Denver Children’s Hospital

Posted: 05.20.2021 | Updated: 05.07.2025

The beginning of the Denver Children’s Hospital can be traced all the way back to Dr. Minnehaha Cecelia Francesca Tucker Love, or Dr. Minnie C.T. Love for short. Dr. Love was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1856 and obtained her doctorate through Howard University.

In 1897, through the support of the Denver Women’s Club, Dr. Love was able to start a ‘tent hospital’ called the Babies Summer Hospital in City Park that would help the children of the indigent and more impoverished communities.

The majority of the hospital’s supplies came from donations and private organizations. The hospital’s water and power services were even donated. The phrase at the makeshift hospital was ‘Come on in, and close the tent flap behind you…’

While the nurses at the Denver Children’s Hospital did their best to save all these tiny and freshly ignited lives, the sad reality is they could not. Their spirits have been stirring up stories since the turn of the 20th century and continue to do so today.

Learn more about Denver’s 19th century spirits on a walking ghost tour with Denver Terrors!

Who Are the Ghosts Haunting the Denver Children’s Hospital?

Denver’s old abandonded Children’s Hospital, especially Tammen Hall, is rumored to be haunted by a nurse who died tragically. Many say she was murdered in her wedding dress. Another ghost, a boy named Shane who died in the 1950s, appears in room 562. He often scares children by sitting on their chests. Staff and visitors have also reported strange lights, doors moving on their own, and misty figures as well.

Dr. Love’s Vision for the Denver Children’s Hospital

The Babies Summer Hospital served the children for over two years before the funding and staff were no longer available. The Spanish American War was using a large part of the medical goods and personnel needed for the children.

Dr. Love recognizing a need for a sustainable hospital for Denver’s children. She stated in 1906 in the Denver Medical Times that ‘As soon as sufficient money and furnishings are pledged, a suitable house will be procured and fitted out with all the modern appliances for the successful treatment of the acute and chronic illnesses of children.’

She started the campaign to get the hospital started, and the first two contributions totaled $6,000. On May 2nd, 1907, The Board of Directors incorporated “The Children’s Hospital.” Following this huge step, they purchased nine lots of land at Albion and 16th Avenue.

The price of this purchase was $1,200. On August 11th, 1909, the Board purchased a building once known as the Denver Maternity and Women’s hospital for $15,729. This became the main building of the hospital and the training facility for the staff of The Children’s Hospital. It had the capacity to house about thirty children within its walls.

 The Grand Opening and Closing

When the hospital was opened on February 17th, 1910, it offered free beds to those who could not afford medical care. One of the first recipients of the free rooms was a little girl named Constantia, who suffered from Polio.

The girl became the subject of fascination and focus because of the remarkable recovery she made at The Children’s Hospital. When she arrived, she was bedridden, and within four months, she was seen in a brace and walking independently.

Throughout the years, the hospital had received additions, renovations, and new wings added to it. The growth of The Children’s Hospital carried on until September of 2007. Sadly, hospital management decided to move to a newer and larger facility. On September 29th, 2007, the patients and staff of the hospital said their goodbyes.

They wrote messages all over the walls for whoever bought the building to see. The messages share stories of joy as well as loss, not uncommon in a hospital.

One of them states ‘the more sorrow you can carve into your being, the more joy you can contain.’

Denver Children’s Hospital Hauntings

The reports and stories of the paranormal at The Children’s Hospital go back to the beginning in 1897. Reports of ghostly nurses and children are made at nearly every corner of the buildings, with stories being passed down from staff members and patients.

The most famous of these ghouls is a nurse that lived in Tammen Hall. The story goes that she was pushed down the elevator shaft by her fiancé and left to die at the bottom.

Another story says that construction workers had killed her and buried her at the bottom of the shaft. The story includes the fact that she was soon-to-be-married, and visitors report seeing a woman in a wedding dress wandering the halls.

One medical researcher at the hospital reported seeing a ‘strange woman’ at the end of the hallway on the hospital’s third floor. She claimed that just as she noticed the woman, she vanished.

Another staff member who was stringing wires through the ceiling reported that when he was alone in the building, he witnessed lights turning on and off as well as doors that would open and close all by themselves. He was convinced that the spirit was that of a nursing student that had died in the building. He refused to work alone after this occurrence.

The reports don’t end there, as many other happenings have been told over the years. A security guard was doing rounds in the hospital one night when he got off the elevator to a foggy entity staring at him. He became drenched in a cold sweat, and the apparition passed through a wall. He called his boss and quit shortly after that.

More Ghost Stories from the Children’s Hospital

A rumor has also surfaced of a nurse who had committed suicide in the 1950s in Tammen Hall just after its grand opening. This nurse’s name was Anita, and they even named a room after her, adding credibility to the story.

Reports of cold spots, elevators that move on their own, and a spirit named Shane were also quite common within The Children’s Hospital. Shane resides on the fifth floor and was said goodbye to in some of the writings left behind by staff members. Shane is said to have bothered children that stayed on that floor, patients waking up in the middle of the night screaming for nurses to ‘get him off of me!’

Shadow figures on all of the floors are common, and disembodied voices are reported throughout the hospital and the surrounding grounds.

One paranormal investigation team that came to the old hospital building turned up with loads of evidence, concluding that The Children’s Hospital is filled with spirits. During the night, strange sounds began to come from room 562, which sounded like rhythmic thumping and footsteps.

The sound of debris crunching in the hallways was also reported. The hospital floors were covered with leaves, dirt, plastic, and other trash at the time.

One of the investigators went upstairs to see what was causing the noise. As he arrived the noise left room 562 and moved over to room 563 and its adjoining bathroom. This same investigator also reported the feeling of being followed and watched as he made his way through the halls of the old hospital.

Haunted Denver

The hospital was home to many young souls throughout the years, evident in the writings left by those who survived. These writings recorded the lengths of time the staff and patiens had worked and stayed at the abandonded Denver hospital.

The range of emotions felt at The Children’s Hospital from its start to its finish are palpable, and the hospital itself holds these energies tightly. Much of Denver shares this energy and the spirits rejoice in its powerful flurry of emotions. Join them on a Denver ghost tour with Denver Terrors to dance with these immortal energies admist the Rocky Mountains.

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and keep reading our blog to unearth even more details about haunted Denver.

Sources Cited:

• https://www.rockymountainparanormal.com/images/childrensrept.pdf
• https://www.childrenscolorado.org/about/history
• https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/2/2/238.3
• https://www.amazon.com/Childs-Sake-Childrens-Hospital-1910-1990/dp/0870813498
• https://www.coloradoindependent.com/2007/10/22/ghosts-haunt-empty-hallways-of-childrens-hospital/