AS DUSK DESCENDS upon Old Town and the shadows grow darker, I make my way to Plaza Don Luis. It is still lively with people dining, drinking, and chatting—sounds that have reverberated throughout Albuquerque’s oldest neighborhood for more than 300 years.
On the quieter side of the plaza, just west of the San Felipe de Neri Catholic Church, I meet the rest of the group for the #AbqTours ghost tour. Just as the streetlamps flicker on, our guides, Andres Gutierrez and Erica Rudin, greet us with a quick introduction. While Gutierrez prefers to hang back in the shadows, Rudin holds up a glowing lantern and smiles. “Ready?”
We begin our 90-minute, 10-stop tour at Romero and South Plaza streets with a view of the two-story Queen Anne–style Manual Springer House that serves these days as the Covered Wagon gift shop. Built between 1909 and 1914 for grocer Manual Springer, it housed a brothel and speakeasy during Prohibition. Rudin tells us it’s also where Scarlet, a tall red-haired beauty, worked before she was killed in a gruesome, bloody attack. Now, Scarlet occasionally returns to the area, stirring up trouble by beckoning lonesome travelers. Look at Scarlet long enough, or follow her too closely, and beware: Her beautiful visage turns into a ghastly monster of rotting flesh and exposed organs.
#AbqTours guide Vincent Montoya pauses at the “hanging tree.”
As someone who took this tour years ago, I’m delighted that I can revisit these stories and discover some new ones in this way again. Julia Brown, aka Old Town Julie Brown, has kept these family-friendly tours going for more than 20 years. What began as an occasional late-night stroll in 2001 through the Duke City’s first streets and alleys is now a daily excursion rich with historical anecdotes—and ghosts, lots of ghosts. “We work with all sorts of historians, psychics, ghost hunters, paranormal investigators, and others. We take all of that information and put it together,” Brown says. “I have some great stories for certain locations in Old Town that the merchants don’t want us to mention because they feel like it could hurt their business, and we respect that too.”
At San Felipe and South Plaza streets, Rudin points out the Casa de Armijo and tells us that it has been the site of several ghost sightings. This house, which was built in 1706 and is one of the oldest in Albuquerque, is now partly home to the Old Town Cafe. One of the more famous ghosts here is Victoria, an 8-year-old girl who died while living at the Armijo house. Walk by the building on a moonlit night (if you dare) and you just might see Victoria or one of the other ghosts at the window, on the stairs, or perhaps running through a room.
Beware of Scarlet near Romero and South Plaza streets.
As the tour continues with a full yellow moon rising above us, someone in our group looks through a window and exclaims that he saw movement behind the staircase. Rudin stops and shines her flashlight at the stairs. “Many, many people have seen her,” she says somberly. “It’s very possible you just saw her.”
As we loop our way around the Plaza, we hear a variety of stories, including the tale of the Hatchet Lady, a scorned maiden who killed her cheating fiancé and now roams these streets, often pursuing couples. We sit outside the Herman Blueher House, then gaze upon a carving by the church—each site with a tale. Our last stop is Plazuela Sombra, a small courtyard between Romero Street and Rio Grande Boulevard that sits just north of where we started the tour. Underneath our feet, below the red bricks, are supposedly dozens of bodies. Many of them are incomplete skeletons, scattered bones.
DID YOU KNOW?
The High Noon Restaurant and Saloon, on San Felipe Street NW, ranks as the most haunted place in Old Town, according to the guides at #AbqTours. The building, built in 1785, has been a private residence, a brothel, and a nunnery, turning into the beloved steakhouse in 1974.
Rudin explains that this area was in a floodplain, and the bones were probably swept from a long-gone cemetery nearby. She plays audio collected in this spot by ghost hunters. I can distinctly hear the voice of a little girl say, “Come over here.” As a shudder runs through my body, the group becomes quiet. We spend a moment in silence—for the ghosts, for the memories, for the history of this place. I think about all the ways people lived and died in this area, the optimism and fortitude it took to keep trying, keep going, keep surviving to shape Albuquerque into what it is today.
“We can’t wait to talk to people about history and show everyone the current vitality of Old Town,” Brown says. “Having skeptics on the tour is actually really fun. Decide for yourself the possibility of the existence of ghosts. If nothing else, walk around with us and have a great night in Old Town.”
Read more: These guided trips are far from normal.
#ABQTOURS
Public ghost tours are offered most nights at 8 p.m. with occasional moonlight tours at 10 p.m. #AbqTours also provides a 75-minute History, Legends & Lore guided tour of Old Town at noon. $30.
