Burque’s Most Scary: Where to Hunt Haunts in ABQ

by Kristin Satterlee

We know some of you are already saying “nope!” and turning past this article. Fair enough. We’ll see you on the next page! If you’re up for some spooks and scares though, hang around to learn about some of Albuquerque’s many haunt spots.

Don’t forget the donuts: KiMo Theatre, 423 Central Ave NW

One of Albuquerque’s best-known and most-loved phantoms is Bobby, a 10-year-old boy who died when a water heater exploded in the KiMo Theatre in 1951. He is known as a prankster and poltergeist who likes to mess with theater performers, locking them in dressing rooms, tripping them, or popping light bulbs during performances.

There’s a shrine to Bobby in a corner backstage, loaded with toys and beads and donuts. Stories say that if you don’t leave an offering for Bobby before a performance, you can expect something to go wrong. Maybe you’ll also see a blonde kid and hear spectral laughter …

Dressed in black: Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patio Escondido, 404 San Felipe St NW

Speaking of shrines, a tiny chapel hidden in Old Town is home to one of Albuquerque’s more frightening spirits. The Lady in Black sometimes appears on a bench there, praying and sobbing. Then she vanishes, as suddenly as she came.

Who is she? Some say the Lady in Black is Sister Giotto, a Roman Catholic nun and artist who built the chapel in the 1970s. Others say she’s a different woman, veiled and dressed in black, mourning Albuquerque tragedies, especially the souls lost in the Sandias on TWA Flight 260. (You can still see bits of the wreckage at “TWA Canyon,” the site of the 1955 crash.)

Shh, no screaming: San Pedro Library, 5600 Trumbull Ave SE

The list of hauntings at this small, cheerful library branch are many: lights turning on and off by themselves, the shushing voice of a disembodied librarian, children giggling, phantom footsteps. At least one long-time San Pedro librarian, however, said she never saw anything abnormal happen here in twenty years. Sounds like a good excuse to settle in with a book and listen for something creepy …

Hang on to your sheets: Hotel Parq Central, 806 Central Ave SE

This luxe hotel was built in the 1920s as a hospital, then became a children’s psychiatric facility in the 1980s. It sat abandoned for a decade or so, then reopened as a hotel in 2010. Sounds like a recipe for hauntings, and it’s got some—for instance, the woman on the top floor who is said to watch people from the hallway and occasionally pull off their sheets in the middle of the night.

See it yourself: Old Town Ghost Walks

Put on your walking shoes and hunt some haunts! Tour ABQ’s 21+ Albucreepy Tavern's San Pedro Library & Tales Ghost Walk features stops at haunted High Noon Saloon and other watering holes, so you can top yourself up with some liquid courage. For family-friendly frights, check out ABQ Tours’ Ghost Tour of Old Town—including, for the extra-brave, night-time “Moonlight” tours that start at 10pm.