Est. 1895 · National Register of Historic Places (1978) · Provo City Historic Landmarks Registry (1996) · Victorian architecture — attributed to Richard K.A. Kletting (attribution disputed) · One of Provo's oldest surviving residential structures
R. Spencer Hines constructed the mansion in 1895 at 383 W 100 S in downtown Provo. Hines made his money through real estate, business, and mining ventures — the kinds of industries that produced most of Utah's substantial Victorian-era private homes. At the time of construction, the building was considered one of the finest residences in the city.
The architect of record is a point of some uncertainty. Regional sources and the property's own promotional materials attribute the design to Richard Karl August Kletting, the German-born architect responsible for the Utah State Capitol, the Saltair resort, and numerous other significant Utah buildings. Wikipedia's entry for the mansion notes Richard C. Watkins as an alternative attribution, leaving the question unsettled in the scholarly record.
Hines died in 1898, leaving his widow Kitty to manage the property and the family's business interests. She did so until approximately 1906, when she relocated to California. The mansion changed hands several times over the following decades before eventually operating as a bed and breakfast.
The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 12, 1978 (Reference No. 78002702), and was designated to the Provo City Historic Landmarks Registry on March 7, 1996. The current operation maintains nine guest rooms, each designed around a distinct period theme, with private bathrooms and soaker tubs — amenities that have kept the mansion competitive among Utah's boutique lodging market.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hines_Mansion
- https://hinesmansion.com/about/
- https://usghostadventures.com/provo-ghost-tour/
- https://mikesroadtrip.com/hines-mansion/
Shadowy figure in hallwaysPresence observed in guest corridors after dark
The Hines Mansion's ghost tradition centers on a single reported figure: a shadowy, slender form that guests and staff have described encountering in the hallways and common areas after dark. The accounts are consistent in describing movement — the figure appears, moves along a corridor, and is gone before an observer can determine what they saw.
US Ghost Adventures includes the mansion on its Provo Ghost Tour and describes the entity as a looming presence that stalks the Victorian rooms at night. The framing is atmospheric — a remnant of the building's 130-year history — without attributing the figure to a specific person or event. No death, tragedy, or named individual is documented as the origin of the haunting in the sources reviewed.
The Butch Cassidy connection circulates in some promotional and tour-operator materials as local color, but no primary source documentation of a Cassidy visit to the Hines property has been located. That detail is treated here as unverified local legend.
The mansion's ghost reputation appears to have developed organically alongside its conversion to a bed and breakfast rather than emerging from a specific traumatic history. The building's genuine age, Victorian aesthetics, and prominent position in Provo's historic district make it a natural focal point for regional ghost lore.
Notable Entities
Unidentified shadowy figure
Where this legend is told
