Black Hawk
Black Hawk, "The City of Mills," is one of Colorado’s oldest cities, one of a number of towns
that grew up in "Gregory’s Gulch," the narrow ravine where Georgia prospector John H.
Gregory first discovered lode gold in the western part of Kansas territory in 1859.
Black Hawk was incorporated by an act of the territorial legislature on March 11, 1864.
Directions from Denver:
Take 6th Ave. west out of Denver toward Lakewood and Golden. W 6th Ave. becomes US-6
W. Continue on US-6 W until you reach CO-119, which will take you straight into Black Hawk.
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The Lace House Museum
161 Main Street
*** Soone to be relocated to Mountain City Historic Park to make way for
gambling. The area where the historic Lace House is now and has been for over
130 years on historic Main Street will be used for a parking lot for a casino owned by
Eagle Gaming.
The Lace House is a very good example of the decorative trim that is sometimes called
gingerbread trim.
**Note: The Lace House is owned by the City of Black Hawk and is closed to the public at this
time.
.....Currently closed for remodeling, but group tours can be arranged by calling the City Clerk
at (303) 582-5221.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The decorative Lace House, built in 1863, has since been restored by the city and offers a
glimpse into mountain mining history and at 19th-century Carpenter Gothic architecture.
Lucien K. Smith built this house for his wife, and if it was modest in size, he more than made
up for that with the gingerbread exterior, which earned the building its nickname and also a
reputation as one of the finest examples of Gothic Revival architecture in the Rockies.
In 1974 the house was donated to Black Hawk as a museum. It was renovated just in time for
Colorado's centennial and for the next twenty years remained a draw for tourists heading for
the hills.
Cheryl Donaldson met the famed Lace House ghost while working as an intern for the city of
Black Hawk last summer. Late one afternoon, she was working alone in the 133-year-old
house, researching and dating the furniture inside as part of a project to restore the home as
a museum.
"I'm truly a nonbeliever, and even though this happened to me, I'm still a little skeptical. I
mean, after all, I'm trying to establish myself as a professional in this field and here I am telling
ghost stories," Donaldson said.
"Just the house settling'
"I'd been working in this house by myself, and throughout the summer I kept hearing the
floorboards creak upstairs, but I thought it was just the house settling. Once I swore someone
was up there, so I ran up the stairs but I saw nothing. Once you've been in an old house long
enough, your imagination starts running wild," she said.
"One afternoon, I was standing in the dining room in front of the mirror, talking on the phone. I
glanced up in the mirror and I saw something - not a figure exactly, more of a misty form - that
walked through the parlor. I just gasped. I told the person on the phone, "I gotta call you
back.' But by the time I hung up the phone and turned around, I couldn't see anything."
Heart pounding, Donaldson walked warily into the parlor, but the ethereal form apparently had
moved on.
"I immediately left the house and went up to city hall and said, "How come you guys didn't tell
me I was working in a haunted house?' Their reaction was "This is Black Hawk. Everyplace is
haunted."'
Policeman Al Elio could have told Donaldson that much. He had his own close encounter with
the ghost. And in 4 1/2 years on the Black Hawk police force, Elio says he's heard enough
ghost stories to give anyone goosebumps.
Two years ago, Elio and another officer responded to a motion-detecting alarm at the Lace
House at noon on a summer day.
"We had an alarm; I went there. Officer Todd Renner showed up with me. We got the key from
our office and went into the Lace House's back room - the bathroom area - and disabled the
alarm. In that small house, the alarm rings so loud you can hardly hear yourself think. We
walked out of bathroom into the dining room area, and as we were standing there in complete
silence, we heard a laugh, a female laugh, kind of a younger child laugh, coming from
upstairs."
"Did you hear that?'
Guns drawn, the two officers searched the entire house once, then twice. "Then we walked
back outside and said to each other, "Did you hear that?' Both of us heard the laugh. We
would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that there was someone upstairs when we heard it. We
checked all the doors. They were locked. After talking about it, the hairs on the back of my
neck just came up. I was wondering: "Should I tell someone about this or not?"'
