HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
The performing-arts auditorium on the Chico State campus, named on local ghost tours among the city's reputed-haunted stops.
400 W 1st St, Chico, CA 95929
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Ticket prices vary by event in the Chico Performances series. See the venue's website for the current calendar and box office.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Campus auditorium with paved walkways on the Chico State campus.
Equipment
No Photos
Principal performing-arts hall at Chico State · Home of the Chico Performances presenting series
Laxson Auditorium serves as the main performance hall on the Chico State campus in downtown Chico. The venue anchors the university's Chico Performances presenting series, bringing touring music, theater, dance, and lecture programming to the campus and the wider Butte County community.
As a long-standing campus building set among the older structures of Chico State—an institution whose land was deeded in part by Annie Bidwell—the auditorium carries the kind of accumulated student and staff lore common to historic college venues. It functions year-round as a ticketed performance space rather than a tourist attraction.
The auditorium's place in Chico's haunted-history narrative comes chiefly from its inclusion on local ghost-walking tours and from local-press roundups of campus lore, rather than from any documented incident at the building.
Sources
The haunting reputation of Laxson Auditorium rests on two thin but independent threads. The Chico Haunted Tours operation lists the auditorium as a stop on its seasonal downtown route, and Chico News & Review's survey of local haunted sites includes it among campus locations 'rumored to have ghostly inhabitants.'
Both sources are candid about the gap behind the rumor. The News & Review piece notes that, as with several Chico sites, no one could point to a specific documented encounter. The auditorium's place in the lore appears to come from its role as an old, much-used campus performance hall rather than from any named apparition or repeated phenomenon.
Because the reports amount to general folklore without a documented incident, the listing is held for review. Visitors will encounter Laxson primarily as a working ticketed venue; the ghost association is a seasonal tour-and-roundup mention rather than an investigated haunting.
Laxson Auditorium appears as a named stop on Chico's seasonal ghost-walking tours, which fold campus lore into a downtown route. There is no on-site ghost hunt; the auditorium otherwise hosts the Chico Performances ticketed series. Tour availability is seasonal—confirm through the tour operator.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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