HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
1890s Renaissance Revival landmark in downtown Florence
Florence, CO
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The historic structure is not currently operating as a publicly bookable hotel. View the building exterior and historical marker without charge.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved sidewalks downtown
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1890 · Renaissance Revival Architecture · 1890s Frontier Hotel · Colorado Historical Marker
Florence sits in Fremont County, Colorado, an oil and quarry town founded during the late nineteenth-century mineral economy of the Front Range. The Florence Hotel anchored the early downtown commercial block, with construction proceeding in two phases: the south section facing Pikes Peak Avenue in 1890, and the north section facing Main Street in 1891.
In its prime, the hotel offered forty guest rooms at rates ranging from $1.50 to $2.00 per night and was considered one of the better hotels in southern Colorado. The Bank of Florence, founded by James McCandless and Henry Topping, occupied the lower corner of the building from 1891 until relocating to 101 West Main in 1897.
The upper floors continued to operate as a hotel into the mid-1930s. In the 1990s, after a period serving as a nursing home, Ronald and Ruby Incitti undertook a restoration that returned the property to use as a hotel. History Colorado catalogs the building under reference 5FN.622, and a Colorado historical marker stands at the site.
Sources
Among the lore circulating about the Florence Hotel, the most coherent account is the Josephine and Jasper story. Local paranormal write-ups describe Josephine as a woman associated with the hotel's mezzanine and the wedding-dress storage area, jilted in 1914 by a man named Jasper who is said to have lingered beneath the basement stairs. Reports describe activity that is mischievous rather than violent.
The original Shadowlands entry attached a darker claim: a man encasing a baby and a woman in cement in the basement, and a phantom mother heard searching the building. Independent research surfaced no court records, news archives, or historical-society documentation of such an event. Per Haunt Bound editorial standards, that uncorroborated violent-crime narrative is not promoted here.
Florence's broader paranormal community, including local writers and operators of the Hauntedcolorado.net regional pages, treats the Florence Hotel ghosts as benign and welcoming. Visitors interested in the building's atmosphere are best served by an exterior viewing and the historical marker, since the upper floors do not currently operate as a publicly bookable hotel.
Notable Entities
Walk past the two-story red brick Renaissance Revival hotel in Florence's downtown core and read the Florence Hotel historical marker. The building is the town's only surviving example of the Renaissance Revival style.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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