A few times since, Elio has been summoned to the house by the alarm. But each time, after
the alarm was turned off, the house was silent.
"Nothing has happened since, but there was something in there that one time. I heard it and
another officer did, too. I would probably not go in there again alone. Really."
Sources: DENVER POST March 26, 1996
Section: Living Page: E-01 Michelle Mahoney Denver Post Staff Writer
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
'No right answer' in landmark's future
Redrawing of historic district lines means move for Lace House
By Joe Garner, Rocky Mountain News
July 27, 2005
BLACK HAWK - The historic Lace House is to be moved as part of a recommendation to
redraw the boundaries of Black Hawk's historic district.
A symbol of gentility in frontier Colorado, the 1863 house has been marooned on Main Street,
with only mega-casinos in either direction. The two-story, wooden house, built as a wedding
gift, takes its name from its fanciful gingerbread trim, which made it a landmark among the
tents and shanties in the mining camp.
"There are no other historical structures to draw people to this part of town," said Sean
McCartney, Black Hawk's community planning and development director.
Instead, the southern end of Main Street is home to some 10 new, high-tech casinos, with
names like Mardi Gras, Isle of Capri and Riviera that conjure up faraway places instead of
small-town preservation - the original goal of Colorado gaming.
That end of the mountain town would lose its historical designation, but longtime residential
areas and casinos that have opened in renovated buildings would remain in the redrawn
historic district.
As the new casinos pushed aside the past, preservationists in 1998 won a legal battle to let
the house stand where it was, but attempts to turn it into a museum among the casinos failed
and it has fallen into disuse. Part of its charm is a second-floor doorway to a steep stairway
that leads up to a privy high on the mountainside above the house's green roof and brick
chimneys.
After August 2006, the house will be eligible to be moved about a half-mile to the Mountain
City Historic Park, where 11 other historic buildings already have been relocated and
refurbished, according to city officials. Some of the other houses are used for municipal
offices, and the Lace House could be restored as a museum.
Eagle Gaming, which owns the ground on which the house sits, has agreed to pay the
$500,000 cost of the relocation to the park site, according to Black Hawk officials. The gaming
company is expected to offer plans for a casino expansion and parking structure for the Lace
House site.
Mark Rodman, executive director of Colorado Preservation Inc., a nonprofit, said he doesn't
support moving the Lace House.
"However, it is a complicated situation because the neighborhood has lost its historic context,"
Rodman said. "There's really no right answer."
On the other hand, tourists Tuesday saw benefits to relocating the house.
"It's better to move it than to lose it," Nick Dixon, a tourist from Kansas City, said Tuesday. "To
the casinos, it's just a loss of revenue."
Dave Spangenberg, a vacationer from Boise, Idaho, agreed with the move, pointing out that,
"No one sees it here."
A steep site in the park has been identified for the Lace House. The site also would allow the
second-floor privy to be moved with the house.
"The privy is unique," said Philo Shelton, the town's public works director. "We definitely want
to put it back the way it is now."
garnerj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5421
Image from http://www.coloradopreservation.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Gilpin Casino
111 Main Street
303.582.1133
http://www.thegilpincasino.com
Do Ghosts Haunt The Gilpin?
The Gilpin Casino was mentioned in a Denver Post article entitled Do Ghosts Haunt Many of
State’s Venerable Hostels? Here is what the article had to say:
At Black Hawk’s Gilpin Hotel (now The Gilpin Casino) in the 1980s a travel-weary guest
checked in, retired to his room, tossing his duffel bag on the floor, and stretched out on the
bed, exhausted. Almost immediately he felt something thrown on his chest; it was his duffel
bag. He ran from the hotel, not even bothering to wait for a refund.
It seems The Gilpin Casino has inherited one or more of the old hotel’s ghosts. A Gilpin
Manager is positive he saw a woman entering a second-floor room. When he approached the
room, no one was there. He’s sure it was Lucille Malone who jumped to her death a century
ago, when she learned her lover was run over by a wagon in front of the hotel.
"People are very accepting, very matter-of-fact about the ghosts up here," said Jeri Bowles,
who owned the Gilpin Hotel in the early 1980s.
