Haunted hotel guide · Fairplay, Colorado

The Haunted Hand Hotel, Fairplay: Grandma Hand's Rocking Chair and an Inn Full of Stories

Jessie Hand built this hotel with her husband in 1931 and ran it for three decades. Guests in the room named after her say she still wants her rocking chair where she left it.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate hotels

2.5/5Haunted Rooms Score

1932Opened to guests

11Guest rooms

Visit hotel websiteMeet the ghosts

The Hand Hotel Bed and Breakfast stands on Front Street in Fairplay, the old mining town at the heart of South Park, overlooking the Middle Fork of the South Platte River. It has 11 guest rooms, each decorated for a different group of South Park settlers, and the Outpost Cafe downstairs. It is one of the cosiest stops on our list of haunted hotels in Colorado.

It is also one of the busiest for ghost stories. Local press say every room has one, and paranormal investigator Chuck Zukowski has called it “one of Colorado’s most active locations.” The name at the center of it all is Jessie Hand, known to the town as Grandma Hand.

The ghosts of Hand Hotel Bed and Breakfast

Grandma Hand and her rocking chair

Jessie Hand ran the hotel from 1932 until her death in 1963, and many believe she never stopped. She is said to want her room kept exactly as it is. The Fairplay Flume tells of a guest napping in the room who heard a woman asking for her rocking chair. The guest found the chair in another room, carried it back, and the voice stopped.

Other guests say the chair rocks on its own. If you stay in her room, leave her things where they are.

Ben, the caretaker in the kitchen

Ben is remembered as an old caretaker. Past staff told the Flume that on busy nights the gas oven in the kitchen would be turned off with nobody near it, and they credited Ben with heading off a fire.

Julia and Miss Amelia

Julia is said to have been a working woman who refused to marry the man who loved her because of her job, and who later took her own life. She is buried in the Fairplay cemetery. Moved bottles in the bar and rearranged pots and pans are put down to her.

Miss Amelia, sometimes written O’Melia, was the girlfriend of a former innkeeper and is said to walk the halls in a pink dress.

Two girls and a black dog

Staff and guests have described two ghostly girls, about 9 and 13, who are blamed for blocking doors with trash cans. A large black mastiff has also been reported around the hotel many times. Beyond the named spirits, people report footsteps, impressions on freshly made beds, smells, orbs and the odd tug of the hair.

What the owners and investigators say

Pat Pocius, who saved the building in the 1980s, described shadowy movements, slamming doors, a box flying off a shelf and light fixtures found intact on the floor, and said her dog would not go into the basement. A later manager said some guests left their keys at the desk and went home early.

Chuck Zukowski’s team reported high EMF readings, cold spots and touches in the basement. Afterwards one investigator dreamed of an old woman accusing him of stealing, then found he had pocketed his room key by mistake. The team mailed it back. A claim that the Vatican sent people to perform an exorcism has never been confirmed.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Grandma Hand's room: The rocking chair and the voice asking for it. The room to request.
• The kitchen: Where Ben is said to turn off the oven.
• The bar: Moved bottles credited to Julia.
• The upstairs hallway: Cold blasts of air and a staff member’s dog that barks at nothing.
• The basement: Where investigators recorded their strongest readings.

History of Hand Hotel Bed and Breakfast

Jake and Jessie Hand had run two hotels before this one, but the Hand Hotel was the first they designed and built themselves. It opened in 1932 with modern comforts for the time, including boiler heat and hot water in the rooms, and it was Fairplay’s luxury hotel, often booked months ahead. Jessie filled it with her collection of Western artifacts, most of which now belongs to the South Park Historical Society.

Jessie was a keen angler, sponsored by Dave Cook’s, a well-known Denver outdoor store that displayed her prize catches in a live pond. The Hands offered guided fishing and hunting trips that drew guests from as far as Massachusetts. Jake died in December 1947. Jessie kept the hotel going with their children and died on September 2, 1963, aged 86, after driving herself home from a fishing trip.

After her death the children sold the hotel and it passed through several owners, slowly falling into disrepair. By the mid-1980s it was close to being condemned when Pat Pocius and partners bought it and, with help from locals, saved it. Dale and Katherine Fitting bought it in 1996 and restored it in keeping with Grandma Hand’s style, stripping it back to the original walls and furnishing it for the years around 1900. The hotel’s website names Catherine “Cat” Ambrose as the current owner.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book directly with the hotel and ask for Grandma Hand’s room.
• Leave Grandma Hand’s rocking chair where it is.
• Fairplay sits high in South Park and nights can be cold even in summer, so pack layers.
• Bring the dog: the hotel has pet-friendly rooms.
• Visit South Park City Museum down the street to see more of Grandma Hand’s collection and the old mining town.

More haunted hotels nearby

• The Delaware Hotel, Leadville: Mary Coffey and the silver camp in Leadville
• Victor Hotel: Room 301 and the fourth-floor morgue
• The Brown Palace Hotel, Denver: Denver’s grand haunted hotel
• Haunted hotels in Colorado

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.

• Hand Hotel: History
• Hand Hotel and Outpost Cafe
• The Flume: Hand Hotel hosts travelers and spirits alike
• Denver Gazette: Colorado's most haunted hotels

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