Suite 501 and Count Pourtales: Broadmoor Hotel Ghosts

Reviewed by Josh N · Updated September 4, 2026 · How we verify

Ask about Broadmoor Hotel ghosts at the front desk and you will not get a brochure. The Broadmoor, spread across 1 Lake Ave in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is one of the most decorated resorts in the American West, and it has never traded on a haunted reputation the way smaller properties do. The stories circulate anyway, passed between staff, repeated by guests, and attached to two specific figures: the founder’s wife, and a European count who helped bankroll the land long before the hotel existed.

Orientation: The Broadmoor at a Glance

• Where: 1 Lake Ave, Colorado Springs, at the southwestern edge of a city that sits over a mile above sea level near the base of Pikes Peak, roughly 70 miles south of Denver.
• Opened: June 29, 1918, by businessman Spencer Penrose.
• Style: Italian Renaissance, modeled on the grand European resorts.
• Status: Fully operating luxury resort. You can book a room. There is no ghost tour.
• Reported figures: Julie Penrose, associated with Suite 501; Count Pourtales, associated with Cheyenne Lake and the gardens.

The Broadmoor Land Company Came First

The name predates the hotel by nearly thirty years. In 1891 the Broadmoor Land Company built the Broadmoor suburb south of Colorado Springs, and that development included the Broadmoor Casino. This was the boom era of the region, when the city counted four mining exchanges and 275 mining brokers by the end of 1895, and when so many English immigrants had settled there that locals called Colorado Springs “Little London”. The Broadmoor, in other words, began as a speculative resort district built for money that came out of the ground.

Count Pourtales, the second figure in the hotel’s ghost stories, belongs to that earlier chapter. He is remembered as one of the original investors in the Broadmoor property, which is why the accounts place him outdoors, near the water and the grounds, rather than in the corridors of a building he did not live to see.

Spencer Penrose Builds His European Resort

Spencer Penrose opened the hotel on June 29, 1918, and he did not aim modestly. The Italian Renaissance architecture, the lake, and the mountain backdrop were meant to compete with the finest resorts in Europe. It worked. The Broadmoor has hosted celebrities, presidents, and championship sport, including the U.S. Senior Open and the Women’s Open.

Its influence on the surrounding city was constant. Aircraft flights to the Broadmoor’s neighboring fields began in 1919, six years before Alexander Airport opened north of town. The Broadmoor Skating Club became a notable training center for figure skating in a city that has hosted the U.S. Figure Skating Championships six times and the World Figure Skating Championships five times, and the Broadmoor World Arena has drawn events including Skate America and the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships. The resort’s own neighborhood remained legally separate from the city for decades: the Broadmoor Addition was annexed on October 1, 1981, after the Colorado Supreme Court overturned a district court decision that had voided the annexation.

Today the property still runs as a full destination resort, with golf courses, a spa, and organized outdoor activities. Tourism is the third largest employer in the Pikes Peak region, accounting for more than 16,000 jobs, and the Broadmoor is among the reasons why.

Suite 501 and Julie Penrose

The most persistent Broadmoor story concerns Julie Penrose, wife of the founder. She is said to have kept a favorite suite in the main building, and the accounts hold that she never entirely left it. Suite 501 and the main building hallways are where guests and staff most often report the unexplained: sightings described as fleeting, small objects behaving oddly, an impression of company in an empty room.

It is worth being clear about what this is and is not. There is no documented death, accident, or incident in Suite 501 in the public record of the hotel. What exists is a body of reported experience, attached to a real historical woman who genuinely lived on the property, and repeated often enough that the room number has become part of the resort’s informal folklore.

The Figure by Cheyenne Lake

The second recurring apparition is Count Pourtales, described as walking near Cheyenne Lake or through the hotel gardens. Unlike the Suite 501 accounts, these sightings are outdoor and at a distance: a figure in period dress on the lake path, present one moment and gone the next. The lake is the visual center of the resort and the most walked part of the grounds, which is either evidence that something lingers there or simply a reflection of where people spend their evenings. Both readings are honest.

What People Actually Report Here

The Broadmoor’s reported phenomena are modest by haunted hotel standards, and that is part of what makes them interesting. Nobody is selling them. The recurring accounts include:

• Apparitions of a woman associated with Julie Penrose in and around Suite 501
• Unexplained activity in the main building hallways, chiefly on upper floors
• A period-dressed male figure seen near Cheyenne Lake and in the gardens, identified in the stories as Count Pourtales
• A general sense of presence reported by long-serving staff in older sections of the resort

None of this has been verified, and the hotel does not promote it. Treat it as a tradition the building carries rather than a claim it makes.

Staying at the Broadmoor

This is the easiest kind of haunted location to visit and the most expensive. The Broadmoor is a working five star resort, open year round, and access to the grounds, the lake path, the restaurants, and the shops does not require a ghost hunt or a guide. If the folklore is the reason for the trip, ask politely, expect a diplomatic answer, and walk the lake at dusk. Do not expect the resort to book you into Suite 501 on request, and do not expect staff to volunteer stories on the clock. Colorado Springs has 243 sunny days a year on average, though March is the snowiest month in the region, so shoulder season visitors should plan for sudden weather off the Front Range.

Sources

• Active Colorado Municipalities (Colorado (official))
• Olympic City USA (Coloradosprings (official))
• Best of the Springs
• Colorado Municipal Incorporations
• Yemi Mobolade sworn in as Colorado Springs' new mayor
• Wikipedia: Colorado Springs, Colorado

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