Haunted hotel guide · Denver, Colorado

The Haunted Lumber Baron Inn, Denver: An Unsolved 1970 Murder and the Spirits of a Victorian Mansion

John Mouat built this Queen Anne mansion from his own lumber in 1890. Eighty years later two young women were murdered inside, and the case is still open. Today it is a bed and breakfast with a long list of resident spirits.

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

3.5/5Haunted Rooms Score

1890Year built

1970Unsolved double murder

Check availabilityMeet the ghosts

The Lumber Baron Inn and Gardens stands on a corner of West 37th Avenue in Denver’s Potter Highlands Historic District, a three-story red brick Victorian with a wraparound porch, a third-floor ballroom and five guest suites. It is one of the most investigated houses in the city and one of the stops on our list of haunted hotels in Denver.

Its reputation rests on a real tragedy. In October 1970, when the mansion was divided into apartments, Marianne Weaver, 18, and Cara Knoche, 17, were killed in a rented room. No one has ever been charged. Since the house was restored, guests and owners have described footsteps, voices, a butler on the stairs and the original owners still keeping an eye on things. The inn appeared on Netflix’s 28 Days Haunted, and in 2025 it was put up for sale while still operating.

The ghosts of the Lumber Baron Inn

Marianne Weaver and Cara Knoche

On October 13, 1970, Marianne Weaver, 18, was found shot in the bedroom of a friend’s apartment in the mansion. Her friend Cara Knoche, 17, had been strangled and was found under the bed. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation still lists both cases as unsolved and asks anyone with information to contact Denver police.

Guests and staff have reported seeing two young women on the stairs and in the hallway, along with cold spots and unexplained noises in the areas linked to them. The staff who clean the room where they were found are said to play music from the girls’ era while they work. Paranormal groups have claimed that recordings made in the house named the killer, which is not evidence anyone can act on, but shows how much the case still hangs over the house.

The butler on the landing

A man in a servant’s clothes is said to stand on the first staircase landing. The owners have given his name as possibly Mr. Jenks or Jenkins, a former butler. Guests describe a sense of being watched as they climb the stairs, and a tall figure that is gone when they look again.

Ben, the soldier upstairs

When the house is empty, the owners say they hear heavy boot steps upstairs. They call the source Ben, a former soldier. Guests in the upper suites have reported footsteps that make the floor creak when nobody else is on the floor.

John and Amelia Mouat

The original owners are thought by many to have stayed. Amelia Mouat is described as a motherly presence with firm views on housekeeping, and older accounts mention a stern man, perhaps John Mouat or a later owner, and the smell of pipe tobacco. Some guests have also reported the scent of cigars in the parlors.

The flapper and the little girl

A woman dressed in 1920s style, seemingly holding a glass of champagne, has been seen in the ballroom. The owners have also spoken of Sarah Michelle, a girl said to have died of cold before the house was built. Taken together, people count at least six regular spirits in the house.

28 Days Haunted

In 2022 the Lumber Baron was one of three locations in Netflix’s 28 Days Haunted, in which teams spent four weeks at each site. Co-owner Elaine Britten Bryant told Westword the house “very much makes its own decisions about things” and asked that visitors not taunt the spirits, adding, “I doubt we’ll do it again.”

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• The victims' room: The suite where Marianne Weaver and Cara Knoche were found. It is a guest room today; ask the inn which suite it is if you want to stay, or avoid, it.
• The first staircase landing: Where the butler is said to stand.
• The ballroom: Home of the flapper sighting, once a children’s playroom under the Fowler family and later a theater.
• The upstairs halls: Boot steps, knocking and door handles rattling; one TV producer reported knocking on the door through the night.

History of Lumber Baron Inn and Gardens

John Mouat arrived in Denver from Scotland in 1873 at 25 and built the John Mouat Lumber Company, supplying wood for more than 200 buildings as the mining town grew into a city. In 1890 he built this mansion for his wife and five children, using the best wood from his own mills; each room was finished in a different wood, including cherry, oak, sycamore, maple and walnut. Tragedy came early: Mouat’s 10-year-old son was fatally stabbed inside the home by a grocer.

The Mouats left by 1915, and the house passed to miner Hiram Fowler’s family, who are remembered for letting neighborhood children play in the ballroom. As the neighborhood declined it was split into 13 apartments and fell into disrepair. It was in that period, in 1970, that the murders took place.

In the 1990s Walter and Julie Keller bought the condemned house and restored it, filling it with antiques and replanting the gardens, and opened it as the Lumber Baron Inn and Gardens, with a stage in the ballroom. Later owners Joel and Elaine Bryant ran it as a bed and breakfast and event venue. In May 2025 the inn was listed for sale for $3.2 million; Joel Bryant called it “the happiest house I’ve ever lived in” and said its haunted reputation has been sensationalized.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book directly with the inn and confirm your dates, since the property has been for sale.
• Respect the house rule: no yelling at or taunting the spirits, and remember two real young women died here.
• Ask about the room histories at check-in; the hosts know which suite is which.
• Highland is full of restaurants and bars a short walk away, and downtown is a ten-minute drive.
• Combine your stay with a night at the Brown Palace or the Oxford for a Denver haunted weekend.

More haunted hotels nearby

• The Brown Palace Hotel: Suite 904 and the phantom quartet downtown
• The Patterson Inn: a sandstone mansion inn in Capitol Hill
• The Oxford Hotel: book haunted Room 320 as a package
• Haunted hotels in Colorado
• Haunted hotels in Denver

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.

• Westword: Lumber Baron Inn on 28 Days Haunted
• Colorado cold case database: Marianne Weaver
• Hotel Online / Denver Post: Historic Denver bed and breakfast for sale (2025)
• Axios Denver: Lumber Baron Inn for sale (2025)
• Lumber Baron Inn and Gardens

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