Photo credit: www.hotelstfrancis.com, www.hotelparqcentral.com/gallery, www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/saflc-la-posada-de-santa-fe

Episode 65– You can also listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google podcasts, and Amazon Music

About the Episode:

Happy Halloween! Bunny and Johanna round out spooky season with a few more New Mexico ghost stories. Bunny talks about her favorite haunted places in Santa Fe and Quay county and Johanna shares the legend of Memorial Hospital (aka Hotel Parq Central) in Albuquerque. Do you have a New Mexico ghost story? Let us know at ilovenewmexicoblog@gmail.com

Links
Haunted New Mexico places
I Love New Mexico blog page
Bunny’s website
I Love New Mexico Instagram
I Love New Mexico Facebook 

Original Music by: Kene Terry

La Posada de Santa Fe

“Located in the heart of Santa Fe, just steps from the Historic Plaza, La Posada de Santa Fe Resort & Spa combines the upscale amenities and refined accommodations of a modern resort with authentic adobe architecture. From the property’s roots as an 1880s brick mansion to its 1930s expansion and recent renovation and refurbishment, our historic Santa Fe resort has transformed into one of the Southwest’s most unique destinations.” – La Posada Website 

St. Francis Hotel, Santa Fe

“Located one block from Santa Fe’s historic Plaza, the historic Hotel St. Francis, the oldest hotel in Santa Fe, invites you to experience the culture of New Mexico. Savor the best wines and garden-to-glass cocktails at the award-winning Secreto Lounge or experience Market Steer Steakhouse.” – St. Francis Website

Hotel Parq Central, Albuquerque

“A historic City and National Historic Registry designated landmark originally built in 1926, the hotel is framed by beautiful Italian-inspired architecture and a warm, inviting interior, and is a multiple time recipient of the prestigious AAA Four Diamond Rating for Hotels.”  – Hotel Parq Website

Episode Transcript

Bunny : (00:00)
Hi there. I’m Bunny Terry, and you’re listening to the I Love New Mexico podcast. Whether you’re a native new Mexican, who’s lived here for your entire life, or you’re just considering a visit, this episode is for you. Join us as we share a lot of New Mexico stories, talk about all things New Mexico, and include topics like what’s magical here, where you ought to visit, what’s happening, and the things you absolutely cannot miss in the land of Enchantment. We’re excited that you’re here, and we can’t wait to show you what an amazing place New Mexico is, because let’s face it, I love New Mexico. It’s kind of hard to believe that we are already at the end of October and at the end of our New Mexico Ghost. So, ghost story series, um, I’m joined today by Johanna Medina, who is my producer and also my daughter. And we’ve, we’ve had a great time talking about, um, scary, you know, took some scary and, um, the ghost stories that we were able to find and in fact, um, tune in in the next couple of weeks because we’re going to have a visit with the folks who have the logic Cloudcroft. We just couldn’t fit them in before Halloween. But, um, the logic Cloudcroft definitely has their own ghost. So, I’m curious, Johanna, do you have any ghost stories that you’ve heard just sort of anecdotally that,

Johanna : (01:43)
I don’t know, like specific, I mean, I have all the places and the place I’m gonna talk about later. I’ve definitely heard about, I mean, mostly hear about places being haunted, um, not specific ghosts or ghost story. I mean, so one time, uh, when I was in college, so in probably 2009, and I’m sure they still do this, you know, definitely they still do these. I did a ghost tour, an old town in Albuquerque, and that was pretty cool. And I think they do ’em here in Santa Fe too. Um, a ghost tour, maybe around the plaza. Um, so yeah, in Old Town, Albuquerque, and we went around the different buildings and seemed like every restaurant around there had its own ghost. There was one, what’s the restaurant that has the tree growing in the middle of it?

Bunny : (02:32)
Ooh, ooh, I’ll have to look it

Johanna : (02:34)
Up. I’m gonna have to

Bunny : (02:35)
Look that up.

Johanna : (02:35)
But that one has a, that one has a pretty famous ghost that I think was either, you know, the owner or the owner’s wife or somebody. And, and there’s always stories about servers or people that work there seeing her. And

Bunny : (02:54)
It does seem that restaurants are the places where you know, because people,

Johanna : (03:00)
Yeah. Um, or because all those old buildings that maybe used to be homes are now turned into restaurants.

Bunny : (03:06)
Right.

Johanna : (03:07)
Um, I know that happens a lot here in Santa Fe, too. A lot of the old restaurants are now, um, or they used to be homes, and so now they’re all haunted .