"They exist, according to most folks you talk to. When we lived in the Gilpin Hotel, there were
rational explanations for some of the things that happened, none for others."
Lucy Malone is said to haunt part of the hotel's dining room. Several construction workers
rebuilding the hotel for the casino's 1991 opening said they saw a figure of a woman in a
white blouse and black skirt roaming the hallway.
"We had one window in the hotel that kept blowing open no matter if we kept it locked or
whatever," Bowles said. "It always blew open to the outside.
"I lived with the ghosts quite comfortably. But I did have one fellow leave after being in one
room for an hour. He fell asleep and he said he woke up after his duffel bag landed on his
chest. He just came running down and I gave him his money back and he left."
DENVER POST March 26, 1996
Section: Living Page: E-01 Michelle Mahoney Denver Post Staff Writer
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Private Home
Julia Anderson, the local county court bailiff, told stories of strange happenings at her home
to videographers.
"I know there are spirits here," Anderson said as she gave a visitor a quick tour of the 130-
year-old home. "People who walk into this house say there's a coolness, especially in our
parlor, and people say it feels like there are spirits here."
Anderson's husband, James, who works in audiovisual production at Red Rocks Community
College, has even named one ghost "Lily."
"I've seen her twice for sure," Anderson said. "I was standing at the top of the stairs looking
down and saw a shadow go by from left to right."
In 1985, before the couple moved from Denver to live in the house full time, John had several
strange experiences. Lights on, doors open
"I'd been working upstairs replacing some ceiling joists, and I came down and the kitchen
lights were on and all cupboard doors and drawers would be open. The first time, I didn't think
much of it, just closed them all, turned off the light and went upstairs. Later I'd come down and
they were all open and the light was on. This happened no less than half a dozen times in a
one-week period.
"I sort of had the feeling that whoever was still hanging around up here was delighted with the
fact that we were restoring the place."
Source: DENVER POST March 26, 1996
Section: Living Page: E-01 Michelle Mahoney Denver Post Staff Writer
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http://www.cityofblackhawk.org/
Back to home page
Black Hawk, "The City of Mills," is one of Colorado’s oldest cities, one of a number of towns
that grew up in "Gregory’s Gulch," the narrow ravine where Georgia prospector John H.
Gregory first discovered lode gold in the western part of Kansas territory in 1859.
Black Hawk was incorporated by an act of the territorial legislature on March 11, 1864.
Directions from Denver:
Take 6th Ave. west out of Denver toward Lakewood and Golden. W 6th Ave. becomes US-6
W. Continue on US-6 W until you reach CO-119, which will take you straight into Black Hawk.
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The Lace House Museum
161 Main Street
*** Soone to be relocated to Mountain City Historic Park to make way for
gambling. The area where the historic Lace House is now and has been for over
130 years on historic Main Street will be used for a parking lot for a casino owned by
Eagle Gaming.
The Lace House is a very good example of the decorative trim that is sometimes called
gingerbread trim.
**Note: The Lace House is owned by the City of Black Hawk and is closed to the public at this
time.
.....Currently closed for remodeling, but group tours can be arranged by calling the City Clerk
at (303) 582-5221.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The decorative Lace House, built in 1863, has since been restored by the city and offers a
glimpse into mountain mining history and at 19th-century Carpenter Gothic architecture.
Lucien K. Smith built this house for his wife, and if it was modest in size, he more than made
up for that with the gingerbread exterior, which earned the building its nickname and also a
reputation as one of the finest examples of Gothic Revival architecture in the Rockies.
In 1974 the house was donated to Black Hawk as a museum. It was renovated just in time for
Colorado's centennial and for the next twenty years remained a draw for tourists heading for
the hills.
Cheryl Donaldson met the famed Lace House ghost while working as an intern for the city of
Black Hawk last summer. Late one afternoon, she was working alone in the 133-year-old
house, researching and dating the furniture inside as part of a project to restore the home as
a museum.
"I'm truly a nonbeliever, and even though this happened to me, I'm still a little skeptical. I
mean, after all, I'm trying to establish myself as a professional in this field and here I am telling
ghost stories," Donaldson said.
