Sr. opens the Crutchfield House across from Chattanooga's Union Depot.
Source: Visit Chattanooga, "Hidden in Plain Sight"; Tennessee Vacation, "Crutchfield House"
During the Civil War, the Crutchfield House is used by Confederate forces and later as Ford Hospital for Union soldiers.
Source: Visit Chattanooga, "Hidden in Plain Sight"; The Read House official history
A major Tennessee River flood inundates the Crutchfield House; later that year, on September 10, the building burns down.
Source: Visit Chattanooga, "Hidden in Plain Sight"; The Read House official history
Dr. John T. Read opens the Read House hotel on the former Crutchfield House site.
Source: Tennessee Vacation, "Crutchfield House"; VoiceMap, "Read All About It: Historic Read House"
A historical account reports that the Read House temporarily moves across the street for seven months because of lower rent.
Source: Southern Minnesota Living, "Chattanooga's Read House Celebrates Milestone Anniversary"
Most of the nineteenth-century Read House structure is demolished in preparation for a new hotel building.
Source: The Read House Hotel historical summary
The present ten-story Read House hotel building opens, designed by R. H. Hunt.
Source: The Read House Hotel historical summary; National Park Service historical-district documentation
The Read House is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Source: The Read House official history
Avocet Hospitality Group acquires The Read House and begins a major renovation with local historians, architects, and designers.
Source: Visit Chattanooga, "Hidden in Plain Sight"; Avocet Hospitality Group, "The Read House"
Avocet Hospitality completes a $28 million renovation that restores 1920s-inspired public spaces and reimagines Room 311.
Source: Avocet Hospitality Group, "The Read House"; The Read House official history
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The alleged Capone stay and Room 311 bars are repeated in hotel lore, but this review found no federal-marshals record, court transport log, or contemporaneous Chattanooga reporting. The claimed 1927 timing also conflicts with Capone's 1931 federal tax-evasion case.
The Annalisa Netherly story is a modern Room 311 legend alleging that a jealous lover killed her in the room in 1927. This review found no primary police, coroner, death, or court record verifying the person, the murder, or a haunting. The room's 2018 period-style restoration documents present-day interpretation, not the legend's factual basis.
The 1847 Crutchfield House burned in 1867. The Read House then opened as a new hotel in 1872, and a historical account reports a seven-month relocation across the street in 1877. The present building dates to 1926, so an uninterrupted same-site claim is not supportable.
Historical accounts say the Crutchfield House was used by Confederate forces and subsequently as Ford Hospital for Union soldiers during the Civil War. The hotel’s own history says hundreds of soldiers were treated there.
Everything below has been reported by two or more independent sources — this is an informational record of what's said about this place, not a verified account of paranormal activity. Still Open America doesn't certify hauntings as real.
Room 311 is associated with a female presence called Annalisa Netherly. Guests report shadowy figures, unexplained noises, lights flickering, water running without an apparent cause, cold breezes, a feeling of being watched, and physical touches or pinches reported especially by male guests.
No primary police, coroner, death, or court record reviewed for this entry confirms that Annalisa Netherly existed, died in Room 311, or was murdered there in 1927.
Visitors and ghost-tour accounts describe soldiers in Civil War-era uniforms walking the fourth-floor halls and then vanishing. The story is usually linked to the Crutchfield House predecessor's documented Civil War hospital use on the site.
Staff and visitors report footsteps, sudden cold spots, unexplained voices, and shadowy movement in the lobby, hallways, and ballroom. These reports are not consistently linked to a single named historical figure.
The current Read House building was constructed in 1847 or 1872.
The 1847 Crutchfield House burned in 1867, and Dr. John T. Read opened a new hotel in 1872. Most of that later building was demolished in 1925 and replaced by the present R. H. Hunt-designed hotel, which opened in 1926.
Source: Visit Chattanooga, "Hidden in Plain Sight"; The Read House Hotel historical summary
Holabird & Roche designed the present Read House in 1926.
Historical documentation identifies R. H. Hunt as architect of the present ten-story hotel building, opened July 5, 1926.
Source: The Read House Hotel historical summary; National Park Service historical-district documentation
Annalisa Netherly's 1927 murder is documented history.
The Annalisa Netherly murder story is Room 311 folklore. This review found no primary police, coroner, court, or death record establishing the person or alleged event.
Source: Ghost City Tours, "The Haunted Read House Hotel"; 6AM City, "A tour of the Read House Hotel's haunted Room 311"
Al Capone stayed in Room 311 in 1927 while awaiting federal trial.
The story lacks independently retrieved transport or court evidence, and the stated 1927 timing conflicts with Capone's 1931 federal tax case.
Source: The Read House Hotel historical summary; Ghost City Tours, "The Haunted Read House Hotel"
The Read House has survived by repeatedly rebuilding its identity around downtown Chattanooga’s changing economy. Its history includes a predecessor hotel, Civil War hospital use, a devastating 1867 fire, a nineteenth-century Read House, and the present 1926 building. Avocet Hospitality’s $28 million 2018 renovation revived the property as a 1920s-inspired luxury hotel and made its Room 311 legend part of its modern visitor story.
The Read House in Chattanooga, Tennessee, occupies the site of the 1847 Crutchfield House. After that predecessor hotel burned in 1867, Dr. John T. Read opened The Read House on January 1, 1872. The present ten-story building, designed by R. H. Hunt, opened on July 5, 1926.
The Read House has a site lineage reaching to the 1847 Crutchfield House, but it is not a verified claimant to Tennessee’s oldest continuously operating hotel title. The original hotel burned in 1867, The Read House opened in 1872, a temporary 1877 relocation is documented, and the current building dates to 1926.
The earliest source located in this review is a 2014 Ghost City Tours page repeating the Annalisa Netherly and Room 311 story. That source documents a modern online retelling, not the first time the legend was reported. Further Chattanooga newspaper and court-record research is needed to date its origin.
107 W MLK Blvd, Chattanooga, TN 37402
(423) 266-4121
Confirm current dining, ballroom, Room 311, lobby, and public-area access directly with the hotel before planning a non-guest visit.