Bunny : (03:17)
So I found the name of that place. It’s La Posada, and it’s not open now, but, um, hopefully they’ll open. Nope. It’s showing that it closed during Covid, which is too bad. I think, I mean, that’s the true, true in Santa Fe. Like one of the most famous Santa Fe ghost is Julia at La Posada and La Posada, which is, um, now a, um, a resort hotel downtown that, um, was originally a home and that was the family home. And, Julia was, um, she came from the east, uh, you know, in the middle of the Santa Fe Trail, and I’m sorry I don’t have all those dates with me, but, um, she and, um, Bishop Lamey were actually really close friends. And, you know, there’s a woman who wrote a, and we’ll have a link to this book because you’re gonna want to get a copy, but there’s a woman who is actually her great-great granddaughter, Julia’s great-great granddaughter, who wrote a book about Julia coming to New Mexico and having to leave her family behind.

Bunny : (04:30)
And being, um, a, a young woman married to a man who was much older than her and, and perhaps not being in a particularly happy marriage. And she lost a child, um, late in her marriage and, and sort of sequestered herself in a room at the top of the stairs at the house. And, and, and, and obviously was experiencing some serious level of postpartum depression and loss of this child and, and died in that room according to Legend. And this woman who wrote the book, um, and I, and I would have all that information except I gave the book away as a gift, which is, which I generally do with books that I love. But, so she decided that she was going to come to, um, Santa Fe and spend the night, you can spend the night, it’s in the hotel, and you can spend the night in the room where Julia, where Julia’s child died, and where, and Julia’s still believed to haunt the building.

Bunny : (05:39)
There are lots of people and just, just like we were talking about La pla Cita, there are lots of people that work there who have seen Julia stand at the top of the stairs. And so, um, after, you know, this book is so interesting and it’s very historic, and it talks about family stories. And then, um, this woman goes and, um, decides to spend the night in the hotel and see if Julia will show up. And she talks about how sort of, uh, frightening and, um, exciting it was for her and how she didn’t believe that she would go to sleep. Um, anyway, she spent the night in the room. Julia did not come to visit her, although she has a number of other people. And, and then she wrote this great book, but, but Julia is one of the most famous ghosts in Santa Fe.

Bunny : (06:39)
Um, there’s also, um, a lot of people have the Drury Hotel downtown used to be St. Vincent’s Hospital. And it was, I mean, it was the hospital. It was where the hospital set. Well, so Christus St. Vincent’s originally set on, um, as I understand it, it, so there’s this crazy story that, um, so, so the old hospital is downtown at the corner of Paseo del Norte and Palace Avenue. And about 12 years ago, the Drury family bought the old hospital and remodeled it and revamped it and turned it into the very popular Drewry Plaza. And it’s one of the, one of our favorite pla places, you know, for, that’s where we send guests. And, um, but there are numerous stories from both staff and guests about GE Ghost appearing. The morgue was in the basement. And there I’ve, there there are all these, you know, every hospital has a morgue, and so there’s always gonna be stories.

Johanna : (07:55)
I’m so glad I didn’t know that, that whenever I stayed there, I didn’t even know. I mean, I knew, I know that I’ve known that, but I didn’t know it at the time when I stayed there. Right,

Bunny : (08:04)
Right. About

Johanna : (08:05)
That. Yeah.

Bunny : (08:06)
Well, I knew it, you know, we stayed there on our wedding night, but, um, we’d obviously had enough champagne and wine to drink that there were no ghosts that came and tried to make themselves known to us. But there are stories. I mean, if you wanna, if you wanna hang out in a hotel that is, um, noted, noted to be haunted, that’s one. The other one, I know there are stories about the La Fonda, but there’s the other one that I had a client stay in, and she had a ghost story was the St. Francis, which is at the corner of water and Gist Street, and it’s where one of our favorite restaurants spark at steers. But, but the St. Francis used to be called the DeVargas. And, um, that location has been a hotel for probably 150 years, maybe longer. And I had a client who came to stay. And, um, the, the interesting thing about this client is that she had been personal friends with Julia Child, and she was a chef. You were talking

Johanna : (09:09)
About Julia and Julia’s child.

Bunny : (09:11)
Oh, yeah. And now

Johanna : (09:13)
Julia Child . I know.

