Green Victorian

From: 
Story type: Ghost
Location: Denver, CO
Source: Form Submission
Date submitted: Sun Jun 17 18:42:02 2007

On 11th street near downtown Denver, in an area known as "The Golden Triangle," stands a three story school from 1904. It was a school for the deaf and blind until it was gutted by fire around the middle of the century. Unfortunately, I never had a chance to explore this school, as it is now being renovated into condos.

The focus of this story is on a house that once stood to the side of the school between 11th and 12th on Bannock. It was a medium sized two story Victorian which was tragically demolished to make way for a parking lot.

The house was painted a curious, albeit it very aged, shade of green. It had quite appropriately been used for a haunted house in recent years, and there were still remnants of the cheesy props on the grounds. There was a stable garage to the rear of the house. I recall a plastic Jesus figurine taped to the window.

The stairs leading to the back door had been demolished, and the door itself was boarded. Luckily, this place had most recently served as a squat for junkies and runaway teenagers, so the boardings had already been broken for us.

I was the first to venture in. Immediately inside the door was a tiny room, it's wall just long enough to accommodate the back door and the very narrow stairway on the adjacent wall spiraling into pitch darkness.

Through a doorless entry way opposite the back door was a mud room. I continued through the doorway on the right into the kitchen. The kitchen was very well lit thanks to the tall window on the southern wall.

The hardware on the cabinetry made them conspicuously old. They latched by mechanical means rather than the use of magnets. The light was a simple fixture fed by exposed conduit to one of those old rotary bakelite switches with another length of exposed conduit wondering off to the fuse box (all of which looked retrofitted). I remember the huge porcelain sink in the middle of the counters on the southern wall. I could have probably bathed in this thing if so inclined.

We found a purse on the counter. It contained a small notebook full of pictures of Marilyn Manson and your average ramblings of an angst-filled teenage girl. Summer Squatters.

We continued from the kitchen. The tile floor ended and the wide planked hardwood floors began. There was a small bathroom to the left(s) of the small passageway that led from the kitchen to the front of the house, it's toilet full nearly to the brim with junkie diarrhea.

Onward a little further, there is a bedroom to the right(n). There are two tents set up in this bedroom. This bedroom does not feel good at all. I step inside and the closet comes into view. Suddenly, this room feels much, much worse. There's also something about the window, but I couldn't quite place my finger on it.

Opposite this bedroom was a gorgeous spiral staircase. It was constructed of red mahogany using a nailess method that involves curling the wood. There was a grotto positioned in the middle of the wall over the center of the staircase. The plaster around the moulding of the grotto was badly chipped, revealing large areas of lath.

Before ascending the stairway, we checked out the living room in the front(w) of the house. Nothing spectacular. Just a large room with a beautiful bay window.

We ascended the stairway, barely able to hear each other over the creaking. At the top of the stairs was a small, L-shaped atrium. The whole of the staircase was exposed using lathed banisters as barriers, giving the atrium a loft-type look. Towards the front(w) of the house was a single door. I entered the door and looked around the master bedroom. This room also had a bay window directly above the one in the living room. At the south east of the room, right next to the door was a large walk-in closet with a sink and a mirror. The others left this room as I wondered towards the bay window.

I stared out at the building across the street. I saw from my peripherals a reflection of someone in the glass. I turned to look behind. Seeing nothing, I turned back to the glass to see if such a reflection was still there. The glass was badly warped and there were many reflections. I couldn't discern whether the one I had seen was there or not. I chalked it up to mere hysteria when I got the feeling. This house had very heavy fingerprints and a very dense vibe, but it didn't feel as though there was anything actively watching us. I felt the shiver, and I knew it wasn't friendly. I made a beeline for the atrium, slamming the door behind me and scaring the hell out of the rest of the group.

"What was that all about?" They asked. I explained that I had freaked out. We continued to another bedroom on the northern side of the house and another directly west of that one. Between the rooms was a small passageway, similar to the one leading from the kitchen directly underneath.

This one was mostly obstructed by two coffee tables and a chair stacked atop each other. Above the pile was the open attic. Rudy volunteered to enter the attic, but changed his mind once atop the pile. I also made an attempt, and my description of the attic is similar to briefly poking your head into hell.

Like the passage below, there was also a small bathroom to the south. The toilet in this one, however, was full of dry pinto beans, filling the bowl and overflowing under the seat onto the floor. Bizarre, but I suspect it was a product of the haunted house production.

We continued back into a strange room above the kitchen. Like the kitchen, it was large, tiled, and well lit. On the northern wall was a large closet. There was a double-fauceted porcelain sink on the south-western wall. The entire room was wallpapered with advertisements for department stores from the 1920's. On the north-eastern corner of the room was a narrow staircase, spiraling into pitch darkness. I descended the stairs and sure enough, found myself at the back door. The curious thing about this staircase was that is connected two very well lit rooms. The total rotation of the staircase was exactly 360 degrees, yet you would find yourself in total pitch darkness in the middle.

I came back up the stairs and we decided to take another walk back through. As we crossed the atrium, Jimmie stated that he hadn't seen the master bedroom. I walked up to the door and opened it. I had it a quarter of the way open when the door banged. It didn't slam shut, but rather reacted as though someone had swiftly kicked it from the inside. As I wobbled in my hand, I figured it was missing a pin and had fallen from it's hinges or the door jamb was warped. We entered the room and I inspected the hinges. All of the pins were accounted for and properly installed. The door swung smoothly as I swung it from side to side and opened and closed it.

Upon our exit of the room, the door slammed shut. I figured it was about time to leave.

I returned to the house a few times after our initial exploration. I don't recall any further strange occurances, aside from the overall vibe of the house, but a lot of strange things happen to me and I am apt to forget some of them. It's definitely a shame that they leveled this place.