According to the Crescent Hotel's website, in the 1930s, the site was to be a cancer hospital, although the man in charge had no medical training. The "portal," mediums say, is where the hospital morgue was located.
The man was Norman Baker, a radio personality well known for his declaration of war against big business. His radio station had the call letters KTNT, or Know The Naked Truth.
Baker purchased the building and housed the Baker Cancer Hospital, where he claimed to have alternative treatments and was said to be an outspoken critic against the American Medical Association.
Also according to the hotel's history, many people died under his care— Baker hadn't spent a day in any sort of medical school or had any training. One of his treatments was nothing more than a mix of watermelon seed, brown corn silk, alcohol, and carbolic acid.
The mediums are said to have found that the Crescent Hotel showed signs of having a portal “to the other side,” or a “dimension that holds the spirits of the dead” and, apparently, can be accessed by those “on the same frequency” as ghosts.
The popular TV show Ghost Adventures visited "America's Most Haunted Hotel" for the first episode of season nineteen. Click here to watch.