20 Tucson spots that are said to be haunted

Tucson Fox Theatre

It's said that if you have some spare change burning a hole in your pocket, a man in the lobby or the entryway of the Fox Theatre in Tucson will be more than happy to collect it. But chances are the money will fall through his hands and he will disappear.

This spirit is one of several who hangs out at the beloved downtown movie theater. By the way, stay away from the projection room if you know what's good for you.

The Rialto Theatre

A heavy piano and a faulty piano bench inside the orchestra pit proved disastrous for a performer at the Rialto Theatre in the mid-1940s. Legend has it that the player was seated in the pit when the bench collapsed and then the piano fell on top of him. He died from the head injuries from the accident. Some say his ghost still haunts the venue.

If it is not his ghost then it could be that of another attendee who dropped dead during a screening. Roy Drachman, who later became a well-known developer, was the manager of the theater at the time and witnessed the event.

Pioneer Hotel

The blackened, soot-lined walls inside the Pioneer Hotel are a testament to the destructive power of the fire that ravaged the building and killed 29 people before the Christmas Holiday in 1970.

The deaths of so many has lead some to believe their spirits are haunting the former hotel. Reports of unexplained screams and groans have been made even after the building was converted to offices.

Bank of America

Not known for keeping banker's hours, a bearded spirit is said to occupy the Bank of America building at 902 N. Stone Ave. It is said some occupants may have seen apparitions along with the occasional unexplained doors swinging open and slamming shut, according to Alan Fischer, with the Arizona Daily Star in 1997. In addition, there have been reports of strange smells and cold spots.

There is nothing in the building's history that is compelling. Records from 1918 indicate the land was initially purchased by a church but since 1947, it has been owned by a bank.

However, the same can't be said for the land across the street...it was known as the Court Street Cemetery. It was Tucson's second official cemetery, after moving from Stone and Toole Avenue. It opened in 1875 and for 34 years it served as Tucson's cemetery with as many as 9,000 burials. When the cemetery closed  it became necessary to transfer the corpses to the current cemetery on North Oracle Road-but for various reasons, some bodies still remain buried in the area.

St. Mary's Hospital

On occasion, it's said, St. Mary's Hospital gets some extra help with their staffing. The story is that a nun walks the halls alerting the staff when a patient is in trouble. Hearing voices and footsteps in the halls, when nobody is around, are some of the experiences some have conveyed about the west side hospital. Then, there are the apparitions who take the elevator but disappear.

UA Old Main Fountain

Some think 13 is an unlucky number but that is the number of spouts on the Berger Memorial Fountain near Old Main on the UA campus. The fountain was a gift from donor Alexander Berger, whose nephew Alex, was killed in World War I. The reason for the number is because it represents the total number of UA students killed in service during war.

Some say it is haunted because of continuous maintenance problems with the pipes clogging, overflowing and unexplained draining. Also, there are time the spouts spray haphazardly at night.

UA Maricopa Hall

In the 1860s, a bitter rivalry between two dance hall entrepreneurs escalated at a meeting of the Tucson Vigilante Committee in downtown Tucson. It is said the two women took their horse-drawn wagons and bolted out of town and headed east to the open desert. The duel in the desert was fatal for one of the women who brought a knife to a gunfight. She is said to have cursed her nemesis as well as the desert area where she lay dying. It turns out, the altercation took place on what became UA property.

Fast forward to 1919 when it was said a UA student who was engaged, found her fiancé in a compromising position. Despondent, the woman found her way to the president’s mansion still under construction and was discovered hanging from one of the bathroom ceiling gas pipes on the drafty second floor. It has been reported that people have talked of hearing women arguing and screaming on the ground floor. Others have seen and heard a ghostly spirit of a young girl crying near the hall.

UA Old Main

In 2013, during the renovation of Old Main at the University of Arizona, a running joke with construction workers was to make sure they don't make Carlos mad. The Carlos in question is Carlos Maldonado. It has been said Maldonado was murdered while working on the construction of Old Main when it was first constructed in the late 1880s. The story goes that Maldonado supervised the construction of the building, even so much as to spending the night there. One morning as the crew arrived, they discovered his bloody body sitting on a chair with a knife in his throat.

As the renovation continued in 2013 a worker reported seeing a shadowy figure in the attic while another worker talked of several faucets turning on at once in an upstairs hallway.

