Still Waters: Stories from The Elms Hotel & Spa Archive

Still Waters: Table of Contents

Step into the history of The Elms Hotel & Spa through letters, diary entries, guest recollections and stories inspired by the hotel’s archives. Each chapter reveals another voice, another moment and another secret carried through generations.

1. The Arrival

A child's letter, folded into family papers. Elsie Everhart is two days into a stay at The Elms in the summer of 1892, writing to her cousin Charlotte with the solemn precision of someone who has been trained to write properly and has not yet learned which details adults would prefer she leave out.

2. The Third Floor

A housekeeper's diary page from the third floor, written by a woman whose name is reduced in the file to one initial: A.

3. The Grand Season

Overview : A guest letter from The Elms at the height of its resort years. The writer has been here nearly two weeks, has taken the waters, and has become a believer.

4. The Waters Cure

Overview: The oldest document in the archive. The hotel does not exist yet. A woman has come to Excelsior Springs in 1882 with a child and a belief in the mineral waters.

5. After the Springs

Elsie's second letter, written from the same trip a few days later. Same cousin, same precision, same instinct for recording what adults consider unremarkable.

6. What Doris Saw

Doris's statement is careful because Doris is trying to stay employed.

She is nine months into the job, new enough to hedge every sentence. The details are exact anyway: a woman in the corridor who was not on the schedule, a vacant room remade overnight in a fold Doris had not been trained to make.

What Doris Saw

August 07, 2026 Maid at the Elms Hotel

Historical

Era: 1920-1933

Overview

Doris's statement is careful because Doris is trying to stay employed.

STAFF STATEMENT

The Elms Hotel, Excelsior Springs

Third Floor — Housekeeping Department

Statement of: D. [surname withheld in archive copy]

Position: Third-floor housekeeper, employed approximately nine months as of this date

Submitted to: Mrs. E. Paulson, Head of Housekeeping

I am submitting this statement at the request of Mrs. Paulson following the matter I reported to her verbally on the morning of Thursday last. I have been asked to put the matter in writing and I have done so as accurately as I am able. I wish also to state that I value my position and would not make a report of this nature if I did not believe it necessary.

On the morning in question I arrived at the third floor to begin my rounds at half past seven, which is my usual time. As I came off the stairs I observed a woman at the far end of the corridor, near Room 316, who appeared to be attending to something at the linen cart. She was dressed in housekeeping uniform and appeared to be working. I did not recognize her as one of my regular colleagues on the floor. I understood there to be occasional additional staff brought in during heavier occupancy periods and I thought nothing of it at the time.

I began my rounds at the near end of the hall. When I passed Room 316 approximately fifteen minutes later, the corridor was empty. The linen cart was where it belonged, in the alcove. I could not account for where the woman had gone.

I raised the matter with Mrs. Paulson that afternoon, asking which colleague had been assigned to the north end of the third floor that morning. Mrs. Paulson informed me that no additional staff had been assigned to the third floor on that date. The regular third-floor staff that morning were myself and Miss T. [surname]. I spoke with Miss T. She stated that she had not been to the north end of the floor before nine o'clock and that she had not seen anyone else on the floor.

I did not pursue the matter further that day.

The following morning I made up Room 314 following the departure of its occupant. I stripped the bed and remade it with fresh linens as is standard practice. At the end of my shift, as part of my final check of the floor, I returned to confirm the room was in order before it was let again. The bed had been disturbed and remade. The linens I had put on that morning had been rearranged — not untidily, I want to be clear about that, but in a manner different from how I had left them. At the lower left corner of the bed the sheet had been turned back against the mattress edge and tucked under before the drape was laid over it. I had not made the bed this way. I was trained to miter the corners. This was not a mitered corner. I do not know who had been in the room. The room had been listed as vacant since the morning checkout and I had no record of it being entered.

I am putting this in writing because Mrs. Paulson asked me to. I want to be clear that I am not suggesting anything irregular occurred. I am reporting what I observed. I did not recognize the woman in the corridor. The bed in Room 314 was remade in a manner I had not used. Those are the facts of the matter as I am able to state them.

D. [surname]

Third Floor, Housekeeping

The Elms Hotel

Received and filed. No further action at this time.

— Mrs. E. Paulson, Head of Housekeeping

Still Waters is a narrative series inspired by the history of The Elms Hotel & Spa in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. Each story blends documented history, local lore, and original storytelling. While many places, people, and events are rooted in the historical record, the letters, journals, conversations, and personal accounts are works of historical fiction created to bring the past to life.

Our goal is not to recreate history exactly as it happened, but to honor the people, places, and moments that shaped The Elms and the community surrounding it through stories that could have been told by those who lived them.

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