Haunted Places in Albuquerque: 11 to Visit and 3 to Leave Alone
A Pueblo Deco theater that leaves gifts for a little boy, a 1700s hacienda where you say goodnight to Sara, a hospital turned hotel and a plaza with more than 300 years of stories. Here are Albuquerque’s ghost stories, checked, with the places you can actually visit.
Albuquerque’s haunted places sit in two clusters. Old Town, founded in 1706, has the Church Street Cafe, the High Noon saloon, San Felipe de Neri church and the nightly ghost walks, with the Albuquerque Little Theatre a few blocks south. Downtown along Central Avenue, Route 66, has the KiMo Theatre, the Hotel Andaluz and the old county courthouse, and the Hotel Parq Central is just east by the old railroad hospital grounds. The Luna Mansion in Los Lunas and the Shaffer Hotel in Mountainair make easy day trips. Many of the city’s stories come from staff, ghost tour guides and local ghost groups rather than records, and we say where that is so.
Where to look The lobby stairs, the balcony and the backstage shrine
Reported ghosts Bobby Darnall, a six-year-old boy killed in a 1951 boiler blast
Visiting City-owned working theater; the lobby is open for shows and events
Tours Occasional free guided tours by the city that include the 1951 story
Italian-born businessman Oreste Bachechi opened the KiMo on Central Avenue in 1927, and its Pueblo Deco design, with garlanded buffalo skulls whose eyes glow amber, is one of a kind. The name was suggested by Isleta Pueblo Governor Pablo Abeita and loosely means king of its kind. The city bought the theater in 1977 to save it from demolition, and it still hosts films, plays and concerts.
On August 2, 1951, a water heater under the lobby stairs exploded during a matinee, and six-year-old Bobby Darnall Jr., who had run down from the balcony, was killed. Performers say Bobby’s ghost plays pranks on shows that do not leave him a treat, and a backstage shrine holds toys, notes and ballet shoes. Researchers who checked the archives found the famous ruined Christmas show story does not match the records, so treat the haunting as theater folklore.
What investigators report
Performers and staff keep up a tradition of leaving donuts, toys or candy for the spirit of young Bobby Darnall, and say pranks such as popping lightbulbs and forgotten lines follow when the offerings are taken away. Activity is most often reported near the stage.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a show or watch for the city’s occasional free building tours, and look for the shrine story; leave a note, not food, which is no longer allowed.
Address Old Town Plaza, 2005 N Plaza St NW (San Felipe de Neri church), Albuquerque, NM 87104
Where to look Casa de Armijo, Plazuela Sombra, the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the streets around the plaza
Reported ghosts Victoria at Casa de Armijo, the Lady in Black at the chapel, the Hatchet Lady, Scarlet
Visiting Public streets and plaza; shops and the church keep their own hours
Tours Evening ghost walks most nights and daytime history tours by local companies
Albuquerque was founded here in 1706 as a Spanish colonial town around a plaza. San Felipe de Neri church on the north side was rebuilt on its present site in 1793 and is the only building in Old Town proven to date from the Spanish colonial era. When the railroad arrived in 1880 a New Town grew up to the east, and this original settlement became Old Town; it is now about ten blocks of shops, restaurants and galleries in old adobes.
Nightly ghost walks have run here for more than 20 years. Guides tell of Victoria, a girl of eight said to appear at the windows of Casa de Armijo; Scarlet, a red-haired woman linked to the Manual Springer house, a Prohibition-era brothel; the Hatchet Lady who chases couples; and the Lady in Black who sits and sobs in the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Under the bricks of Plazuela Sombra, guides explain, are bones that floods probably washed out of a long-gone cemetery. These are storytellers’ tales, told alongside documented history.
What investigators report
Investigators report recording EVPs attributed to the Lady in Black, said to sit on a bench inside Old Town’s Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Address 425 San Felipe St NW, Albuquerque, NM 87104
Where to look The bar, the Santos Room and the women's restroom
Reported ghosts A lady in a white dress and a prankster in the restroom
Visiting Working restaurant, closed Mondays
Hours and season Noon to 9 PM Tuesday to Sunday (2024)
This squat adobe at San Felipe and Mountain Road dates to the second half of the 1700s and is usually given as 1785, making it one of Old Town’s original buildings. It has been a home and, according to local tradition, a gambling hall, a brothel and even a nunnery, before Charley and Shirley Villa opened it as a steakhouse in 1974. Their daughter Carla runs it now; a 2024 fire behind the building closed it for five months, and the thick adobe walls kept the flames out of the dining room.