"Just the house settling'
"I'd been working in this house by myself, and throughout the summer I kept hearing the
floorboards creak upstairs, but I thought it was just the house settling. Once I swore someone
was up there, so I ran up the stairs but I saw nothing. Once you've been in an old house long
enough, your imagination starts running wild," she said.
"One afternoon, I was standing in the dining room in front of the mirror, talking on the phone. I
glanced up in the mirror and I saw something - not a figure exactly, more of a misty form - that
walked through the parlor. I just gasped. I told the person on the phone, "I gotta call you
back.' But by the time I hung up the phone and turned around, I couldn't see anything."
Heart pounding, Donaldson walked warily into the parlor, but the ethereal form apparently had
moved on.
"I immediately left the house and went up to city hall and said, "How come you guys didn't tell
me I was working in a haunted house?' Their reaction was "This is Black Hawk. Everyplace is
haunted."'
Policeman Al Elio could have told Donaldson that much. He had his own close encounter with
the ghost. And in 4 1/2 years on the Black Hawk police force, Elio says he's heard enough
ghost stories to give anyone goosebumps.
Two years ago, Elio and another officer responded to a motion-detecting alarm at the Lace
House at noon on a summer day.
"We had an alarm; I went there. Officer Todd Renner showed up with me. We got the key from
our office and went into the Lace House's back room - the bathroom area - and disabled the
alarm. In that small house, the alarm rings so loud you can hardly hear yourself think. We
walked out of bathroom into the dining room area, and as we were standing there in complete
silence, we heard a laugh, a female laugh, kind of a younger child laugh, coming from
upstairs."
"Did you hear that?'
Guns drawn, the two officers searched the entire house once, then twice. "Then we walked
back outside and said to each other, "Did you hear that?' Both of us heard the laugh. We
would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that there was someone upstairs when we heard it. We
checked all the doors. They were locked. After talking about it, the hairs on the back of my
neck just came up. I was wondering: "Should I tell someone about this or not?"'
A few times since, Elio has been summoned to the house by the alarm. But each time, after
the alarm was turned off, the house was silent.
"Nothing has happened since, but there was something in there that one time. I heard it and
another officer did, too. I would probably not go in there again alone. Really."
Sources: DENVER POST March 26, 1996
Section: Living Page: E-01 Michelle Mahoney Denver Post Staff Writer
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
'No right answer' in landmark's future
Redrawing of historic district lines means move for Lace House
By Joe Garner, Rocky Mountain News
July 27, 2005
BLACK HAWK - The historic Lace House is to be moved as part of a recommendation to
redraw the boundaries of Black Hawk's historic district.
A symbol of gentility in frontier Colorado, the 1863 house has been marooned on Main Street,
with only mega-casinos in either direction. The two-story, wooden house, built as a wedding
gift, takes its name from its fanciful gingerbread trim, which made it a landmark among the
tents and shanties in the mining camp.
"There are no other historical structures to draw people to this part of town," said Sean
McCartney, Black Hawk's community planning and development director.
Instead, the southern end of Main Street is home to some 10 new, high-tech casinos, with
names like Mardi Gras, Isle of Capri and Riviera that conjure up faraway places instead of
small-town preservation - the original goal of Colorado gaming.
That end of the mountain town would lose its historical designation, but longtime residential
areas and casinos that have opened in renovated buildings would remain in the redrawn
historic district.
As the new casinos pushed aside the past, preservationists in 1998 won a legal battle to let
the house stand where it was, but attempts to turn it into a museum among the casinos failed
and it has fallen into disuse. Part of its charm is a second-floor doorway to a steep stairway
that leads up to a privy high on the mountainside above the house's green roof and brick
chimneys.
After August 2006, the house will be eligible to be moved about a half-mile to the Mountain
City Historic Park, where 11 other historic buildings already have been relocated and
refurbished, according to city officials. Some of the other houses are used for municipal
offices, and the Lace House could be restored as a museum.
Eagle Gaming, which owns the ground on which the house sits, has agreed to pay the
$500,000 cost of the relocation to the park site, according to Black Hawk officials. The gaming
company is expected to offer plans for a casino expansion and parking structure for the Lace
House site.
