Spookiest Places In Denver
By Deborah Flomberg
You can’t live in a city as historic as Denver without digging up a few spooks and spirits. With Halloween approaching, this seems like a great time to take a look at some of the most haunted, most spooky and most creepy locations found in Denver.
From a park straight out of a popular horror movie to one of the most beautiful hotels in the country, there is no shortage of fascinating stories and haunted locations to discover in town. In fact, you can find lots of spooky tours and ghost walks in these areas all dedicated to telling these true stories.
Cheesman Park
Franklin and 8th Streets
Denver, CO 80206
This beautiful local park has quite the dark back story. When this park was first constructed, it was not a place for people to go for long walks with their dogs or for a quick game of volleyball. Cheesman Park was actually built as a cemetery. However, in 1890, the city decided it would rather have a pristine park in that location, so the bodies were to be dug up and moved to another location. As the legend goes, the man responsible for the job took a few shortcuts and left many bodies there, only moving the tombstones. It may sound like a story straight out of the movie “Poltergeist” but this one is true. Many people today say the spirits of those bodies haunt the park at night.
Croke Patterson Mansion
420 E. 11th Ave.
Denver, CO 80203
(303) 955-5142
www.pattersoninn.com
If you’ve driven down 11th avenue, you’ve seen the stunning home. The mansion, built in 1890 by Thomas B Croke, was one of the most elegant homes in the country. It’s also supposed to be one of the most haunted. The stories goes that Croke himself was terrified of the home and it was sold just two years after it was built. Over the years, the mansion has been many different spaces, today serving as a lovely boutique hotel. However, over the years, many different haunted stories have occurred, and a ghostly image is often seen sliding up and down the main floor stairway.
Related: Denver Area's Most Haunted Places
Brown Palace Hotel
321 17th St.
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 297-3111
www.brownpalace.com
As the second-longest operating hotel in Denver, The Brown Palace has a lot of stories to tell. This stunning hotel is still one of the best and most luxurious places to stay, which may be why the ghosts and spooks just don’t want to leave. There are lots of different legends about various hauntings, including the ghost of an old railroad ticket manager who walks into the walls and a baby that is heard crying in the basement. In fact, the haunted history here is so popular that nightly ghost tours are held for hotel guests and visitors alike.
Denver International Airport
8500 Peña Blvd.
Denver, CO 80249
(303) 342-2000
www.flydenver.com
There are a lot of different theories about the hauntings at the Denver International Airport. Probably the most well-known involves that many murals that are found all over the airport. From ghosts and unsettled spirits to conspiracy theories of all kinds, DIA is more than meets the eye. Many people believe these paintings, by artist Leo Tanguma, tell the story of an upcoming apocalypse. If that’s not enough, the famous blue horse outside the airport (lovingly referred to as “Bluecifer” by locals) has it’s own truly creepy backstory – the 9,000-pound statue fell on its creator and killed him. The statue was still put up and the glowing red eyes are a creepy reminder to anyone who arrives at DIA that there is more to this airport than most people believe.
Related: Top Haunted Bars In Colorado
The Denver Children’s Home
1501 Albion St.
Denver, CO 80220
(303) 399-4890
www.denverchildrenshome.org
The Denver Children’s Home still provides many important services for youth today, but the past of this historic building has some very dark stories to tell. In 1888 a fire in the building killed several children on the third floor. Today, according to rumors, those children can still be heard playing in the building and cries and whimpers can be heard on a regular basis. There is also supposedly a female bride spirit that has been seen on the third floor, crossing down to the second floor hallway. Many news outlets have reported on the supposed hauntings at The Denver Children’s Home, and it may be one of Denver’s most haunted locations, but it’s still providing great services for kids in need to this very day.
