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Bring out your dead
Amateur historians lead haunted jaunt through downtown
By Nicholas Dewart
dewart@mscd.edu

Photo by jenn LeBlanc • jkerriga@mscd.edu Terra vonDrehle carries a lantern through the basement of Union Station. The basement was the scene of a tragedy when several workers and criminals perished during the Cherry Creek flooding in the early 1900s.

A rancid smell fills the inside of a locked underground Union Station vault. A tour guide explains that this is the smell of a room that’s been sealed for more than 100 years.

“We acquired the code through a third party and … the security guards had never seen this open before we actually got in here,” tour guide Terra vonDrehle said. “You guys want to squeeze in here? Do not shut the door. If the door shuts, we will be locked in here because nobody on the outside has this code.”

The crypt contains the phantoms of Denver’s seedy past, the unvarnished history of the city many would rather forget.

Union Station was only one of the sites visited during the LoDo Cocktail Hour Ghost Hunt, a tour of the city that seeks to unearth Denver’s skeletons for an eager crowd.

The Ghost Hunt is a walking tour of one of the city’s historical districts, offering a haunted vision of the city’s bawdy past. LoDo’s decadent and brothel-filled history comes to life as the guides make appetizer and cocktail stops along the way.

The tour sprung from Heidi Manning and vonDrehle’s common fascination with the paranormal. Metro history professor Kevin Rucker, who leads his own tours through the city and highlights its lascivious past, had vonDrehle in a class. A class project titled “Haunted Colorado” piqued her interest in starting a tour of her own, but it was seeing Rucker’s LoDo tour firsthand that really got her working on an independent project with Manning.

“It was (after) our first tour (with Rucker) that we decided to go ahead and start this,” Manning said.
The nearly three-hour tour began at Corridor 44, 1433 Larimer St., the site of one of Denver’s former brothels. Appetizers were served in a dark setting that accentuated the tour guides’ tale of murder and suicide.

This was the brothel owned by a former showgirl and her husband who were displeased with their daughter’s boyfriend. Though her parents hired a hit man to kill only the boyfriend, their daughter was murdered in the assault. After hearing the news of the grisly mistake, the mother hung herself in the bathroom, which has been the location of strange occurrences ever since.

“In the women’s bathroom … the mirror would break,” said vonDrehle.

Much of the tour focused on the racial issues that haunt Colorado’s history. The Great Western Sugar Company built the Sugar Building, at 1530 16th St., in 1906. This was where the Ku Klux Klan regularly held its meetings.

“In the basement of this building is where the KKK meeting place was and where they performed many of their heinous crimes and acts against humanity,” Manning said of the Sugar Building. “There are said to be ghosts and spirits in the basement and possibly some demons.”

Because of its gruesome past, Manning said, the elevator will not go to the basement, which is restricted to the public.

According to vonDrehle, former Denver Mayor Robert Speer was actively involved with the KKK. While he was in office, Colorado housed the second-highest population of Klansmen in the United States. Pictures of female KKK members dressed in white robes were passed around by vonDrehle.

“There were just as many female members in this state,” vonDrehle said.

The fourth stop was the Oxford Hotel’s swanky lounge, The Cruise Room, at 1600 17th St., where the tour sampled appetizers and drinks. The appeal of the 1930s art-deco-styled room and the dimmed lights made it a fitting part of the haunted tour, evoking images of The Shining. The stop allowed people to talk and enjoy a little of the LoDo nightlife while still learning about the ghastly past of the bar.

Stopping at Blake and 20th streets, vonDrehle explained how this one-time-brothel district was the epicenter of a riot. At the time, she said, the Chinese had opened various opium dens in the LoDo area, which angered many of the Colorado residents. According to vonDrehle, a cowboy and a Chinese man began a fight. When the Chinese man emerged victorious, many of the citizens rioted and tried to round up and kill Chinese residents, as well as destroy their houses and businesses. Fleeing the angry mob, many of the Chinese men were able to escape to the brothels.

“It was actually the ladies of the night that ended up protecting them,” vonDrehle said. “They had champagne bottles in one hand and high heels in the other. These women stood at the door and made sure these men were protected.”

The last stop on the tour was 1946 Market St., or Mattie’s House of Mirrors. Mattie Silks was one of Colorado’s most notable brothel owners at the turn of the century.

According to the tour guides, workers once set up the banquet hall for a large party. They had left the room, and upon their return all the chairs had been returned to their original stacked positions.
The tour’s purpose is not to make those who don’t believe in ghosts become believers.

“We know that not everybody believes in ghosts and hauntings,” Manning said. “We are not here to change your minds or convince you. We’re just here to have fun and let you know a little bit about the history of some of these places we are going to stop at.”

The LoDo Cocktail Hour Ghost Hunt will take place Oct. 21 and 28 and is open to those 21 and older. It begins at 5 p.m. at Corridor 44, 1433 Larimer St. The cost is $20 or $15 for those with a student ID.

Illustration by Joe Nguyen • nguyejos@mscd.edu 1 – Corridor 44, 1433 Larimer St. 2 – Metropolitan Mudd Coffee Co., 1516 Wazee St. 3 – Sugar Building, 1530 16th St. 4 – Oxford Hotel, 1600 17th St. 5 – Union Station 6 – Mattie’s House of Mirrors, 1946 Market St.