14 Local Haunts

Macky Auditorium

CU Campus

In the 60s, Elaura Jaquette was lured into a soundproof organ recital room in Macky Auditorium. There, a janitor brutally raped and murdered the 20-year-old CU student. Today, students and faculty report hearing organ music, voices and singing throughout Macky. People report seeing blood on floors and walls. They say Jaquette haunts the west tower.

Cockerell Hall

CU Campus

Students have reported seeing an apparition in a long, white night gown near an attic door and in a bathroom in this
campus dormitory.

Fairview High School

1515 Greenbriar Blvd., Boulder

As the story goes, a student hung himself in the theater dressing room in the 1980s. Students have reported hearing singing offstage as well as falling objects.

Boulder High School Theater

1604 Arapahoe, Boulder

First off, there is an underground tunnel here, which is just creepy in and of itself. This tunnel connects the theater dressing rooms to the school lobby, and has been the source of ghostly reportings from students. Feelings of dread and being
watched are prevalent.

Hotel Boulderado

2115 13th St., Boulder

This downtown Boulder icon touts a bevy of ghostly stories, and rooms 302 or 304 are often referenced as highly active locations. Staff and guests have reported the sound of scratching on the walls, flickering lights, TVs turning on and off, windows opening by themselves and a female apparition in a rocking chair.

Niwot High School

8989 Niwot Rd., Niwot

You can watch the “Niwot High School ghost sighting” on YouTube…but we’re pretty sure it’s just a kid with a mask on. Still this east county school is actually said to be haunted by a child who was murdered by a janitor.

Longmont Theater

513 Main St., Downtown Longmont

Members of the Longmont Theater Company have reported strange happenings around the theater, including unexplained music from an electronic keyboard and apparitions.

Vance Brand Civic Auditorium

600 E. Mountain View Ave., East Longmont

Theaters tend to attract of a lot of rumor-mongering about hauntings, and Skyline High School’s auditorium is no different. Here, staff members report hearing footsteps, loud bangs and crashes.

Dicken’s Opera House

300 Main St., Downtown Longmont

Ghosts at the famous Longmont opera house are more “mischievous” than dangerous. Some people have reported hearing clanking noises and footsteps and having electrical issues.

Westminster City Hall

4800 W 92nd Ave., Westminster

When the clock strikes midnight, it’s said, look up at the tower of the Westminster City Hall and you will see the spirits of a woman and children who were allegedly murdered and buried under the building.

Westminster Castle (Pillar of Fire Church)

3455 W 83rd Ave, Westminster

You can see the top of this beautiful 19th century building all around the Metro Area, looking like a creepy old boarding school. In reality, it’s a creepy old boarding school. Built as a university—said to become the Princeton of the West—the school was taken over by the Pillar of Fire church after WWI. Some say figures can be seen in the windows of the tower at night and there’s mist in the nearby cemetery.

Riverdale Road

Stretch of road in Thornton

From Cherokee tribes to slavery to supposed Satanist cults, this road has a history that’s made for urban legends. Stories include a phantom Camaro with one headlight that chases drivers down the road (lots of car accidents on this stretch could be a result of a paranormal drag race…or the numerous blind curves along the rural road), bloody handprints on the street signs, a disembodied jogger and a ghost hitchhiker. Oh, and ghost dogs that chase cars.

Vampire Grave

Baseline and 11th, Lafayette

His name was Todor Glava. He arrived in Lafayette to work in the coal mines, making money to help his wife in Austria. But the Spanish flu took his life in 1918, and Todor was buried in the immigrant section of Lafayette’s cemetery. “Todor Glava, Born in Transylvania” is printed on the simple tombstone that he shares with another corpse. Legend has it that the cedar above the tombstone grows from the wooden stake that was driven into Glava’s heart. Of course, he could just be a guy from Transylvania.

9350 Grant St. Thornton

It’s the typical story of a wife catching her husband with another woman. Being distraught, she threw herself out of the third-story window of the century-old mansion that most recently served as a restaurant and event center. The husband, filled with guilt, hanged himself. If you look up into the windows of the tower at night, you’ll see the husband holding the wife. At least, that’s how the story goes.