The property was foreclosed upon by elderly, wealthy businessman and freeholder Lionel Gilman, who rebranded the hotel and built it 5 stories higher over the following 15 years. Gilman never married, and the Schonheits were imprisoned and eventually deported. Their daughter, fifteen-year old Denise Tristessa Schonheit was never found by authorities and presumed to have escaped and began a new life
under an assumed name. Her parents were ruled to have engineered her escape, and charges were filed for conspiracy. When Gillman passed of a heart attack in 1901, the property went to Gilman's brother and was purchased by several notable businessmen and landowners, including billionaire John D. Cleveland who lost most of his considerable fortune shortly thereafter and Calvin Maitland, a banker who admitted himself for psychological evaluation within 7 months of ownership. Most notable characteristics to the hotel include the lavish Persephone Ballroom, restored in 1930 and remodeled in 1996. The ballroom was used for mayoral inaugurations dating back from 1934, however celebrations ceased in 1954 when a tremor took the life of 214 guests during a masquerade ball. While the room was repaired, the reputation of venue did not, and was subsequently shunned by the general public. Police reports, recently discovered in 2007, indicate that several unsolved and unpursued murders, suicides, and unexplained deaths had occurred within the hotel's walls. The 5th floor, known as the Lucretia Corridor, was blocked off in 1975 after three young men were found hanged, and significant damage was discovered within the walls. One room, evidently sealed by age, was attempted to have been broken into by an official, but led to an empty shaft, where he fell to his death. Due to the unsanitary conditions, the hotel closed temporarily and then indefinitely. In recent years, it has been referred to on cable specials Haunted Hotels VI, Ghosts Within History, and Homes & Haunts of the Damned season three. This brought a renewed interest in the late 1990s and The Gilman partially reopened for tours and hospitality on the first two floors, propelled by the novelty of being a "haunted restaurant," named Cafe Denise. Further accidents and unexplained events closed the hotel again in 2007. The building is presently for sale, however, it has been deemed by local legend as "haunted" and "uninhabitable" by the authorities.
