register |  login
› BOULDER
Loading Ad
Visit Other Hubs:
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Tower
RECENT STORIES

Historic Boulder explores the town's ghostly side

Contributed by: Kevin Villegas/YourHub.com on 10/30/2006

The night is cold but clear and groups of warmly dressed adventurers are shuttling from house to house, taking in the sights and sounds of various houses around Boulder.

It is a parade of homes of sorts. But instead of looking at homes for their aesthetic value, these people are looking for ghosts.

It's Historic Boulder's biennial Ghost Walk Ghost Talk and it is a little creepy, a little funny but mostly historic. Held Oct. 27 and 28 in the Whittier neighborhood in Boulder, the event brought out people looking for a little scare.

Just a little one.

Abby Daniels, the executive director of Historic Boulder, says that the walk, held in alternating years, brought out more than 1,600 people in 2004.

"Everybody loves to get into other people's houses," she said. "What puts a fun spin on this is the psychics. It brings in a different dimension - literally."

The walk features a tour of the school as well as six houses in the neighborhood that display some "energetic" activity.

While snooping around someone's house may be a secondary lure, the ladies working the ticket booth agree that the psychics involved with the event are the main draw.

Psychic Horizons Center brings 10 to 12 volunteers and stations them in both the Whittier International School, a sort of nerve center for the event, and in the houses on the tour, where they serve as a sort of spiritual tour guide for the ghostly adventure.

The psychics draw big crowds while sitting in a makeshift appointment room in the school. On this night, there is a long line extending down the entire main area of people waiting to get a free reading. The psychics furrow their brows with concentration, take the hands of some and not others and use their talents to determine a little bit about their subject's future.

Another big part of the event is the involvement of the Whittier Historians, a group of children who volunteer their time to learn more about Whittier and what makes it interesting. The group, headed by Polly McDonald, a teacher at Whittier, helped out during the event by giving tours of the main hall.

Polly herself has history at the school. From 1979 to 2004 she worked in the office, "pushing paper" she says with a slight smile and laugh. But now, she beams as she explains her work is in the classroom, using her love of history to teach children.

"I thought, 'Why not involve kids?'" Polly said.

She is dressed as a silver Hershey's kiss, complete with paper tab sticking out of the top of her hat. She talks to her historians as equals and doesn't patronize. She seems as proud of them as she is of the history she recalls with ease.

Yes, characters and spirits were all over the place on this night. Nowhere was that more apparent than at 2045 Mapleton Ave.

Dana Coffield, a member of the board of Historic Boulder and an employee of the Denver Post, gave visitors a little background on the house, built in 1859. As she speaks, a bag around a candle catches fire in the front yard, sending people scrambling. She continues, a little jarred, but as she finishes, a second fire starts. The visitors start muttering to themselves about the fire's omen.

As the visitors enter the house, Lynn Swearingen, another psychic from the center, greets them. She explains to the crowd that there is energy coming from the front room of the house and describes it as artistic and intellectual. She speculates that it might be from intellectual spirits who use that room as a sort of meeting room of sorts and explains that the owners of the house experience various phenomena that she correlates with the spirits and energy of the house.

The next house, at 2106 Mapleton Ave., has a decidedly different tone than the first one. Where the house at 2045 Mapleton was well lit and bright, this house is dark. The psychic inside of the house, who calls herself Star, describes the house as 'blessed' and points to the second level, where she says an 'angelic spirit' dwells, blessing the house and those who live in it.

As the visitors are herded to the kitchen, Brijanna Carbone, another psychic, describes the energy she feels in the house.

"When you're working with energy, there is no time or space," she said.

She tells of how there is a horse buried underneath a shed in the backyard. She then forms a tight smile and looks pleased with herself.

"The girl who lives in this house has pictures of horses on her wall. She loves them," Carbone said. The visitors are left to ponder the connection.

Finally, a few people break off from the main group and ask Carbone a few general questions about ghosts.

The mood in the room is expectant, hanging on the answer as if the enjoyment of their night is reliant on the answer of whether or not ghosts actually exist.

"Well," Carbone said. "Ghosts are different - they're kind of stuck. They usually don't realize they're dead."

The cold surrounds the visitors as they move into the open and onto the next house, in search of more ghosts.


SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story



Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Jeff Thomas has posted 1629 stories and 83 comments since joining on 9/14/2005. Jeff Thomas's average story rating is 4.73.
SAVE AND SHARE THIS STORY
STORY RSS FEEDS
WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?
Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is register, then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyone what events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

Loading Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

This YourHub.com community is produced by The Denver Newspaper Agency
Web Development and Channel Analytics provided by Indigio

terms of use //  privacy policy
the staff //  advertise //  help & faq
buy photos