Old Town’s ghost tour guides call it the most haunted building in Old Town. Servers have told the Albuquerque Journal that at least two ghosts live here: one behind the bar and one that is said to push people off the toilets in the restroom. Visit Albuquerque adds a lady in a white dress seen in the Santos Room and bartenders who have watched glasses slide along the bar at night.
Haunted Rooms tip: Have dinner here before an evening Old Town ghost walk; it is one of the tour’s stops.
Where to look The top-floor wing, the stairwells, guest rooms on the upper floors
Reported ghosts A woman on the top floor, unseen hands pulling at bedsheets, whispers in empty halls
Visiting A working hotel; public areas, restaurant and bar are open to visitors
Hotel Parq Central opened in 2010 inside the 1926 Santa Fe Railway Hospital on Central Avenue, the old Route 66. The railroad treated its workers here for decades, and from 1981 to 2006 the building was Memorial Hospital, a psychiatric hospital for children and young people. It then sat empty until a four-year restoration turned it into a boutique hotel with a rooftop bar.
The stories began with the hospital. Patients and staff described a woman watching from the hallways of the top floor, bedsheets pulled off in the night and whispers close to the ear. Guests today report shuffling in the stairwells and the feeling of being watched, and a 2011 ghost hunt by Los Muertos Spirit Seekers recorded whispering it could not explain.
What investigators report
The Los Muertos Spirit Seekers reported whispers caught on voice recorders, cold drafts and a sense of being watched during a 2011 investigation. Reports focus on the right wing of the top floor.
Where to look The dining rooms and the room staff call Sara's room
Reported ghosts Sara Ruiz, a curandera (healer) and the mother of the last owner
Visiting Working restaurant; open to diners
Just behind San Felipe de Neri church in Old Town, this adobe hacienda was the Ruiz family home for generations, and family tradition dates it to the early 1700s; Albuquerque’s own guides call it one of the oldest homes in the city. Rufina G. Ruiz, the last of the family to live there, died in 1991 aged 91, and Marie Coleman turned the house into a New Mexican restaurant.
Coleman has said that during the renovation a woman’s voice told her to get rid of the contractor and her tools were found scattered. She came to believe the voice was Rufina’s mother, Sara Ruiz, a healer. Staff blame Sara for thrown silverware, slammed doors and hidden keys, have described a woman in a long black dress who vanishes from the dining room after hours, and say you should tell Sara goodnight before you leave.
What investigators report
Staff say “Goodnight Sara” before leaving, and one worker reported that calling out to Sara and asking for his missing keys saw them turn up in his pocket. She is reported in the dining room after hours.
Where to look The grand staircase, the second-floor rooms and the attic
Reported ghosts Josefita Manderfield Otero; a servant called Cruz
Visiting Restaurant closed in 2020; private property, see it from the street
When the Santa Fe Railway wanted a right of way through the Luna family’s land in 1880, it agreed to build them a new house, and this Southern Colonial style mansion of adobe was finished in 1881. In the 1920s Josefita Manderfield Otero, wife of Eduardo Otero, added the portico, solarium and ironwork. The mansion is on the National Register and ran for decades as a fine dining restaurant, until the Torres family, owners since 2009, closed it in 2020 and later listed it for sale.
Staff have described Josefita’s ghost since the restaurant opened in the 1970s: a woman in 1920s clothes on the staircase, in the old bedrooms upstairs and in the attic, along with chairs that moved and pots that rattled in an empty kitchen. A second spirit, a servant called Cruz, was said to play pranks on staff. Some accounts say Josefita died in 1951; we could not confirm the date.
Haunted Rooms tip: It sits on old Route 66 at Main Street and Highway 314; see it from the street and check local news for any reopening as an event venue.
Where to look The seventh floor, the fourth floor at dusk, the ballroom, Room 611
Reported ghosts A nervous young woman in 1940s clothes, an older woman in a pink dress, a party in the ballroom
Visiting A working hotel; public areas, restaurant and bar are open to visitors
Conrad Hilton opened this ten-story hotel in downtown Albuquerque in 1939, the first Hilton-branded hotel outside Texas. It became the Hotel Plaza, then La Posada de Albuquerque in 1984, and reopened in 2009 as Hotel Andaluz after a $30 million renovation. It joined Hilton’s Curio Collection in 2019 and is on the National Register as the Old Hilton Hotel.
