16 OCTOBER 23-29, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | when they left the premises for the last time. In 2007, the facility moved lock, stock and barrel to the Anschutz Campus. Mattie’s House of Mirrors 1946A Market Street Also appearing in Case Studies Volume 3 is a story set at legendary brothel Mattie’s House of Mirrors on Market Street — but when the stone structure that’s now part of Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row was built in 1889, it was still called Halladay Street. The original building was constructed not by famed madame Mattie Silks but by a competitor for the hearts and wallets of local purveyors of ladies of the night, one Jennie Rogers. She operated her own brothel at that location until her death in 1909, at which point Mattie purchased the location and moved her operations there. She presided over the thriving business until 1915, when a national wave of moralism swept into Denver and closed down any establishments those in charge deemed illicit. “Several ghostly occurrences have been reported, many of them connected to the 1894 suicide of Ella Wellington in one of the rooms,” reports Lewis. “During our investigation, we had a few strange and unsolved occur- rences. One involved two lights fl ickering at the same time, even though they were on different circuits. We also recorded one of our strangest audio recordings. In what was the suicide room, we captured a con- versation between two distinct male voices, even though no one was there. Subsequent analysis by audio engineers, linguists and other experts has been unable to explain the anomaly or to even fi gure out what language they were speaking.” Denver Firefi ghters Museum 1326 Tremont Place The Denver Firefi ghters Museum has seen more than its share of emergencies over the years, befi tting its designation as “Station No. 1” of the Denver Fire Department. It was built in 1909, when the DFD was just beginning to transition from horse-drawn rigs to new, motorized triple-combination apparatuses, which play a role in what’s probably the site’s most touching ghost story. Only a few years back, the director of the museum was trying — and failing — to insulate the old single-pane windows against the cold Den- ver winters. She put insulation in one of those windows, and by the next morning, someone had taken it out. She asked around; no one knew anything about it. They reinstalled the insulation over and over again, but every time, it was gone by morning. Eventually, some psychic mediums suggested that the window was being haunted by Thomas, an old horse-keeper in charge of the loyal fi rehouse animals that would pull the wa- ter wagons — and that was the window he used to look through in order to check on his horses. The director posted photos of horses inside the layer of insulation — and it was never removed again. That’s the sort of anecdotal evidence that RMPRS members eschew in favor of the more scientific, and their investiga- tions didn’t turn up anything specifi cally paranormal when they visited. “But it’s still one of our favorites,” says Lewis, “because we got to spend the night in the presence of some truly remarkable historic artifacts, in a truly remarkable historic building. Whether literal ghosts exist or not, the ghosts of the past undoubtedly speak to us metaphorically in places like this.” Email the author at [email protected]. Culture continued from page 14 RMPRS leaders/co-authors Bob Lewis and Bryan Bonner at the Denver Firefi ghters Museum. RMPRS
