Central City lawyer and banker Henry M. Teller built the Teller House in 1872. Teller was one of Colorado’s first senators. He was also the first Coloradoan appointed to a Cabinet post as Secretary of the Interior.

It cost $100,000, equalling more than $3 million today, to build the hotel. After the gold rush craze, Teller’s two sons and daughter gained possession of the Teller House. In 1933, Teller’s three children sold the building to the Central City Opera House Association.

As the decades passed, life happened, from richness to celebrities and theft to gruesome murders. The Teller House has been through it all. Saturday, December 2, 2023, was no exception.

The Gilpin Historical Society and The Other Side paranormal investigators teamed up to host a remarkable investigation to make any skeptic question if the unexplained is a phenomenon, coincidence, or something else.

Around 6 p.m., the second floor of the Teller House began to fill with professionals, hobbyists, and curious folks. By 7 p.m., Electronic Voice Phenomena, or EVPs, which may occur during the night, were heard through a speaker.

A few minutes before the crowd dispersed into groups, a large bang came from the kitchen. According to leaders, everyone in the building was in the briefing room. Upon investigation, the heavy lid to a heating/serving tray was discovered on the floor in a somewhat conspicuous place.

What was puzzling about the event was not that the heavy lid landed on the floor but how it landed on the floor from its original position and location. The Teller House was investigated using EVPs, EMFs (Electro Magnetic Fields), voice recorders, cameras, a flashlight, a bell, and phone apps.

Some groups experienced more than others, but such is life. Voice and video recordings have yet to be processed, and one never knows what they’ll find after the fact. Old buildings creak and pop, but what about bells ringing, laughter setting a sequence of EMFs in motion, voices heard on recordings, or footsteps running across an empty floor?

Was someone sneaking around the halls and corners, playing pranks in hopes of getting a rise out of people? Whether or not one wants to believe the Teller House is haunted, one thing remains certain: not everything can be debunked or explained, leaving us to contemplate what’s on the other side.

The Teller House is located at 120 Eureka Street, Central City. To learn more, visit https://centralcityopera.org/theteller house-turns-150-yearsold/. To learn more about future paranormal events at the Teller House and around Gilpin, visit https://www.gilpinhistory.org/.