4 Best Haunted Houses on a Denver Self-Guided Walking Ghost Tour

A Denver Self-Guided Walking Ghost Tour

The days are getting shorter, and the nights are getting longer. The air is crisp, with an eerie quality sneaking in as quietly as the twilight of this season. What a perfect time of year to explore all things creepy! Between Denver’s brightly changing leaves and the fresh air, autumn in Colorado is an extraordinary time.

If you throw in this spooky tour, you’ve captured all things fall. I’ve compiled a list of my favorite spine-chilling buildings in this Denver self-guided walking ghost tour. During the fall, I enjoy scaring myself a little more than usual. If you want to make it less frightening for your kiddos, go during the daytime.

During the fall, I enjoy scaring myself a little more than usual. If you want to make it less frightening for your kiddos, go during the daytime. Because I am autistic, deep-diving into these historic haunts became a major hyperfixation for me, so I’ve packed this guide with plenty of fascinating details and sensory facts.

If you prefer to hire a guided tour, there are some fantastic group tour options (including a ghost and pub tour) to check out haunted Denver. The Capitol Hill History and Haunted Tour is a two-hour experience that takes you through the history.

The Haunted Denver Walking Details

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Pro tip: You can park at one location and walk the rest. I recommend using a central parking garage rather than street parking in case the tour takes longer. Time your parking, so you don’t get ticketed. Street parking is often limited to only two hours.

The Game Plan: Route & Walking Times

This Denver historic walking tour is completely walkable! It covers a straight line of about 1.2 miles from Capitol Hill into downtown. Keep in mind that if you walk all the way back to your car, you’re looking at a 2.4-mile round trip.

To help you map out your afternoon, here is how the stops connect. The entire route flows downhill from Capitol Hill right into the heart of downtown:

• Stop 1 to Stop 2: From the Molly Brown House, head north on Pennsylvania St, then turn left on E 16th Ave to reach the Grosvenor Arms Apartments. (Distance: ~0.4 miles | Walk time: 8-10 mins)
• Stop 2 to Stop 3: From the Grosvenor Arms, continue west on E 16th Ave toward downtown, then turn right on Broadway/17th St to find the Brown Palace Hotel. (Distance: ~0.4 miles | Walk time: 8-10 mins)
• Stop 3 to Stop 4: From the Brown Palace, walk southwest down Tremont Pl or Cleveland Pl, then turn right onto Glenarm Place to finish at the Denver Press Club. (Distance: ~0.4 miles | Walk time: 8-10 mins)

The walking route features a fantastic sensory break right down the 16th Street Mall. It is a wide, open pedestrian-only zone with no car traffic, plenty of outdoor seating, and shade trees. This spot is a low-pressure space to decompress between stops.

Keep in mind that parts of the Mall are undergoing major construction, so watch out for temporary detours or sudden construction noise.

Pro tip: If you parked at the Molly Brown House and don’t want to walk the 1.2 miles back uphill, simply hop on the Free MallRide shuttle on 16th Street (a couple blocks from the Press Club). Ride it up to Court Place or Broadway, which cuts your return time in half!

The Free MallRide shuttle isn’t just a parking saver; it’s a sensory tool. The buses are 100% electric, meaning they are whisper-quiet, smooth, and don’t emit loud, jarring engine roars or exhaust smells that can trigger auditory or olfactory overwhelm.

The Molly Brown House: 1340 Pennsylvania Street

We’ll start our four-stop tour with the Molly Brown House, one of Denver’s best-known homes, the former residence of socialites J.J. and Molly Brown. The previous owner was the unsinkable Molly Brown, who survived the 1912 Titanic disaster.

The home was built between 1887 and 1889 by architect William A. Lang for its original owners, Isaac and Mary Large, who made their money in silver mining. The Browns later purchased the sprawling, classic Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque style home.

The 7,000-square-foot Victorian house features red sandstone and gray Rhyolite stone and spans three stories, with an attic and basement. The stunning building features stained glass windows, decorative wood panels, and curved brackets.

Molly loved to travel and purchased the two large stone lion statues that stand guard outside the house. These figures earned the property its historic local nickname, the “House of Lions.” After she died in 1932, her beloved home fell into disrepair until the early 1970s, when Historic Denver, Inc. restored it to its original splendor.

After the repairs, the home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Molly Brown House Ghost Stories & History

Start the Historic Denver walking tour at the Molly Brown House. Currently, the Molly Brown House Museum displays original architecture and furnishings.

The two former socialites still haunt the Brown home. Tour guides periodically smell J.J.’s pipe smoke at random times. Museum workers see mysteriously loose light bulbs, and tourists even report furniture being rearranged by a spirit in a Victorian dress.

The History of the Molly Brown Museum

Molly Brown was born Margaret Tobin Brown into a blue-collar family with five siblings in Leadville, Colorado. She met James Joseph “J.J.” Brown at a church picnic.

They did not have wealth, but they had plenty of love, and the two married in 1886. They lived in a two-room log cabin near the mine where J.J. worked.

By 1889, Molly and J.J. had built a family with two children and moved back to Leadville, where they lived in a beautiful house with the entire Tobin clan nearby.

J.J. eventually became the head of mining operations at Ibex Mining Company. He purchased Little Johnny Mine and discovered a large gold vein within it.

Upon closer scrutiny, the gold was found to be pure, and the vein was even more significant than initially believed. By 1893, the mine was shipping 135 tons of gold per day. 

