Est. 1891 · National Register record: Date Published 4/17/1979 · Denver's Oldest Operating Hotel · Frank E. Edbrooke Architecture · Lower Downtown LoDo Historic District
The Oxford Hotel was designed by Frank E. Edbrooke, the most prominent Denver architect of the era, who also built the Brown Palace. The Oxford opened in 1891 at 1600 17th Street in what was then Denver's primary commercial district, adjacent to Union Station. The five-story brick structure featured 80 rooms and established itself immediately as a business traveler's hotel rather than a resort property.
Denver7 recounts the alleged Room 320 story that Florence Montague caught her husband with another woman and killed him before herself. Denver7 explicitly presents the murder-suicide as alleged. The room acquired a reputation almost immediately, and staff noted unusual activity there within years of the incident.
The hotel operated through the 20th century with periods of decline and renovation. The Cruise Room bar, added in the 1930s, is one of Denver's best-preserved Art Deco interiors and has its own reported presence — a 1930s postal worker described as appearing near the bar. The operator records closure for restoration in 1979 and reopening on June 19, 1983; the NPS record’s Date Published field is 4/17/1979. It continues to operate as an 80-room boutique hotel in Denver's Lower Downtown district.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Hotel_(Denver)
- https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/an-1898-crime-and-the-ghost-story-that-followed-inside-denvers-haunted-oxford-hotel
- https://www.theoxfordhotel.com/our-hotel
- https://denverterrors.com/the-oxford-hotel-hauntings/
- https://besthauntedhotels.com/hotels/united-states/colorado/denver/the-oxford-hotel-denver-co/
- http://americashauntedroadtrip.com/several-rooms-at-the-oxford-hotel-reported-haunted/
ApparitionsPhysical touch (grabbing, scratching)Object movement (covers pulled)Visual phenomena in mirrors
Room 320's haunted reputation dates to within years of the alleged 1898 incident and has remained specific and consistent across more than a century of independent accounts.
The spirit in Room 320 is described as angry and selective. Women, children, and men who identify themselves as married report no unusual activity in the room. Single men are the exception. The pattern described across multiple independent accounts: covers pulled from the bed during the night, arms grabbed or yanked, waking to find scratch marks on skin with no physical explanation, and seeing a woman in Victorian-era clothing — sometimes with an expression of rage — visible in bathroom mirrors.
Denver7 describes the Room 320 murder-suicide as alleged. The identity of the woman has been given as Florence Montague in multiple accounts, though Denver7's reporting notes some ambiguity in the historical record about the sequence of events. The account says Florence found her husband with another woman; it remains an alleged story.
The Cruise Room bar, an Art Deco lounge added in the 1930s, has a separate set of reports involving a male figure in period clothing — described by staff as resembling a postal worker from the 1930s era. This figure has been seen near the bar itself during slow hours and early morning cleaning shifts. The identity of this figure is unknown and not anchored to any documented incident.
Notable Entities
Florence Montague
Where this legend is told