Hotel Tour: Black Monarch Hotel
Located at the peak of Battle Mountain in Victor, Colorado sits, secluded and spooky, The Black Monarch Hotel. Prior to its recent remodel, the boutique hotel was once a casino, saloon and brothel for a fledgling gold rush town. “There’s a lot of history here,” shares owner Adam Zimmer.
Pre-renovation. All photos courtesy of Black Monarch Hotel.
Post-remodel: The Black Monarch is influenced by gothic revival and Italianate architecture.
During the remodel process, he sought to maintain the historic nature of the building while updating it with modern accoutrements for guests. “We do all the remodel work and design ourselves,” explains Zimmer. “We launched in May of 2019 with only three rooms. We now have seven. Black Monarch is influenced by gothic revival and Italianate architecture. Other influences include the films Rosemary’s Baby and Crimson Peak.” With rooms entitled “Bela Lugosi’s Dracula Room” and the “Jack the Ripper Room,” not to mention the clawfoot bathtub, the horror influence on the hotel’s design is more than evident.
But, it’s not just the architecture that has a haunting edge. “The hotel is haunted,” states Zimmer, plainly. The full-time resident of the hotel then began to recount tales of doors opening and closing even when locked and hearing a cat meow outside his door only to open it and find nothing there.
“There are phenomena. You just get used to it,” he adds. As a self-proclaimed “scientifically minded” person, these phenomena were an adjustment at first. But following the remodel, the first guests that stayed at the hotel confirmed that what he was hearing wasn’t just part of his imagination.
“I asked how their stay was and they replied ‘Why didn’t you invite us to the party?’” Zimmer recalls. The host wasn’t even on the property that night, but knew exactly what the guests were referring to. “I experienced a ghost party,” he shares. A few nights earlier, Zimmer was walking through the hotel at night when he heard “a party in the old bar room. A woman laughing, drinks being poured, shouting. Then, I heard a fight break out,” he recounts, matter-of-factly.
Whether or not you believe in such phenomena is up to you, but maybe check out the Black Monarch before coming to any solid conclusions. Who knows? You may hear a cat haunting the halls during your stay.
Originally published in the Fall 2022 issue of Spoke+Blossom.