The Brown family became wealthy, relocated to Denver, and purchased the Victorian Mansion. They bought it with their gold money directly from the Large family, who had been financially ruined by the 1893 Silver Crash

In 1902, while Molly and J.J. were traveling, they rented the house to Colorado Governor James Orman and his family as a temporary executive residence while the official mansion was being remodeled.

In 1909, they dissolved their marriage but remained friends. After the amicable split, Molly Brown spent less time in Denver and decided to rent their house to various families. After the Great Depression, she was forced to turn the house into a boarding facility. By the time she died in 1932, the house was run-down.

In 1958, Art Leisenring turned the home into a gentleman’s boarding house for two years. He leased it to the city of Denver as a home for wayward girls. In 1970, the city earmarked the Brown homestead for demolition. Leisenring formed Historic Denver Inc. and raised money to save Molly Brown’s House. The house was restored and opened as a museum.

Sensory Tips for Autistic Families: The Molly Brown House Museum

If you decide to go inside the museum, they have an official “My Visit to the Molly Brown House Museum” social story (available in English and Spanish) that you can download from their website beforehand. It uses pictures to show kids what to expect.

While the museum is famous for its guided tours, tight spaces and structured guide scripts can be tough for autistic children. The museum actively encourages neurodivergent families to book a self-guided experience instead, allowing you to move through the rooms at your child’s pace.

Small sensory-soothing items and fidgets are allowed inside the historic house, as long as they don’t pose a risk of damaging the artifacts. (Note: Strollers are not allowed inside due to narrow historic hallways, so a wearable carrier or walking is required indoors.)

Grosvenor Arms Apartments: 333 East 16th Avenue

The Grosvenor Arms Apartments opened in the fall of 1931. The apartment building features Gothic winged serpents that guard medieval stone walls. The flagstone courtyard welcomes you into a fortress of the past.

When the building opened, the advertisements touted a fireproof, child-free building with contemporary luxuries in its studio and one-bedroom apartments. However, the 1930s hardwood floors, arched doorways, and original fixtures remain in most apartments.

Two phantom residents haunt the Grosvenor Arms Apartment building– the man in the mirror and the woman upstairs.

A tall, broad-shouldered man appears in a large lobby mirror, wearing a dark suit and a fedora. An elegant young woman wearing a long skirt possesses the eighth-floor laundry.

However, these apparitions are rarely chilling. Over the years, the residents have felt comforted by these spirits. If your arms are full of laundry, the woman upstairs will press the elevator’s call button on your behalf.

Travel Must-Haves for Little Adventurers

Travel Car Seat – Not FAA approved, but safe as a booster in your Uber
Noise-Canceling Headphones – Soothing quiet for little ears
Kid-Proof Tablet Case – Drop-tested and travel ready
Fidget Toy Set – Pocket-sized fun for long layovers
Weighted Lap Pad – Like a calming hug on cars and planes

The Brown Palace Hotel and Spa: 321 17th Street

The Brown Palace Hotel and Spa is home to many spectral apparitions. The triangle-shaped haunted hotel opened in downtown Denver in 1892. Many visitors to the Brown Palace Club room have reported lights flickering, the carpet “crawling” underfoot, and a bartender who appears to flit in and out through a wall.

Perhaps Dwight Eisenhower had ghostly visitors in his campaign headquarters. The Brown Palace Club Room was used in 1952 as Eisenhower’s headquarters during his presidential campaign.

Employees and guests have reported sudden chills, slamming doors, the sound of invisible children laughing, and papers flying off tables. One of the apparitions is a man dressed as an old-fashioned railroad conductor who, when approached, walks into the wall. The second is a senior woman in a long black dress wailing about her broken heater, who vanishes when maintenance arrives.

Sensory Tips for Autistic Families: The Brown Palace Hotel

For families prioritizing sensory-friendly travel in Denver, the Brown Palace features a stunning 8-story open atrium. In the vast open-air lobby and on the hard stone surfaces, sound can echo quite a bit, especially during busy afternoon tea times. If your child is sensitive to clinking porcelain, chatter, or live piano music, have a pair of noise-canceling headphones handy for this stop.

Denver Press Club: 1330 Glenarm Place

The Denver Press Club is the oldest press club in the United States and the only one haunted. Founded in 1877, it settled into its present home in 1925.

The Press Club is not a relic of the past; its current membership ranks include more than 500 members. This historical treasure boasts many contemporary journalists who treasure their First Amendment rights (as we all should!)

The journalists who spend the most time at the Denver Press Club see many mysterious occurrences. More than just caricatures of the past adorn the aging walls– spirits linger among the living.

A man and an employee locked up the club one night after closing. They sat downstairs, enjoying a nightcap.

Upstairs, they heard loud, stomping footsteps interrupting their conversation. They ran upstairs, but no one was there.

On another occasion, the club members saw a ghostly figure wearing a nineteenth-century policeman’s cloak. Club members describe trays of silverware rearranged or pots and pans moved. However, all encounters have been pleasant at best and, at worst, are a series of practical jokes.

If you are looking for clean, home-like accommodations, see our review of the family suites in Cherry Creek.

Take Our DIY Denver Self-Guided Walking Ghost Tour

If you are looking for a walking tour of Denver and want to be creeped out for free, this tour will check the boxes. Walking along this self-guided Denver ghost tour brings true believers a candid look at Denver’s supernatural history.

Once I walked along this path, I was disappointed that I’d checked out all the ghosts of Denver. Fear not! Fortunately, Denver is teeming with spirits to see and learn about.

Where is your favorite haunted space? Drop it in the comments below.