Picture
this: You head to Denver to enjoy a nice mountain-filled vacation. Perhaps it’s
4/20. Or maybe you just need a break. Either way, you decide to stay at the
Patterson Historic Inn, which is said to be one of the city’s most haunted
locations.
Here
comes the best part: The hotel features a cannabis-smoking room. At least
that’s what the manager envisions for the near future, according to local news station KFOR. And it
sounds utterly dope.
“My
intention is a coffee shop: a place where you can get a light snack, a place
where you can enjoy a non-alcoholic beverage and consume cannabis in a
responsible adult environment,” owner Chris Chiari told KFOR.
Right
now, this is only an idea—one Chiari is willing to fight over. The city
prohibits any cannabis consumption within 1,000 feet of schools, daycares, drug
treatment facility, recreational centers, and public pools, as the law states. As fate would have it,
there are a number of schools near the establishment—Denver Justice High School
being the closest.
“When they voted for social consumption in Denver, one of the key aspects was a 1,000-foot restriction from schools,” said Eric Escudero, a spokesman for the Denver’s Department of Excise and Licenses, to KFOR. ”And the intent was to protect children from the exposure to cannabis.”
The
law was created to regulate cannabis consumption areas and makes sense from a
public safety perspective, but think about the lovers of horror and enthusiasts
of terror! What an experience it’d be to light up among ghosts and spirits.
The
hotel has a haunted reputation for good reason. Before converting to a hotel in
2013, it used to be the Croke Patterson Mansion. Thomas B. Croke, some random
rich dude, built the mansion in 1890, according to Visit Denver. It’s one of the
city’s oldest buildings today and sits on the National Register of Historic Places, where it
was inducted in 1973. What occurred within its walls remains a bit of a
mystery, but rumor has it that a little girl buried in the basement haunts the
hallways.
In
the 1970s, construction crews were renovating the castle-like mansion and would
find their work ruined the next day. Logically, the workers assumed some
annoying criminal was to blame. They left behind two dogs to hold down the
fort. The following day, both were found dead; they fell out of the third-floor
window.
Much
of this tale is hard to corroborate, but I’m always down for a riveting scary
story. Perhaps smoking weed can help guests better connect with those who have
passed on in the mansion—but does anyone actually want to see what the walls have
to offer?
General
manager Scott Allen appears into it.
“I
think it’s definitely a cool setting because of the haunted past and the rich
history and the spirits that live within the building,” he told KFOR.
Owner
Chiari plans to ask a judge to decide on whether the 1,000-feet ordinance is
legal. That means a lawsuit is brewing. Plus, the building sits at 420 E.
Eleventh Avenue. What better place to spark one?