Bunny : (09:15)
Anyway, my, okay, gotcha. My client, Madeline stayed at the St. Francis, and it was a really busy weekend, so they put her in a room in the basement, and, and, and there are, they do have rooms that are in the basement. They have rooms that, not many, but she stayed in a room in the basement. And she said she woke up in the night and there, and she said, she swore that the legs of the, um, bedside table were, one of the legs was bump, bump going, bump bump, bump, bump. And she said, I just had this feeling that the spirit wanted me to sit up and take notice. So I set up and she said, I saw an orb in the corner of the mo room, and it was almost as though it was trying to get me to respond to it. And she said, I was tired. I knew we were gonna look at houses the next day. So I just said, please. And she spoke in this beautiful accent. Um, she said, please, please, please go away. I have too many things to accomplish tomorrow, . And she said the orb disappeared, but she said that St. Francis, she saw a ghost in the St. Francis. So,

Johanna : (10:29)
No, I just wanted some attention.

Bunny : (10:31)
. Yes. So, um, those are a few of the stories I have. I’m interested to know what you’ve got that you’d like to share.

Johanna : (10:41)
That’s so funny. I think, um, that’s really funny. That’s a good way to respond to a ghost, probably. I think if I had that, I don’t know. I don’t know what I would do, um, if, if I had a ghost in my room, if I would just, you know, put up with them. . Um, the one I wanted to talk about a lot when we started, uh, discussing doing this kind of theme for October was one I’ve heard about a lot, um, a location, which is, uh, it’s now called the Hotel Park Central in Albuquerque. Um, just because you had told me about it before, and then when I lived in Albuquerque, um, is, you know, I heard about a lot. And then while I was living in Albuquerque is when they turned it into a hotel. Um, so what I had, I’ll just tell you kinda like the lit, like what I had heard, and then some actual information that hopefully is more, um, reliable than just my own memory. But, so what I had remembered was that it was a hospital. So this is downtown Albuquerque, um, of Central, and it’s now, it’s a very fancy, kinda like in Santa Fe, the very, you know, um, I guess kinda what you call

Bunny : (11:58)
It, it’s a luxury hotel.

Johanna : (11:59)
Yeah. Luxury hotel. Mm-Hmm. It’s, yeah, probably four or five star, like very, very popular. It’s not, you know, people, it’s really nice now, but, um, but, but thinking about, okay, this used to be some kinda hospital, in my mind it was a TB hospital, but now that I’ve looked it up, it was, um, a hospital built for on the railroad. ’cause it was right there on the railroad. So anybody who was injured railroad workers and then later was turned into a children’s psychiatric hospital. So

Bunny : (12:28)
I knew there was a psychiatric hospital connection in there somewhere. Yeah.

Johanna : (12:32)
Yeah. So, um, it was built in 1926, originally, like I said, uh, frequented by railroad employees from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad, uh, railway company. Um, and then in the eighties it was turned into a psychiatric hospital. So that was very briefly. So, um, from the eighties to nineties, and then it was vacant, and then in 2010 it turned into a hotel after $10 million refurbishing and revamping, now it’s a 74 room property. Um, and I think they kind of lean on the history of it a little bit, while also making it kind of boutiquey and luxury hotel. They have a really nice, um, rooftop bar that I’ve been to. And I’ve always, you know, I kind of have the Morbid Face station where I want to stay there, but I’m terrified to stay there. I’m

Bunny : (13:26)
The same way. And people I know, people I know own that place, and they’re always really generous and, and they donate something to us for the sweetheart auction, for the Cancer Foundation for New Mexico. But I’m like, you, I don’t think I wanna go spend the night.

Johanna : (13:38)
Yeah. I mean, yeah, someday I think I will just tough it out just to say that I did it, and I think it’s looks really nice. It’d be a nice place to stay and kinda have a getaway. And the, um, apothecary bar on the rooftop is really nice. Um, but there’s definitely ghost stories there. Um, I mean, there’s just lots of incidences that are reported. I don’t think any specific named ghosts or anything like that. But if you could think about that history, I mean, a hospital again, like the Drewry where there was probably a morgue and people died of natural causes or, um, and then, and then, you know, being a psychiatric hospital, I think that’s something we always think of, especially when it’s like a horror movie or something that’s where Yeah. You know, probably troubled souls were, and if it was children that, you know, it tends to make it even creepier. Um, so it used to be known as the Memorial Hospital. What was the Santa Fe?

