Where is the 13th Floor, and why is it absent in so many buildings? Come with us, as we attempt to explain the legend of the 13th floor, and introduce you to Denver’s most horrifying haunted experience, the 13th Floor Haunted House.

The levels of a multi story building are frequently numbered sequentially, from “basement”, “lobby”, “ground”, “one”, “two” etc. In some countries, as it is here in the United States, the number 13 is considered unlucky and building owners will sometimes purposefully omit a floor numbered 13. Hence, the 13th floor is sometimes given the number 14. Even building owners who are not superstitious realize that the desirability of units on a floor numbered 13 might be compromised because of superstitious tenants, or commercial tenants who worry about losing superstitious customers.

Based on an internal review of records, the Otis Elevator Company estimates that 85% of the buildings with their elevators do not have a named 13th floor. So why does this happen? Why are even skeptics so easily convinced that the majority would just rather avoid this floor? What has happened in history to create such a stigma about a 13th floor? For whatever reasons there may be, there seems to be a multitude of stories about what happens on the 13th floor of numerous buildings, some documented, some not. It seems that it has become largely accepted to just leave it alone, brush it under the rug, and don’t talk about it.

A good example is that some have suggested the 13th floor in government buildings is not really missing, but actually contains top-secret governmental departments, or more generally that it is proof of something sinister or clandestine going on.

It should be noted that to place a floor between those accessible from an elevator, it is necessary to either take longer to travel between the neighboring floors, or accelerate, both of which would be noticed by the riders. It would also be noticeable from the exterior, requiring either an extra row of windows or a conspicuous gap between rows.

Thus, it would make much more sense to build a secret floor, such as the 13th floor as a basement, making it much easier to hide 13th floor locations, in what appear to be single story buildings, underground.

The creators of the 13th Floor Haunted House have discovered locations, right here in Denver, Colorado, constructed in the manor described above. Not completely sure of what all of their past uses may have been, it seems that the majority of these locations are currently inhabited by unfortunate souls, living and dead. They have discovered their secret locations when seeking shelter from the environment, or society. Various species of rats, snakes and spiders have also taken up residence here, living in secret, and by their own rules.

(Source: 13th Floor Haunted House)

“Within the walls of the legendary Nightmare Factory a hidden passage was unearthed! This passage descended two levels into Gordon Cottingham’s Hospital for the Mentally Insane, The Asylum. Much deeper and darker than the previous levels, the Asylum is a damp and musty place infested with spiders, rats, snakes, and the endless screams of the tortured souls.”

Check out more on this great haunted House in Denver, you’ll get scared!

Formerly known as the Most Haunted House in America, the home of carpetbagger Charles Wright Congelier, his Mexican wife Lyda, and a young servant girl, Essie, was located at 1129 Ridge Avenue, in the Manchester, North Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The story of its life as a haunted house begins in the winter of 1871, with Lyda’s discovery of Charles having an affair with the maid. Lyda was so enraged, that she fatally stabbed Charles and chopped off Essie’s head. For the next 20 years the house remained vacant. It was remodeled to accommodate railroad workers in 1892, but they soon moved out, claiming to hear the sobbing and screaming of a woman. The Most Haunted House in America once again stood vacant.

Around 1900, Dr. Adolph C. Brunrichter bought the home. “Keeping to himself, the doctor was rarely seen by his neighbors. Then on August 12, 1901, the family next door heard a terrifying scream from the Brunrichter residence,” wrote Richard Winer and Nancy Osborn in their book, Haunted Houses. “When they ran outside to investigate, the neighbors saw a red explosion-like flash shooting through the house. The earth under them trembled, and the sidewalls cracked. Every window in the doctor’s home was shattered.”

When officials entered the house to investigate, they found a decomposed female body strapped to the bed and five headless young women in basement graves. “Dr. Brunrichter had been experimenting with severed heads,” wrote Winer and Osborn. “Apparently he had been able to keep some alive for short periods after decapitation.” Dr. Brunrichter, meanwhile, had disappeared, and the house once again stood vacant.

As a result of its reputation for being haunted, the house stood empty for several years before undergoing its second remodeling to ready it for housing emigrant Equitable Gas Company workers. These workers experienced many strange occurrences but wrote them off as pranks by the American workers they had replaced (for lower wages). One night things took a tragic turn, however, and two of the workers were found dead in the basement. One had a board driven like a stake through his chest, and the other was hanging from a rafter. These men had both been seen alive just minutes earlier.

In 1920, the famous scientist and inventor, Thomas Edison, came to study the house. Edison spoke of a machine that he was building to allow communication with the dead. Edison died before the mechanism was perfected. Winer and Osborn wrote that Thomas Edison’s visit to the house at 1129 Ridge Avenue apparently influenced his strong belief in the afterlife.

In September of 1927, a drunk was arrested who claimed to be Dr. Adolph Brunrichter. He told police gruesome stories of sex orgies, demonic possession, torture and murder that had occurred in the house. The authorities could not determine if the man they had in custody was indeed Dr. Brunrichter. The man was released after a month and was never seen again.

Days were numbered for the haunted house that everyone was convinced was evil. Nearby, on the site that is now the Carnegie Science Center, stood the largest natural gas storage facility in the world. On the morning of November 15, 1927, the giant gas storage tank owned by the Equitable Gas Company exploded with an awesome force that was felt across the county. The Story of Old Allegheny City, compiled by workers of the Writers’ Program of the Works Projects Administration, describes the destruction. “As houses collapsed and chimneys toppled, brick, broken glass, twisted pieces of steel and other debris rained on the heads of the dazed and shaken residents who had rushed into the streets from their wrecked homes, believing that an earthquake had visited the city.” The force was so strong it reportedly blew out windows throughout downtown, Mt. Washington, and as far away as East Liberty. Dozens of manufacturing plants and hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed within a 20-mile radius.

The Most Haunted House in America, which once stood at the present day site of the Route 65/I279 interchange, was obliterated in the explosion. According to Winer and Osborn, it was the only structure destroyed in the blast for which no trace was ever found.

(Source: Albrecht Powell, About.com)