Colossal Cave

Some have noted the phantom scent of pipe tobacco in side Colossal Cave, possibly from Frank Schmidt who helped save the cave and spent a lot of time inside. Another employee came across a man and asked him to leave a restricted area only to him oblige her by disappearing.

Santa Rita Hotel

Before it was demolished in August 2009 to make way for the Unisource Energy's corporate headquarters, the Santa Rita Hotel stood on the corner of East Broadway Boulevard and South Sixth Avenue. When it was time to close up shop the spirits of the hotel did not go quietly. In a 2009 Arizona Daily Star story, several months before the building was torn down, police were called to investigate the empty hotel after a security guard claimed to have heard something eerie.

"The guard heard footsteps coming from the fourth floor, but police searched the hotel room by room and found nothing. A week later, a guard reported that a light on the fourth floor came on, and it sounded like someone was moving around in the room. Police checked the room and adjacent floors and found no one.

"In recent weeks, construction workers near the hotel say they've heard stories of rocks skipping down the hallways and doors slamming shut. And a Star reporter walked by the building Monday night and heard a creepy belly laugh emitting from the building. He hopped a fence and spoke to a security guard, who said the noise didn't come from the hotel."

Parapsychologist Amy Allan of the Travel Channel's Dead Files has said the Santa Rita Hotel was just as inhabited by spirits as the San Diego's Whaley House, which is considered to be one of the most haunted places in America.

Li'l Abner's Steakhouse

If you're sitting at the bar while in Li'l Abner's Steakhouse and the guy next to you is sipping a large Coke, or milk depending on who is telling the story, you may want to keep an eye on him, especially if his name is George. George just may be the guy who used to do the maintenance at the restaurant and is now the staff ghost. Employees have seen him dressed in white standing at the bar having a drink only to disappear moments later. Others have heard items falling behind the bar and their names being called out but when they turn to look and see who is there-nothing. A big fan of Cap'n Crunch cereal, people have heard crunching coming from his room. Cue the weird music...

Santa Cruz Church

At some point in Tucson’s past, legend has it, a priest was out for a walk downtown. During his leisurely stroll, he senses that something is following him. The priest, believing he was being trailed by a large dog, turned toward the Santa Cruz Church at South Sixth Avenue and East 22nd Street. The creature behind him drew closer and closer. The priest was relieved as he approached the door of the church. Reaching toward it, he turned and saw that his stalker was not a dog after all, but a beastly, hellish thing with hooves and horns. As the priest’s hand touched the door, the creature disappeared.

— Tucson Citizen

Cathedral of Saint Augustine

What started as a two-room cathedral in 1858 has grown into the beautiful church we see today in downtown Tucson at 192 S. Stone Ave. In a 2014 interview with the Arizona Daily Star, ghost tour guide Robert Owens said the church was one of his favorite places to visit because it's been said to be the home of a faceless nun who levitates in the courtyard.

“The faceless-nun phenomenon has actually been reported all over the world at really old churches and haunted locations that have a religious history aspect to it,” Owens said. “So it’s kind of a strange archetypal myth, if you will.” 

University of Arizona's Modern Languages Building

Several people over the years have reported encountering the ghostly figure of a young woman walking the corridors of the Modern Languages Auditorium at the University of Arizona. She is dressed in a long gown and wears a shawl over her shoulders. Tradition has it that many years before the auditorium was built, a young woman was murdered and her body dumped in a well on the site.

— Tucson Citizen

400 block of South Stone Avenue

Carlos Ygnacio Velasco was publisher of El Fronterizo, Tucson’s first Spanish-language newspaper, working from his home in the 400 block of South Stone Avenue from 1878 until his death in 1914. The house was turned into apartments after his death and bought by three partners. One of the new owners entered a bedroom behind what had been the old press room one night and was somewhat unsettled at the sight of the head and shoulders of an old Mexican man with a drooping mustache. Three months later, the owner and a young woman again saw the same figure, this time full length, standing in a rear doorway.

—Tucson Citizen

22nd Street Antique Mall

What more appropriate a place to haunt than a place full of old stuff? Here in Tucson we have the "Haunted Antique Mall" at the 22nd Street Antique Mall, at 5302 E. 22nd St. Here are the facts:

1. The mall has a main store and a two-story adjacent annex: It was built as a furniture store. The office was in the second floor annex. In one booth upstairs was an antique typewriter last used long ago. Several customers and employees reported hearing a typewriter typing away over a period of months, but when investigated, nobody was there. Many customers told employees there were "ghosts" upstairs — that area is no longer being used.