Bunny : (14:35)
I do remember that. I remember when it was Memorial Hospital. And then I remember when, um, you were small that it was a, it looked like it was abandoned for

Johanna : (14:44)
Several years. Yeah. In the nine, in the nineties, it was abandoned. So originally it was called the Santa Fe Hospital when it was the, the railway hospital. And then when it was the psychiatric hospital, it was called Memorial Hospital. So that was just very briefly in the eighties and probably early nineties. Um, um, you know, so even when it was went from one hospital to another, the patients were reports seeing, um, operations or ghost sightings. And, um, you know, similar to Julia, uh, an aberration of a woman, people walking down the halls. Um, and then, you know, more aggressive things like having bedsheets pulled off of them or

Bunny : (15:27)
Lights

Johanna : (15:27)
Turning on and off and things like that have been reported. So the patients reported being so traumatized by the events in the hospital that even when they went home, they would continue to have nightmares. And so it was very, you know, not super nice ghosts, I don’t think. No. Um, so, so now, and then, sorry, let me say that again. So, so not only patients, but staff as well, were having these experiences. Um, a big one, a lot of people said a lot of, a lot of what I read, people were saying that they, um, just had this feeling of being watched or, um, like something, you know, when you’re like, oh, turn around, you think something’s there, that kind of feeling. Um, which I think that’s, I’ve had that a lot of times where I’m like, I know something was there. So, um, I think we all kind of know that feeling and then hearing just whispering or, you know, things that you could probably, uh, brush off, but not in a place like that. Uh, things moving around, stuff like that.

Bunny : (16:33)
I think you can, I think you can, um, brush those things. You can, you can sort of disregard those stories until it happens to you. And it has happened to me a couple of times. Mm-Hmm. . So I, um, not in New Mexico, I’ve been sort of careful not to stay in places that I thought might be haunted, but Mm-Hmm. , um, when it happens, um, you, you think, did I just dream that or was it real? And then, and then somebody on the staff will verify it and say, you know, I, I mean, that happened to me a couple of times in Yuri, Colorado, which is just an old town like Santa Fe, like Albuquerque, where a lot of things happened. Um, I had one, um, I have one last story, unless you have others that you wanna share. I have one last story about Logan.

Bunny : (17:22)
I wrote a blog post and we’re, we’re gonna find it. Well, it’s, it’s gonna be posted already by the time this, you’re listening to this podcast, so you can go back and find it. But, um, there was, you know, I grew up in Quake County, actually in Harding County, near Ute Creek. And there was, um, down closer to the creek, a place that, um, was owned in the 18 hundreds by a family whose last name was Martinez. And so down, um, on this ranch where I went a few times as a child was, um, this old rock house that they call the Martinez House. And I said to my friend Elaine, who was my friend who, um, inspired me to start writing the I Love New Mexico blog. She said, bunny, I’ve heard that story before. We’re gonna investigate it. So she started talking to, and, and the reason I had heard this story was because as a child, I had gone down to the Klux Ranch and for a housewarming party, and this group of kids as a group of kids, you know, maybe like 9, 10, 11 year old kids, a a group of us had gone into this house, which had, was, was falling down, had a staircase, and at the top of the scare staircase, which I’m sure was put there to scare us all, was a noose hanging from a light fixture.

Bunny : (18:45)
No. Yes. And so I was telling my friend Elaine, that story, and she said, oh, I’ve always heard those stories. So she started investigating, and after Elaine passed away, I asked her daughter if I could borrow the story that she had written. And, and she allowed me to. And I was always really honored that I was able to pass along Elaine’s story. But the story was that the patriarch of the family, um, this, um, gentleman whose last name was Martinez, um, he was sort of the wealthy landowner. And, um, he, he had a wife and several children, and they had a housekeeper that he made the mistake of developing an affection for. And they did some sneaking around and yeah, , I don’t know any way other way to put it. But, um, she became pregnant with his child, and, um, the wife found out about it and confronted him, and he begged, begged her to stay, begged her to stay, begged her to stay, and she left. And as the story goes, he hung himself in that house.

Bunny : (20:04)
The other part of the story is that down there on the Ute Creek, um, north of where that ranch was, there was a saloon. And, and people who have hung out on in that part, Ute Creek, always say that there, you know, if you’re down there at night, you’ll hear voices, you’ll, you’ll hear music playing. Um, and that’s all private ranch land. So nobody’s, nobody is ever encouraged to go there and find out whether this is true, but that those are stories I heard all my life. And, um, so the young woman who was the, um, pregnant with this man’s child was down at the saloon and somehow suffered somebody at the saloon did it, or somehow suffered an untimely death. And so the story is that, um, both of those people haunt the area that Mr. Martinez haunts the house and the ranch. And, you know, sometimes when the Cowboys will go out to feed, especially late in the evening, they’ll get us, you know, they’ll feel a chill. He’ll, you know, and it’s interesting because you think, come on, use Spirits . I mean, how much longer do you plan to hang around? I mean, is there this, is there this nother world between life and the next life? If you believe in the next life, I’m just always interested to know what’s that about.