Guests describe a young woman in 1940s clothes on the seventh floor, said to have waited for a lover who left for the Second World War, and an older woman in a pink dress on the fourth floor around sundown. Late-night guests report a party in an empty ballroom, and one guest in Room 611 told of a bang and a closet door that opened by itself.
What investigators report
Guest reports centre on room 611, the fourth floor at sundown, the seventh floor and the ballroom late at night; one guest in 611 said loud bangs stopped after she asked the spirit aloud to leave.
Address 224 San Pasquale Ave SW, Albuquerque, NM 87104
Where to look The backstage hallways and under the stage
Reported ghosts Bernard Thomas, a former director, and Manny Jaramillo, a custodian and carpenter
Visiting Working community theater; open for performances
Albuquerque Little Theatre was founded in 1930 by a group led by reporter Irene Fisher, and Vivian Vance, later of I Love Lucy, acted in its first season. In 1936 it moved into its present home just south of Old Town, a Pueblo Revival building designed by John Gaw Meem and the first structure in Albuquerque built by the Works Progress Administration. It still stages a full season of plays and musicals.
Staff talk about two friendly ghosts. One is Bernard Thomas, the executive director in the 1960s and 1970s. The other is Manuel “Manny” Jaramillo, a custodian and master carpenter whose ashes were scattered under the stage at his own request. Crew members describe feeling Manny in the hallways and doors opening and closing on their own, and the theater’s staff have told the Albuquerque Journal that both men seem to be looking after the place.
Haunted Rooms tip: See a show and ask front-of-house staff about Manny; it pairs well with an Old Town ghost walk a few blocks north.
Where to look The Abo Suite, Room 16, the lobby and upstairs hall
Reported ghosts Builder Clem "Pop" Shaffer and his wife Lena, a woman in white
Visiting A working hotel; public areas, restaurant and bar are open to visitors
Blacksmith Clem “Pop” Shaffer built this cast-concrete hotel in 1923 after his shop burned, and covered it inside and out with his own painted folk art, from the ceilings to the furniture. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and sits on Mountainair’s main street near the Salinas Pueblo Missions.
Most reports name Pop and Lena Shaffer themselves. Guests describe lights switching on and off, taps running, footsteps and a woman’s voice in the lobby, and an empty room that smelled of chocolate during one overnight investigation. Paranormal teams have focused on the Abo Suite, and Room 16 is often called the most active room.
What investigators report
Ghost hunters reported a K2 meter responding for around 10 minutes in the Abo Suite when they asked “Are you with us, Pop Shaffer?” and requested yes answers by moving close to the meter.
Address 201 Highland Park Cir SE, Albuquerque, NM 87102
Where to look The bar
Reported ghosts Mrs. M, a woman in a black dress or shawl
Visiting Private members’ club; see it from the street
Architect Charles Whittlesey, who also worked on the Alvarado and El Tovar hotels, built this three-story log and stone house in the Norwegian style in 1903, and for years it stood alone on the Huning Highlands hill. It was later leased to tuberculosis patients, owned by local families and used as a fraternity house, and since 1973 it has been the home of the Albuquerque Press Club, a member-owned private club. City grants in 2026 are paying for repairs to keep the old logs standing.
The club’s ghost is Mrs. M. Bartenders have described footsteps and a woman in a black dress near the bar, and the best-known story says a shot of gin left out for her at closing was always gone by morning. A former manager told the Daily Lobo he blames the club cat, and another bartender said the lights all came back on after she had locked up and driven away.
Haunted Rooms tip: It is a private club, so admire the log house from Highland Park Circle unless a member invites you in.
Where to look The basement jail cells and old control room
Reported ghosts A little girl with blond braids; cold spots and a flying law book
Visiting County offices and film location; not open for visits
Bernalillo County built this courthouse and office building on Tijeras Avenue downtown in 1926. When a new courthouse opened in 2001, it became a county annex, and its old courtrooms and basement holding cells are now often used by film crews. The basement has no natural light and holds the cells where prisoners once waited to be taken up to court.
