Good evening,

Welcome to the Grand Midway Hotel, a privately owned building and base camp for several ongoing artistic ventures.  Stays are by invitation only.  When guests do venture this far out into the Pennsylvania mountains to stay the night I feel like Dracula giving tours to Jonathon Harker in his romantic, far off Transylvania castle.  It is a creepy old 32 room building and has been featured in more then one paranormal documentary as well as a few television shows.  The historic Midway dates back to the 1800s frontier coal mining community of Windber, PA when the town first sprung up.  Beneath us extends about fifteen miles of under ground tunnels and coal mines in every direction.  "An entire city down there," it has been called.

The Grand Midway Hotel itself had been closed for almost a quarter of a century.  It was purchased by singer/songwriter Damien Youth and his wife Betsy Black, and myself, filmmaker and novelist Blair Murphy, at the turn of the century as a "breathing canvas" for ourselves and friends in the arts.  Several very committed artists have resided here since and manifested projects in the time they’ve stayed. I now remain as the sole owner and host.

The hotel's web page offers a virtual tour, which includes views into many of the rooms, halls, hiding spots, and basement among other treats.  It is an ongoing growing window into this strange, unique building.  It offers updates of many of the projects being created here. It also exposes haunted stories and odd experiences within these darkened, enchanted walls, with collected letters from the visiting guests and archived photos of everyone's adventures.

Currently Empyre Films, an independent feature film company from Venice Beach, California, is using the building as a production and post-production house.  We have also been in talks with the State of PA to represent a potential new Film Commission office out of the building for this area.  Some of the films being created here are highlighted within the virtual tour.

If you'd like to peek into our mysterious Shangri La, hopefully it is after midnight, light a candle in a darkened room, and you feel free to wander and explore at your private leisure the halls and sounds of this unusual place.

Thinking of you -from here.  Your host,

Blair Murphy