Address: 9950 E Gateway Dr., Highlands Ranch, CO 80126
Website: Highlands Ranch Mansion
Phone: 303-791-0177
Highlands Ranch Mansion is one of the Denver area’s most striking historic homes, and it has the kind of layered past that naturally invites ghost stories. What started as a late 19th century stone farmhouse eventually became a 27,000 square foot estate tied to cattle barons, oil wealth, social scandal, and some of Colorado’s most prominent families. Today it is a preserved public landmark, event venue, and a place where unexplained stories still follow the halls.
The history behind Highlands Ranch Mansion
The story begins with Samuel Allen Long, who filed for a homestead in northern Douglas County in 1884. By 1891, he had built the original stone farmhouse and named it Rotherwood, a name that can still be found carved into the building. Long made the property locally known for orchards and dryland farming before selling it in 1893.
In 1897, lawyer and horse enthusiast John Springer bought the property and folded it into his larger ranching operation. He expanded the house, added a turret, and turned the simpler farmhouse into something much grander. After marrying Isabel Patterson in 1907, he renamed the home Castle Isabel. Springer’s years at the property also came with real personal drama. His wife Eliza had already died after a long battle with tuberculosis, and his later marriage to Isabel ended in scandal after her role in a love triangle linked to a murder at Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel.
Ownership then passed through Colonel William Hughes, Annie Clifton Springer, and oil tycoon Waite Phillips before Frank Kistler bought the ranch in 1926. Kistler’s era matters because it gave the mansion much of the look people associate with it now. During renovations in 1929 and 1930, he transformed the building from a more castle-like stone home into the English Tudor style seen today.
In 1937, Lawrence Phipps Jr. bought the ranch, renamed it Highlands Ranch, and lived there for the rest of his life. After his death in 1976, the property eventually passed through development-era ownership before Shea Homes donated the mansion property and renovation funds to the Highlands Ranch Metro District in 2010. A major restoration followed, and the renovated mansion reopened to the public in June 2012.
Why the mansion has a haunted reputation
Part of the appeal of Highlands Ranch Mansion is that it does not fit the usual haunted-house formula. According to 9NEWS, the mansion has only one marked confirmed death in the house, Lawrence Phipps Jr., yet the property still carries a strong paranormal reputation built on years of sightings, voices, and strange experiences reported by staff and visitors. In 2024, 9NEWS reported that mansion staff acknowledged many unexplained stories even while stopping short of declaring the building definitively haunted.
The mansion itself also leans into that reputation in a careful, public-history-meets-Halloween way. Its official events have included “Spirits with the Spirits Mansion Tours,” which promise real-life tales and mysterious experiences collected through the years, and “Dead of Winter: Exploring the Paranormal,” featuring Spirit Paranormal Investigations and paranormal demonstrations inside the mansion. That does not prove hauntings, of course, but it does show that the site’s eerie reputation is very much part of its modern identity.
Reported ghost encounters at Highlands Ranch Mansion
The most detailed early haunting stories tied to the mansion come from a 1996 Highlands Ranch Historical Society newsletter titled The Haunting of a Mansion. That newsletter centered many of the reports on Julia Kistler, Frank Kistler’s daughter, and especially on the west wing bedroom area. Because this is folklore and anecdotal testimony, it should be treated as reported local lore rather than verified fact.
According to that newsletter, witnesses reported seeing a little girl in a pink dress near the far west bedroom and balcony. The same account also described a chandelier crystal cluster shaking on its own, as well as a strange fog-like mass with a dark center seen near the balcony area. In another story, a wedding guest reportedly heard a child’s voice telling her it was time to leave, then later saw what appeared to be a young girl outside near a flower bed before the figure disappeared. The newsletter also said a banquet caterer once reported seeing a female face in a second-floor west wing window.
The historical society newsletter went a step further and suggested that the recurring little-girl sightings may have been linked, at least in local interpretation, to Julia Kistler’s sadness after her father’s remarriage changed life inside the home. That is a powerful story, but it is still a story, not a documented historical conclusion. What makes it interesting is how consistently the west wing keeps appearing in local retellings.
Modern reports are less elaborate but still familiar to anyone who follows haunted locations. Recent coverage says people have reported spotting spirits, hearing voices, and experiencing other unsettling moments inside the mansion. That continuity, from a 1990s local newsletter to present-day media coverage and official paranormal-themed programming, is a big reason the Highlands Ranch Mansion remains part of Colorado’s haunted conversation.
Can you visit Highlands Ranch Mansion?
Yes, and it is more accessible than many haunted landmarks. The grounds and historic park are generally open daily from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., while the interior is available during scheduled public open hours. The mansion offers free guided and self-guided historic tours, with reservations recommended for most tours and required for larger groups.
The location is also easy to reach for visitors coming from Denver. The mansion sits less than 20 miles south of downtown Denver, has a 142-space parking lot, and is surrounded by ranchland and the larger historic park setting. That matters because part of the atmosphere here is not just the mansion itself, but the open land around it. Even in daylight, it feels set apart from the suburban development that now surrounds the broader Highlands Ranch community.
Final take
If you are looking for a haunted location with a dramatic paper trail of murders inside the house, Highlands Ranch Mansion is probably not that place. What it does have is something a little more interesting: a deeply documented ownership history, a beautiful preserved estate, a strong local tradition of ghost stories, and a long-running pattern of unexplained reports that the mansion’s own public programming clearly recognizes.
That combination is exactly why the mansion sticks in people’s minds. It is historic enough to feel heavy with memory, dramatic enough to inspire legend, and active enough as a public site that the stories never really fade. Whether you think it is haunted or simply atmospheric, Highlands Ranch Mansion has earned its place as one of Colorado’s most intriguing historic properties.
Never trespass on property that is not yours without permission, and remember that ghost hunting can be dangerous, so always use caution.
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