CU Boulder's Historic Concert Hall and Its 1966 Murder
1595 Pleasant St, Boulder, CO 80309
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Ticket prices vary by performance; check the venue website or CU Presents for current event pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved campus paths; interior is multi-level with stairs
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1922 · Historic District · University History · Homicide Record · Performing Arts Heritage
Macky Auditorium opened in 1922 as the centerpiece of the Norlin Quadrangle, a twelve-building historic district on the University of Colorado Boulder campus. The structure's Richardsonian Romanesque design — rough-cut sandstone, arched entryways, and a prominent roofline — made it one of the most architecturally significant concert halls in the Rocky Mountain region. For its first four decades, the auditorium served the university without incident as a performing arts venue and ceremonial gathering space.
In July 1966, that history changed. Joseph Dyre Morse, 37, a university janitor, murdered Elaura Jeanne Jaquette, a 20-year-old CU Boulder student, in the west tower of the building. Morse was charged with first-degree murder in August 1966. The crime remained embedded in campus memory for the decades that followed. The University of Colorado later honored Jaquette with a memorial plaque in Norlin Quadrangle, inscribed with a line from Theodore Roethke: "It is neither spring nor summer. It is always."
Bloodstains from the murder were reportedly never fully removed from the floor of what is now a professor's office in the tower. Whether that claim has been independently verified is unclear, but it circulates widely in campus oral history and local media coverage dating back to the 1980s.
The auditorium continues to operate as one of the principal performing arts venues for CU Boulder and the broader Boulder community, hosting the Boulder Philharmonic, the CU Presents Artist Series, and nationally touring performers.
Sources
The persistent legend at Macky centers on sound: organ music drifting from the west tower late at night, when the building is locked and unoccupied. The accounts go back decades, circulating among students, faculty, and local media. Performers and staff who have worked extensively in the building describe no extraordinary experiences, and at least one professor characterizes the building's unsettling reputation as a function of its imposing architecture more than anything documented.
The Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society conducted a formal investigation using seismographic, electromagnetic field, and temperature readings. Their conclusion: nothing unusual.
The room in the west tower where Elaura Jaquette was killed in 1966 is now a faculty office. Some accounts describe bloodstains still visible on the wooden floor, though this has not been independently confirmed by any verifiable source.
A separate thread of campus legend describes a man in a brown suit seen in the building after hours. No origin story for this figure has been traced to a documented source — it appears to be a later folkloric accretion rather than a specific historical account.
Macky Auditorium appears regularly on Boulder's ghost tour circuit, and US Ghost Adventures includes it on their Boulder walking tours. The university has not officially endorsed any paranormal claims about the building.
Notable Entities
Boulder ghost tour operators include Macky Auditorium as a featured stop, covering the 1966 murder in the west tower and the persistent urban legends about organ music emanating from the locked hall. Check US Ghost Adventures for current Boulder tour schedules.
Attend a concert or performance in the 2,000-seat main hall, built in 1922 as part of the Norlin Quadrangle Historic District. The west tower where the 1966 murder occurred is not publicly accessible, but the auditorium's heavy limestone architecture and dim backstage corridors carry the weight of the building's history. Box office opens one hour before each performance.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Cincinnati, OH
Cincinnati Music Hall opened in 1878 in the city's Over-the-Rhine district, built atop ground that had served as a pauper's burying field and Asylum cemetery from roughly 1818 to 1865. The Samuel Hannaford Victorian Gothic building is a National Historic Landmark and home to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops, Cincinnati Opera, and Cincinnati Ballet.
Chicago, IL
The Biograph Theater opened in 1914 on North Lincoln Avenue in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, designed by architect Samuel N. Crowen in Classical Revival style. On July 22, 1934, FBI agents shot bank robber John Dillinger outside the building after Anna Sage, known as 'The Lady in Red,' informed on his location. Victory Gardens Theater purchased the building in 2004 and completed an $11 million renovation in 2006.
Ashland, KY
The Paramount Arts Center opened September 5, 1931 in Ashland, Kentucky as one of the first movie palaces purpose-built for sound film. Designed by Rapp and Rapp, the theater closed in 1971 and was rescued from demolition by the Greater Ashland Foundation, reopening as a performing-arts center in 1972.