Haunted hotel guide · Victor, Colorado
The Haunted Victor Hotel, Colorado: Eddie, Room 301 and the Fourth-Floor Morgue
When the ground froze too hard to dig graves, Victor kept its dead on the fourth floor of the bank building. That building is now the Victor Hotel, and its guests say not everyone left.
Victor sits high on the far side of Pikes Peak, a gold mining town of brick storefronts and headframes a few miles from Cripple Creek. On the corner of Fourth Street and Victor Avenue stands its tallest survivor, a four-story brick and stone block built by the Woods brothers after the great fire of 1899. It was a bank, offices and rooms for miners, and since 1992 it has been the 20-room Victor Hotel. It is one of the most talked about stays on our list of haunted hotels in Colorado.
The hotel is open about its past. Its own history page explains that in hard winters, bodies were carried up in the elevator and stored on the fourth floor until the ground thawed. It also tells the story of Eddie, a miner said to have died in the elevator shaft, and of the original birdcage elevator that is said to run by itself in the small hours.
Victor Hotel at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address 321 Victor Ave, Victor, CO 80860, at Fourth Street
- Built 1899, completed December 24, 1899, by Frank and Harry Woods
- Most haunted spots Room 301, the birdcage elevator, the fourth floor, the third floor, the basement and the kitchen
- Best-known ghosts Eddie the miner; figures resembling doctors and patients on the old morgue floor
- Booking the haunted room Request Room 301 when you book; it is a request, not a separate rate.
- Good to know 20 rooms with private baths. Victor is a high-altitude mining town, so take it easy on your first evening.
The ghosts of Victor Hotel
Eddie and Room 301
The Victor Hotel’s best-known spirit is Eddie, sometimes written Eddy. The story goes that he was a regular who always stayed in Room 301. One night, after a few drinks according to author Richard Estep’s telling, the gates opened onto an empty shaft because the car had not arrived, and he stepped forward and fell to his death. Neither his surname nor a date has been published, so treat him as the hotel’s legend.
Guests in Room 301 report footsteps and unexplained noises, and some say they have seen a figure in the room, the hallways and the elevator. Ghost hunters request 301 more than any other room in the house.
The elevator that runs by itself
The birdcage elevator is the building’s original, and it is often described as the oldest operating elevator in Colorado, a claim we could not confirm. Staff and guests say it moves on its own, often around 3 a.m., and that when it does, it tends to stop on the third floor, Eddie’s floor. It was also the elevator used to carry bodies up to the fourth floor in winter.
The fourth floor
Because the dead were kept here until spring, the fourth floor carries the darkest reputation. By 1906 it also held a hospital, which may explain the shape of the stories: the hotel says guests and staff have described apparitions that resemble doctors and patients, some missing limbs or heads. Misty shapes, footsteps and sudden cold drafts are the more common reports.
The kitchen and the basement
Kitchen staff say utensils have been thrown across the room with nobody near them, and the basement is listed by the hotel among its active areas. Neither has a named ghost attached, which makes them a useful place to sit quietly if you want to judge the building for yourself.
Ghost-tour writers add two more: miners on the third floor who look so solid that guests have mistaken them for re-enactors, and a mischievous boy said to switch off lights and housekeepers’ vacuum cleaners. Neither appears in the hotel’s own list.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- Room 301: Eddie’s room. Request it by number when you book.
- The birdcage elevator: The original elevator, said to run by itself around 3 a.m. and stop on the third floor.
- The fourth floor: Where bodies were stored over the winter. The most reported apparitions.
- The kitchen: Flying utensils, according to staff.
History of Victor Hotel
Victor grew up in the 1890s on the Cripple Creek gold field. Frank and Harry Woods first built a two-story wooden hotel with a cone-shaped tower in 1894, for travelers on the new Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad. When they began digging for a bigger building on this corner they struck rich ore, so they opened the Gold Coin Mine instead.
In August 1899 a fire swept through Victor in about five hours, destroying the wooden hotel and most of the business district, including the mine’s shaft house on this lot. The Woods brothers rebuilt in brick and stone, finishing on December 24, 1899. The new Bank Block was four stories in the Italianate style, with the First National Bank of Victor, the Woods Investment Company, shops on the ground floor and plain rooms for businessmen and miners above. It was considered the most modern building in the district.
The bank was found insolvent and closed on November 4, 1903, and the Woods sold the building. By 1906 a hospital occupied the fourth floor, which also served as a morgue in hard winters, when the ground was frozen too deep for graves and the elevator carried the town’s dead upstairs until the thaw. Later tenants included a jeweler, a grocer, the Citizen’s Bank of Victor and A.E. Carlton’s City Bank, which failed in the Depression, and in the 1930s a photography studio and the Brass Rail Cafe and Bar.
Businesses left in the 1960s and the building stood empty for about two decades. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 10, 1980. The Victor Hotel LLC bought it in October 1991, and a renovation supervised by Marjoe Bandimere of Arvada kept the birdcage elevator, the bank vault, the woodwork and the steam radiators. It reopened as a 20-room hotel in August 1992.
Tips for a haunted stay
- Book Room 301 early if you want it; it is the most requested room in the house.
- Stay up past 3 a.m. and listen for the elevator.
- Victor sits high in the mountains. Drink plenty of water and go easy on the first night.
- Walk across the street to the Black Monarch, a horror-themed hotel in a former saloon and brothel.
- Cripple Creek is a short drive away, with its own haunted places and the old Teller County Jail.
More haunted hotels nearby
- Black Monarch Hotel, Victor: a horror-themed hotel in the old Monarch saloon
- Haunted places in Cripple Creek: the mining town next door
- The Hand Hotel, Fairplay: an 11-room inn where every room has a story
- Haunted hotels in Colorado
Stayed in one of these hotels? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from guests and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your stay. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Victor Hotel haunted?
The hotel itself says so. Its best-known ghost is Eddie, a miner said to have died in the elevator shaft, and guests report apparitions on the fourth floor, where bodies were once stored in winter.
Which room is haunted at the Victor Hotel?
Room 301, said to have been Eddie’s room. Guests report footsteps and noises, and ghost hunters request it more than any other room.
Why were bodies stored at the Victor Hotel?
In hard winters the ground was frozen too deep to dig graves, so bodies were carried up in the elevator and kept on the fourth floor until spring.
How old is the Victor Hotel elevator?
It is the original birdcage elevator, installed when the building went up around 1899 and 1900. It is often called the oldest operating elevator in Colorado, though we have not found an official record of that.
How many rooms does the Victor Hotel have?
Twenty, each with a private bath.
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.
- Victor Hotel: About
- Wikipedia: Victor Hotel
- 5280: A ghost story for every kind of Coloradan (2022)
- American Hauntings: A night at the Victor Hotel
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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