Welcome, brave souls, to a haunting journey through Flint’s storied past. Tonight, we unravel the eerie legend of The Durant Hotel, a grand establishment with a ghostly legacy. If you turn around you will the grand Durant Hotel on two blocks over.

Our tale begins in the early 20th century, when Flint was a booming city, and hotels were turning away guests. In December 1920, the Citizen’s Hotel Company unveiled The Durant Hotel on Second Avenue, named in honor of William C. Durant, founder of General Motors. This opulent 264-room hotel, costing $2.5 million and taking three years to build, quickly became a symbol of luxury and grandeur.

The Durant Hotel was the epicenter of Flint’s social scene, hosting extravagant New Year’s Eve celebrations and attracting high-profile guests like Frank Sinatra and Doris Day. Its grandeur was not limited to its rooms; the hotel boasted its own shopping district, including a jewelry store, a bank, and a hat shop, as well as popular spots like the Purple Cow Restaurant and The Wheel Room.

In 1937, The Durant played a crucial role in ending the violent Sit-down strike, with Governor Frank Murphy using the hotel as his headquarters to negotiate between GM and the UAW.

Yet, prosperity was fleeting. By 1939, declining guests and mounting debts led to its foreclosure. Metropolitan Life Insurance purchased it in 1940, and later, the Pick Hotel Corporation renamed it the Pick Durant Hotel. Though the hotel enjoyed a revival, a devastating fire in 1960 and declining downtown business led to its closure in 1973.

For decades, The Durant stood as a boarded-up relic of Flint’s past until 2005, when it was acquired by the Genesee County Land Bank. Reopened in 2010 as the Durant Housing Complex, the building now houses apartments, offices, and storefronts. But with its new life came old whispers of the supernatural.

Guests and employees have reported eerie occurrences. On the sixth floor, footsteps echo through the halls—many believe they belong to Billy Durant himself, reliving his glory days. In the grand ballroom, the sounds of laughter, footsteps, and dancing often fill the air when no one else is around.

The hotel’s mysterious neon sign would light up on its own long after the doors were closed, and the phone number remained in the phone book, leading many to the abandoned building. In 1979, reports of a female ghost began circulating, adding to the hotel’s haunted reputation.

In 2008, during renovations, a tragic incident occurred when a construction worker fell from a window. Some locals claim a ghostly hand might have been involved. A young man in his 20s has also been seen wandering outside where the College Inn coffee shop once stood.

And there is the ghostly tale of Lawrence Hutchins, who in 1928 intervened to help a waitress being harassed by bellboys from the Durant. Tragically, Lawrence was left to die on Second Avenue after the attackers fled. To this day, some believe Lawrence’s spirit lingers, searching for justice and a way home.

As you leave tonight, remember that The Durant Hotel is more than just bricks and mortar—it is a vessel of memories, both joyful and tragic. Some ghosts are content to relive their past, while others seek answers. As you walk through Flint, keep an eye out for these lingering spirits, for in the shadows of history, the past is never truly gone.