Mark Rodman, executive director of Colorado Preservation Inc., a nonprofit, said he doesn't
support moving the Lace House.
"However, it is a complicated situation because the neighborhood has lost its historic context,"
Rodman said. "There's really no right answer."
On the other hand, tourists Tuesday saw benefits to relocating the house.
"It's better to move it than to lose it," Nick Dixon, a tourist from Kansas City, said Tuesday. "To
the casinos, it's just a loss of revenue."
Dave Spangenberg, a vacationer from Boise, Idaho, agreed with the move, pointing out that,
"No one sees it here."
A steep site in the park has been identified for the Lace House. The site also would allow the
second-floor privy to be moved with the house.
"The privy is unique," said Philo Shelton, the town's public works director. "We definitely want
to put it back the way it is now."
garnerj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5421
Image from http://www.coloradopreservation.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Gilpin Casino
111 Main Street
303.582.1133
http://www.thegilpincasino.com
Do Ghosts Haunt The Gilpin?
The Gilpin Casino was mentioned in a Denver Post article entitled Do Ghosts Haunt Many of
State’s Venerable Hostels? Here is what the article had to say:
At Black Hawk’s Gilpin Hotel (now The Gilpin Casino) in the 1980s a travel-weary guest
checked in, retired to his room, tossing his duffel bag on the floor, and stretched out on the
bed, exhausted. Almost immediately he felt something thrown on his chest; it was his duffel
bag. He ran from the hotel, not even bothering to wait for a refund.
It seems The Gilpin Casino has inherited one or more of the old hotel’s ghosts. A Gilpin
Manager is positive he saw a woman entering a second-floor room. When he approached the
room, no one was there. He’s sure it was Lucille Malone who jumped to her death a century
ago, when she learned her lover was run over by a wagon in front of the hotel.
"People are very accepting, very matter-of-fact about the ghosts up here," said Jeri Bowles,
who owned the Gilpin Hotel in the early 1980s.
"They exist, according to most folks you talk to. When we lived in the Gilpin Hotel, there were
rational explanations for some of the things that happened, none for others."
Lucy Malone is said to haunt part of the hotel's dining room. Several construction workers
rebuilding the hotel for the casino's 1991 opening said they saw a figure of a woman in a
white blouse and black skirt roaming the hallway.
"We had one window in the hotel that kept blowing open no matter if we kept it locked or
whatever," Bowles said. "It always blew open to the outside.
"I lived with the ghosts quite comfortably. But I did have one fellow leave after being in one
room for an hour. He fell asleep and he said he woke up after his duffel bag landed on his
chest. He just came running down and I gave him his money back and he left."
DENVER POST March 26, 1996
Section: Living Page: E-01 Michelle Mahoney Denver Post Staff Writer
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Private Home
Julia Anderson, the local county court bailiff, told stories of strange happenings at her home
to videographers.
"I know there are spirits here," Anderson said as she gave a visitor a quick tour of the 130-
year-old home. "People who walk into this house say there's a coolness, especially in our
parlor, and people say it feels like there are spirits here."
Anderson's husband, James, who works in audiovisual production at Red Rocks Community
College, has even named one ghost "Lily."
"I've seen her twice for sure," Anderson said. "I was standing at the top of the stairs looking
down and saw a shadow go by from left to right."
In 1985, before the couple moved from Denver to live in the house full time, John had several
strange experiences. Lights on, doors open
"I'd been working upstairs replacing some ceiling joists, and I came down and the kitchen
lights were on and all cupboard doors and drawers would be open. The first time, I didn't think
much of it, just closed them all, turned off the light and went upstairs. Later I'd come down and
they were all open and the light was on. This happened no less than half a dozen times in a
one-week period.
"I sort of had the feeling that whoever was still hanging around up here was delighted with the
fact that we were restoring the place."
Source: DENVER POST March 26, 1996
Section: Living Page: E-01 Michelle Mahoney Denver Post Staff Writer
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
http://www.cityofblackhawk.org/
Back to home page
