Haunted Homes of Capitol Hill
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From Cheesman Park Grant-Humphreys Mansion, 770 Pennsylvania St, Denver, CO 80203 Google Maps Location
Part of the mystery behind this allegedly haunted mansion at 7th and Grant involves the suspicious death of a man who lived inside. Originally built as the home to Colorado’s third Governor James Grant, by 1917 the home was inhabited by Albert E. Humphreys – an oil man and philanthropist.
One evening, Humphrey’s was said to have left the dinner table to “clean his gun,” only to be found moments later with a gunshot wound to his head. He died the following day. But whether his death was an accident, a homicide or a suicide remains up for debate. While some argued suicide, some believe the circumstances surrounding the shooting were more ominous.
Humphrey’s restless spirit is still said to haunt the building as is a blonde curled hair and mischievous little girl. Usually reported on the third floor as a little girl standing in a doorway. She is often seen throughout the house. The spirit is believed to be Alberts daughter, Alice Lucille Humphreys. Staff and visitors alike report hearing the sound of children playing and giggling, and sometimes someone singing to themselves. Still other times people report they’ve felt someone tugging on their hair. It’s often used as a wedding venue and when tables are laid out and bows tied around wedding favors, but when staff turns around the sashes are all untied. According to other reports, up to four other ghosts have made the mansion their home, sometimes showing themselves only in the mirrors of the house.
Next, head to the Croke Patterson Mansion now known as the Patterson Inn, 420 E 11th Ave Ste 12, Denver, CO 80203 Google Maps Location
Built in 1891 by a partner in Daniel and Fisher department store, Thomas B. Croke paid $18,000 to have this magnificent home built. The home was to be a chateau-style of red sandstone with gables and turrets meant to mimic those of the Château d’Azay-le-Rideau, a 16th century French castle. Today, the mansion is considered one of Denver’s three finest examples of the Chateauesque style, and the only one to survive. According to the legend Mr. Croke only entered the palatial mansion one time and was so emotionally shaken by “whatever” was there, that he never returned. In reality he had only lived there for six months. After the death of his wife, Margaret Dunphy Croke, he had moved into the mansion with his two young children and his parents, but his mother also died shortly after moving in. Perhaps the loss of his loved ones made made living there too unbearable. Just two years later he sold it to Thomas M. Patterson, whose family kept the home for several decades. Over the next several years, the building was converted into many businesses, including a dance studio, radio station, and a boarding house before it was converted to an office building. During the renovation to office space in the 1970s, construction crews began to experience a number of strange occurrences.
After a long days work, they would often return the next day to find that the tasks they had completed the day before had been “undone.” After this had occurred several times, guard dogs were left to protect the property from what the workmen thought might be intruders. However, the next day they found the two Doberman Pinschers dead on the sidewalk after having apparently jumped from a third-story window. Once the renovation to the office building was complete, employees almost immediately began to notice equipment, such as typewriters, copy machines, and telephones that mysteriously began to operate by themselves.
When a séance was held to determine who was haunting the building, they found it to be the spirit of a little girl whose body was supposedly entombed in the cellar. However, when the basement was dug up they found a hidden chamber filled with sea sand but no remains of a little girl.
An apparition has often been seen gliding up and down the main floor stairs and disembodied voices have been heard here as well. Thomas Patterson, the second owner of the home, is said to have been seen between the mansion and the carriage house many times.
When the building was an apartment building, occupants on the lower levels would complain about wild parties taking place on the third floor. But when people went to investigate they would only find dark and empty rooms. Now known as the Patterson Inn, if you want to spend a night inside the home you can rent a room and check it out if you dare.
Start walking towards the Molly Brown House Museum, 1340 Pennsylvania St, Denver, CO 80203 Google Maps Location
This three-story Victorian era house, built in 1894, was once home to Margaret Brown known as “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” after she survived the sinking of the Titanic. Today the home is said to be haunted by her late husband J.J. Brown. During their marriage J.J. was never allowed to smoke his cigars or pipes in the house, his presence seemingly lingers as pipe smoke is often noticed in the attic and basement. In the dining room, chairs often move on their own, and a specter of a Victorian woman is often seen. Sometimes visitors will see the shadow of Molly’s beloved cat around the home. Near the first floor stairway, some have reported seeing seen a perplexed butler looking at himself in the mirror. Other ghostly occurrences include cold spots felt throughout the house, doors that open and close on their own, the sound of footsteps coming from the upstairs ballroom, and misty apparitions are seen in various places. Still others report a woman looking out of a second floor window at 3 a.m.
Peabody-Whitehead Mansion, 1128 Grant St, Denver, CO 80203 Google Maps Location
The Peabody-Whitehead Mansion that sits at 11th and Grant is widely known as one of the most haunted in the area. First belonging to William Riddick Whitehead, and later to the 13th and 15th Governor James Peabody, the mansion has a haunted history dating back to the 19th century. Whitehead was a surgeon for the Russian army during the Crimean War, one of the bloodiest wars of modern history, and as a Surgeon in the Confederate army, he passed away inside the home after a brief illness in 1902.
Governor Peabody was loathed and rightly so. During the miners strikes in the early 20th Century, Peabody used the National Guard to establish Marshal law and worked hand in hand with Mining Barons to crush protests and force miners to accept poverty wages and poor living conditions.
Due to the bloody wars, the primitive medical knowledge, and the causes he supported, Dr. Whitehead lost many of his patients. It is said that the spirits of the soldiers that died under Dr. Whitehead’s care followed him to his new home, all the way in Colorado. During the Whitehead family’s stay at the home, poltergeist activity was the most common. Reports came out of the house of flying books, falling pictures, and extreme disturbances throughout the night. Dr. Whitehead was reportedly tormented by the spirits of the soldiers he said he ‘failed’ and said that he could see their ghosts’ everywhere he looked, often witnessing the apparitions of soldiers wandering the halls of his new home.
Peabody rented out he mansion the next year, and for awhile things were relatively quiet. But that changed during the 1960s and 70s, when the space was renovated into bars and restaurants. During the remodel a couple of the construction workers abducted a young girl who was walking in the neighborhood. They brought her into the vacant home and raped her, murdering her afterward. They are alleged to have buried her body in the basement of the house under the foundation. Cold spots are prevalent in this area.
During the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures investigation, the crew investigated the basement, asking the unseen spirits of the home as to what happened to a girl down there and they received a response from a disembodied voice saying that ‘she was raped.’
A woman who died in the building while waiting for her fiancé has also been reported as a strange apparition peeking out of the mansion’s windows.
As a bar and restaurant food would go flying off the shelves, chandeliers would flicker on and off for no reason, and cries from a baby could be heard. One waitress who worked there reportedly took her own life, and since then, her spirit has also been known to haunt the building. It’s said that as many as 12 different spirits inhabit the home, completely unaware of each other.