Halloween is upon us, the holiday that celebrates ghosts, eerie events and things that go bump in the night.
While numerous professional haunted houses operate this time of year, complete with trained actors and hair-raising special effects, the metro area also has its share of buildings that are reputed to be repositories of genuine ghostly goings-on.
Hey, we even have a public park that is supposedly haunted.
OK, so maybe that disembodied spirit you see hovering in the corner is just the chopped jalapeños on your cheeseburger coming back to haunt you. And that thump in the middle of the night? It’s merely the cat leaping off the dining-room table.
But it’s frightful fun to imagine that they’re not. So here are some noteworthy sites for folks who want to take a walk on the spectral side.
1 Justina L. Ford home
Justina Ford was Colorado’s first African-American female doctor. Her former home, which today houses the Black American West Museum, is reportedly haunted.
Museum staffers have documented a number of instances over the years where visitors report a spectral woman walking from room to room. Others have reported being touched on the cheek by Ford’s ghost. She might have company: There are also stories of a male spirit that some speculate is her second husband, Alfred Allen, plus a second female ghost.
Knowing a good thing when they see it, the museum offers Halloween tours. This year’s tour is $20 per person, and includes a visit to the house and a walking tour. 3091 California St., 303-482-2242; blackamerican westmuseum.com
2 The Oxford HotelThis venerable five-story building just a block from Denver’s Union Station is reportedly haunted by four ghosts.
According to strangeusa .com — and feel free to take this with a grain or three of salt — visitors have reported seeing the ghost of a little girl. There has also been a report of a guest seeing the face of a strange woman in a mirror in Room 420. (We’re assuming it wasn’t her own face.) 1600 17th St., 303-628-5400; theoxfordhotel.com
3. Molly Brown House MuseumThe former home of the famous survivor of the Titanic disaster is reportedly haunted. By who is anyone’s guess — although Molly Brown was a woman of high spirits in life.
Investigators are said to have found cold spots in the house, though skeptics would probably point to a spotty HVAC system as a likelier culprit than something from the spirit world.
There are also reports of the aroma of pipe tobacco when no one is smoking, and doors with a mind of their own. 1340 Pennsylvania Ave., 303-832-4092; mollybrown.org
4. Croke-Patterson-Campbell Mansion (at top)This lovely old Capitol Hill home was built in 1890 by Thomas Croke, who lived there for two years before selling it to Thomas Patterson, a prominent politician and publisher of The Rocky Mountain News.
Reports of eerie happenings began circulating in 1970 during the house’s remodeling, such as the sounds of an invisible typewriter. One particularly creepy story: An owner’s two Dobermans were found dead after apparently leaping through a third-story window, fueling speculation that something had terrified the dogs. 428-430 E. 11th Ave.
5. Cheesman ParkNot everyone knows that this sprawling park in central Denver was once a graveyard. But before its conversion to public space in 1907, the Cheesman acreage was Prospect Hill Cemetery and later Denver City Cemetery.
Before transforming the area into a park, the city hired an undertaker named E.P. McGovern to remove the bodies. But McGovern was unscrupulous, tossing bodies — many of them paupers — into small boxes. Many of the skeletal parts were mixed, and some bones remain in the ground at Cheesman. Park patrons also have reported cold spots, spectral figures and disembodied voices during their walks. Between East 13th Avenue, East 8th Avenue, and Humboldt and Race streets
6. Highlands Ranch MansionThis sprawling, castle-like stone house was built in 1891 by John W. Springer, a wealthy Easterner who founded the Springer Cross-Country Horse and Cattle Ranch.
Frank Kistler bought the house in 1926, and the ghost of his daughter, Julia, is reputed to haunt the house. People claim to have seen her figure silhouetted in her bedroom, and to have heard sobs even when the house was vacant.
Other oddball incidents: A clock in the great hall chimed even though its mechanism was long broken. 9900 S. Ranch Road, Highlands Ranch; highlandsranch.us/mansion.htmlSources: haunteddenver.com, strangeusa.com
William Porter: 303-954-1877 or wporter@denverpost .com