Colorado's Serial Killer Themed Hotel Is As Cool As It Is Creepy

Don't pretend like you aren't super interested in the idea of a serial killer themed hotel, we know how much true crime TV you watch.

Elana

• Published in Weird
• July 18, 2020

Victor, Colorado, USA is an old mining town and in that old mining town is The Black Monarch Hotel. The Black Monarch was once a brothel but it's been transformed into an iconic creepy destination that their website declares is more than a hotel:

"If these walls could talk, they’d whisper the town’s lore of hauntings, a Wild West history of barkeep gun fights, a phoenix-like revision after a great fire in 1899 and even some history with Nicola Tesla. In modern times, The Black Monarch has been the beautiful backdrop of countless modern indie films and photo shoots."

Prior to the buildings purchase by contractor Adam Zimmerli in June 2019, it was in disrepair and neglected partially because of its sinister roots. Today, the themed rooms and reports of a ghost inhabitant, The Black Monarch Hotel is indeed quite the experience.

The Countess Báthory Room

Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Báthory was rumored to have murdered hundreds of women in the 16th and 17th century for the sole purpose of bathing in their blood (to maintain her youthful appearances, of course!) Her very own room at The Black Monarch features blood-red walls to really drive the point home.

The Countess Báthory's room also features a taxidermy bat, sheer black curatins around the bed, and a portrait of the Hungarian killer hersef.

The hotel was once a wild west salon, casino, and brothel.

Built in a mining town in the late 1800's, it was a hopping hub of debauchery before a horrific fire in 1899 burnt it down (and the town along with it!)

At the time of the fire, none other than Nikola Tesla himself lived near Victor, CO and was believed to have done the original wiring for the building.

However, that rumor has never been substantiated. Despite it's lack of proof, it's widely believed and one of the themed rooms in the hotel is inspired by Tesla!

The builing is believed to be haunted by a miner who lost his life in the fire of 1899.

Another one of the rooms is inspired by folklore's child eating "The Black Annis."

Also known as "the bogeywoman of Leicester," The Black Annis is quite the eerie theme to go with for a room.

Eerie is right on theme, though, for a hotel reportedly haunted.

Upon opening their doors in summer of 2019, The Black Monarch Hotel has not had many guests in their four rooms, but those who have embraced the stay have reported being awoken at night by the sounds of grown men arguing and grown women laughing... despite being alone in the building. Reports have also come in of a ghostly, female apparition lingering near the top of the staircase.

The H.H. Holmes Room

How many people did H.H. Holmes murder? It's unknown.

Some scholars suggest upwards of 200, while Holmes himself confessed to 27-130. Only 9 were ever confirmed.

The H.H. Holmes Room in the hotel is adorned with blueprints from Holmes' real-life house, which he reportedly custom designed with sound-proof walls to drown the screams of his victims. Zimmerli also decorated the walls with photos of Holmes, medical drawings, and unrelated but eerie antiques he acquired specifically for decorative purposes.

Each of the four rooms was meticulously designed by Zimmerli.

He spent years acquiring oddities, antiques, and curiously eerie pieces of artwork.

Zimmerli maintained the original woodwork of the building but went with an overwhelming "Victorian Gothic" aesthetic in the designs of each room, regardless of what era each theme was from.

The oak doors, hardwood floors, and large bay windows are all original.

Deep green curtains, black walls (minus the Countess's blood-red walls,) and black, plush bedding are accented by a tin ceiling, completing the Victorian Gothic aesthetic.

What's next for The Black Monarch Hotel?

Reportedly: burlesque shows, destination weddings, and more rooms based on macabre characters and themes.

A destination, indeed: the entire town of Victor, CO is ripe with ghost stories and creepy folklore.

The Victor Hotel, also built before and after the 1899 fires, temporarily housed the bodies of dead miners in cold months. Guests have insisted they've witnessed ghosts of doctors, patients, and missing limbs wandering the halls of the fourth floor where the deceased were kept in the old days.

In Cripple Creek, the Colorado Grande Casino is haunted, too.

According to accounts:

"The Colorado Grande Casino and Hotel is believed to be haunted by a ghost called Maggie, an rose-scented Irish woman in turn-of-the-century clothes."

Also at the Casino isLily, a little girl ghost who prefers playing with purple balloons left for her by guests.

Don't forget about nearby Imperial Hotel & Restaurant...

It's haunted by a ghost stuck for eternity in a loop of falling down the stairs.

Would you visit the area? Which room would you stay in?

Elana