In 2003 a community service crew cleaning the building reported a little girl with blond braids standing in a dark basement hallway, and others have described cold spots, lights switching on and off and an old law book that flew down a hallway. The building has opened its jail for occasional Halloween charity tours. The stories come from witnesses quoted by the Albuquerque Journal and local ghost groups, not from any official record.
Haunted Rooms tip: It is a government building, so see it from Tijeras Avenue unless the county announces a public tour.
These places appear in older lists of haunted spots. We keep them here so you know the facts before you go, but you cannot (or should not) visit them.
The asylum at Edith and Osuna
Our older guide told of an abandoned asylum here where a Dr. Samuel killed patients. We found no record of any such hospital or doctor; the story lives only on websites. The land is private and its owners take trespassing seriously, so do not go.
Carrie Tingley Hospital
Our older guide described glowing rooms, invisible barriers and children’s voices here, and said the hospital opened in 1910. We could not confirm that date or find any reliable source for the stories. It is a working children’s hospital, now part of the UNM medical system, so it is not a place for ghost hunting.
Casa Esencia and San Pedro Library
Our older guide listed ghost stories at Casa Esencia, a private event venue in Old Town, and at the San Pedro Library. We could not find any reliable source for either story, so we have removed them. Casa Esencia is open only to invited guests at private events.
Two stories belong to the whole city rather than one building. La Llorona, the weeping woman who drowned her children and wanders the waterways looking for them, is said to walk the arroyos, ditches and the Rio Grande bosque; parents across the Southwest tell it to keep children away from water after dark. Haunted Hill, at the east end of Menaul Boulevard by the Embudo Canyon trailhead, is said to be where a hermit murdered women in a cave, and visitors claim to hear screams or see a swinging lantern. The Paper found no record of any such hermit, so enjoy it as a daytime hike with a view, not a night trip.
Changed in this guide: The Old Bernalillo County Courthouse, the Albuquerque Little Theatre, the High Noon saloon, Old Town’s ghost walk stops, the Luna Mansion and the Shaffer Hotel are new. The Edith and Osuna asylum and Carrie Tingley Hospital moved to off-limits, and Casa Esencia and San Pedro Library were removed for lack of any source. We corrected the KiMo story: the 1951 explosion killed Bobby Darnall in the lobby, not backstage.
Visited one of these places? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from visitors and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your visit. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most haunted place in Albuquerque?
The KiMo Theatre is the most famous, for the ghost of six-year-old Bobby Darnall, killed by an exploding water heater in 1951. Old Town’s ghost guides call the High Noon saloon the most haunted building in Old Town, and Hotel Parq Central and the Church Street Cafe are close behind.
Are there ghost tours in Albuquerque?
Yes. Old Town has evening ghost walks most nights, starting at Plaza Don Luis, and there are downtown ghost walks and seasonal trolley tours. The city also runs occasional free tours of the KiMo that include Bobby’s story.
Is Old Town Albuquerque haunted?
Old Town has more ghost stories than anywhere else in the city: Sara at the Church Street Cafe, the ghosts of the High Noon, Victoria at Casa de Armijo and the Lady in Black in the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Most come from tour guides and restaurant staff.
Can you stay in a haunted hotel in Albuquerque?
Yes. Hotel Parq Central, a former railroad hospital, and the Hotel Andaluz, Conrad Hilton’s 1939 hotel downtown, both have long-running ghost stories and take guests every night.
What is the legend of Haunted Hill?
Haunted Hill, at the east end of Menaul Boulevard, is said to be where a hermit murdered women in a cave, and visitors claim to hear screams or see a lantern. Local reporters found no record of any such hermit, so it is best treated as an urban legend and a daytime hike.
Who haunts the Church Street Cafe?
Sara Ruiz, a healer and the mother of Rufina Ruiz, the last family member to live in the house. Staff say goodnight to her as they lock up and blame her for thrown silverware and hidden keys.
Sources and how we research
Every place in this guide is checked against its official website, historic register listings and news coverage, and we confirm whether it is open, closed, private or gone before we list it. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and local historians tell them; we say so where records contradict a story. Each place shows how many independent sources we checked it against; our own Haunted Rooms pages are not counted.
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team are paranormal researchers who write about historic haunted places across the United States. We research every place in our guides using official sites, historic registers, local archives and news coverage, and we report ghost stories as the stories they are. We review each guide regularly so you are not sent to a place that has closed, changed hands or banned visitors. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
