Haunted Happy Hour

The story goes like this: Corridor 44, at 1433 Larimer Street, was once a brothel owned by a reformed showgirl and her ornery husband. When the couple's daughter began dallying with a city lowlife, the irate father sent a hit man to rub out the boyfriend — except the plan...

By Joel Warner

September 27, 2007

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The story goes like this: Corridor 44, at 1433 Larimer Street, was once a brothel owned by a reformed showgirl and her ornery husband. When the couple's daughter began dallying with a city lowlife, the irate father sent a hit man to rub out the boyfriend — except the plan went wrong and the daughter ended up dead. Her mother was so distraught that she hung herself in the brothel — but her grief didn't end with her death.

There's a framed photo of the former showgirl in Corridor 44's basement featuring glass that shatters on its own. Hallways creak mysteriously, and unexpected whiffs of perfume linger in the air. Sometimes the activity occurs down the block. Gelazzi, at 1411 Larimer Street, was terrorized on a recent Father's Day when gelato cups flew across the room.

Maybe the occasion made the troubled mother remember her bloodthirsty husband. Or maybe she didn't like her ice-cream cannoli.

This is just one of the tales related on the LoDo Cocktail Hour Ghost Hunt, which begins tonight at 5 p.m. with appetizers and anecdotes at Corridor 44. The three-hour expedition includes visits to the Sugar Building and the vault in Union Station's basement, plus hors d'oeuvre stops at the Oxford Hotel's Cruise Room and Mattie's House of Mirrors — another former brothel, and supposedly the most haunted place in Denver. "Sex and liquor add up to bad things," says tour guide Terra VonDrehle. That and gelato cups.

Tours continue through October; tickets are $20, $15 for students. For more information, call 303-902-8620 or 303-931-0299.
Fri., Sept. 28, 5 p.m.; Sat., Oct. 6, 5 p.m.; Sat., Oct. 13, 5 p.m.; Sat., Oct. 20, 5 p.m.; Sat., Oct. 27, 5 p.m., 2007

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Joel Warner is a former staff writer for Westword and International Business Times. He's also written for WIRED, Men's Journal, Men's Health, Bloomberg Businessweek, Popular Science, Slate, Grantland and many other publications. He's co-author of the 2014 book The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny, published by Simon & Schuster.

Contact: Joel Warner