Est. 1882 · Built 1882 during San Juan silver mining boom · Site of Luigi Regalia suicide, Room 314, September 1890 · Formal paranormal investigation organized by Elizabeth Green (Ghost Tracks)
The Grand Imperial Hotel opened in 1882 on Greene Street in Silverton, Colorado, during the height of the San Juan silver mining era. Silverton had incorporated in 1876 and served as a supply and transportation hub for the surrounding mining districts; the hotel was built to accommodate mine operators, merchants, and visitors traveling through the town.
On or about September 1890, Luigi Regalia, a 42-year-old man whose occupation and precise background are not documented in surviving records, shot himself in Room 314. He died the following morning. The death was documented in contemporaneous accounts and has been reported by the Durango Herald and other regional outlets as the event most closely associated with the hotel's paranormal reputation.
The building underwent significant renovation work in the 1990s. During that period, construction crews working on the third floor reported objects being thrown at them by an unseen force. Housekeeping staff at the hotel have continued to report specific anomalies: beds that appear slept-in after being made to hotel standards, a phenomenon described in multiple first-person accounts in regional coverage.
Paranormal author Elizabeth Green, who co-wrote Ghost Tracks: Haunting Tales Along the Rails, organized a formal investigation of the hotel under the name World's Largest Ghost Hunt, an event documented by the Durango Herald. The hotel remains in operation as a full-service lodging and dining property.
Sources
- https://www.durangoherald.com/articles/is-a-ghost-haunting-the-grand-imperial-in-silverton/
- https://www.durangoherald.com/articles/paranormal-investigators-to-search-silvertons-haunted-grand-imperial-hotel/
- https://dgomag.com/historic-haunting-we-stayed-at-the-grand-imperial-one-of-the-ghostly-hotels-in-the-four-corners-and-lived-to-tell-the-tale/
Objects thrown at construction workers on the third floor (1990s)Beds appearing slept-in after housekeeping makes themAtmospheric disturbances reported by overnight guests on third floor
Reports from the Grand Imperial concentrate almost entirely on the third floor, with Room 314 as the focal point. The construction-crew accounts from the 1990s are the most frequently cited: workers reported objects thrown at them from an unseen source during renovation, causing enough disruption that the incidents were discussed outside the immediate project team.
Housekeeping accounts have a different character — methodical and repeating rather than dramatic. Staff describe finding beds that appear to have been slept in after being made to professional standards, sometimes in rooms with no registered guest. These accounts were relayed to the Durango Herald by hotel management, giving them a degree of institutional documentation beyond typical guest anecdote.
Elizabeth Green's formal investigation generated its own documentation; her team's findings were reported by the Herald at the time of the event. The DGO Magazine published a first-person overnight account from a journalist who stayed specifically to investigate the paranormal reputation, describing atmospheric experiences on the third floor consistent with the staff accounts.
Notable Entities
Luigi Regalia
Media Appearances
- Ghost Tracks: Haunting Tales Along the Rails (book, 2000s)