2. The second floor booths mostly contained furniture — chairs, desks, tables, beds, etc. Several times, the employees straightened up the furniture before going home at 5 p.m., only to find it rearranged, the chairs pulled out into the aisles, and all askew, the next morning.

3. A radio tuned to a local station for background music was left on upstairs while the store was open. Often it would increase suddenly in volume when nobody was upstairs.

4. The following is a description from an employee who still works at the mall: "The holiday season was upon us and we were very busy. One of the employees was approaching the doorway into the annex and we both were suddenly 'frozen' in our positions. The people who were shopping all sped up like in a time warp. It might have been only a matter of seconds but it seemed like hours. Then everything slowed down to a normal pace. My fellow employee was still standing in the same position on the stairs with a dazed look on her face. I said to her, 'Did you see that?' She replied, 'What just happened?' We were both shaken up."

5. One employee was bending over a jewelry showcase when she felt something brush past her back. Looking up, she saw a "transparent" figure of a young male with a mischievous look on his face who quickly vanished.

6. Several employees and customers were at the back of the mall when they heard a loud sound of crashing glass from one of the front booths. They rushed to the booth, but nothing was amiss. The booth was rented to a dealer who had died the month before. His goods were still in the booth. He was known to the employees as a prankster.

Perhaps these are all imagination, but we have documented all of these events from more than one source. Is the mall haunted? Well. . .

—By Paul and Myra Rees (owners of 22nd Street Antique Mall)

La Cocina

A few years ago, Tucson Ghost Company owner Becky Gydesen investigated the historic La Cocina bar, located in the Persidio District of downtown Tucson. Some of the walls that make up the building date back to the 1850s.

Santa Cruz River — La Llorona

This story is one of the “universal” Mexican ghost stories, hundreds of years old, with many variations. Translated as “the crying woman,” she is seen traditionally in Tucson anywhere from the South Stone Avenue underpass to the Santa Cruz River. One version has it that she was condemned to search for her children, whom she had drowned to spite an unfaithful husband. Another says she was promiscuous and had many children, whom she drowned. When she died, she was told she couldn’t enter heaven until she found them all and brought them with her. Yet another version holds that she emigrated from Nogales, Sonora, leaving her children behind. Soon after, the Santa Cruz River flooded, the children drowned and their bodies washed up the river to Tucson. Legend has it that anyone trying to touch La Llorona will suffer a burn.

— Tucson Citizen

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base

Security police patrolling Davis-Monthan Air Force Base’s Boneyard, the mothballed aircraft storage area, allegedly have seen the specter of a fighter pilot, dressed in World War II-era gear slowly walking among the old aircraft, perhaps searching for his own plane. Some have said the headlights of their patrol vehicles go out during these encounters, and flashlights don’t function. Others said the ghostly figure walks through the security fence and across Kolb Road before disappearing.

— Tucson Citizen

Hotel Congress

Hotel Congress is believed to be home to a number of supernatural guests. Some of the most notable spirits include a man who is often seen peering from a second-story window, a maid who is always cleaning and a man with a top hat who struts around the lobby. In a 2003 interview with the Arizona Daily Star, Hotel Congress co-owner Shana Oseran mentioned a time when a spirit came to the aid of a guest. 

"One night, someone asked me for the woman desk-clerk they had just spoken to," said Oseran, "but we only had a male desk-clerk working that night, so I knew it was one of our ghosts."

Two rooms in the hotel have been linked to suicides. Room 214 is said to host a guest who died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound, but the date of this incident has never been specified. It's also said that when you look toward the entrance of the room the floor appears to be slanted to the left even though it's level. Room 242 is believed to be the home of a female spirit who shot herself in the head during a SWAT standoff in the mid 90s. Some guests who stayed in this room claimed to have seen her ghostly figure in the bathroom and hear strange noises. One of the rooms is also the permanent home of Vince Szuda, a long-term guest who checked in during the late 1950s and lived in the hotel, at a set rate of $7 a day, until his death in 2001. Vince was known to be a fix-it man who was constantly borrowing butter knives from the restaurant. To this day workers still find butter knives in random places all over the hotel.