Johanna : (21:36)
Yeah.

Bunny : (21:36)
But that’s the ghost story I know from home.

Johanna : (21:39)
Yeah.

Bunny : (21:40)
So, do you have another one you wanna tell on this Halloween ?

Johanna : (21:44)
Well, kind of, because when I started talking about Park Central, it reminded me about, um, the Albuquerque Press Club, which is right next door. Do you know about that

Bunny : (21:55)
Car?

Johanna : (21:55)
Oh, yeah. And that, that is supposed to be very haunted too. So it’s really right next door to that hotel. And

Bunny : (22:04)
Well, in fact, in this book, this Ghost story book that I’ve bought, just to, just to play around with, there’s a long story about the Press club and, you know, it was a private house.

Johanna : (22:15)
Mm-Hmm. .

Bunny : (22:16)
And it was, it was a house that, um, you know, it looks like a log cabin. So it’s really a

Johanna : (22:21)
Funny Yeah, it stands out. It really does.

Bunny : (22:24)
Yeah, it does. And and the people who built it moved to Albuquerque from Chicago in, um, like, oh, 1903 is when it was built. Okay.

Johanna : (22:36)
And

Bunny : (22:36)
It was really on the edge of town at the time on, and it was on the western edge of town. And of course it was close to the railroad, but, um, they had moved here from Chicago and, um, they, and, and, and they, so it, so the funny thing is that on the store, in the book that I got, it says, located on Highland near the house, were two sanatoriums, one of which you just talked about, which was, um, but there was, uh, so, so the people who built the house, there are stories that they eventually leased the house to those sanatoriums. And that there was one nurse whose name was Clifford, and she came all the time to visit. Is that what you read?

Johanna : (23:22)
Well, that’s what I couldn’t remember. And I was trying to find was the connection between the hospital and, and that house. ’cause I knew it was like, maybe it was, um, yeah. H House for staff, or I knew there was some connection there. All I, I remember because, well, one year, uh, when I lived in Albuquerque, I got invited to a Halloween party there.

Bunny : (23:41)
Oh.

Johanna : (23:42)
And I wanted, I, I didn’t get to go, I wanted to go so bad because I was like, oh my gosh, that would be so cool. But I think I, you know, was outta town or something. But, um, yeah, again, it’s another place you, I think you could, you could still go there. It’s still a, a

Bunny : (23:56)
Bar.

Johanna : (23:56)
Oh, yeah.

Bunny : (23:57)
Yeah. Well, it’s a, it’s, I don’t know, is it open to the public? I know when it was a press club,

Johanna : (24:01)
Don’t think it’s, I, I, yeah. I don’t know exactly.

Bunny : (24:06)
Well, so there was one woman I read an account of a woman who was a bartender there, and her, her words were, when I had my first encounter with the ghost, I was a bartender. And I must say that this encounter scared me so badly that it left me speechless. But she was at the bar late in the evening, um, and, and, and there were patrons in the bar. And, um, she said, she said she felt a strange, uncomfortable feeling come over her, and she stared straight ahead and she suddenly heard footsteps, but there was nobody there. And, and as she turned to focus on the sound, she caught the shadowy image of a woman dressed in a black cape. And her husband said, ask her. He was, he was there sitting at the bar and he said, Mary, what’s up? And she, like, he looked where her eyes were looking, and he looked and he said, oh my gosh, look, there’s the ghost that we’ve heard all heard so much about. So,

Johanna : (25:06)
Oh,

Bunny : (25:07)
Um, that’s just one account of the Albuquerque Press Club, but the story is that she’s still hanging out there and they say that it’s that woman, her nickname was Clifford, and that she’s still hanging out there.

Johanna : (25:21)
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That’s ringing, that’s ringing a bell for sure. Now that, yeah. So I think that’s interesting too, that just the, I don’t know if it depends on, I’m sure it does depend on the type of spirit and the type of person who’s encountering them. If you’re gonna feel really scared or if you’re gonna feel like, um, you know, like it’s a happy ghost or not Happy Ghost .

Bunny : (25:46)
Well, I, I would say that, um, the ghosts that I believe that I’ve encountered have not been frightening. They’ve been startling. Um, and, and you’re sort of like, I, I would, I wish this hadn’t happened, but there hasn’t been anything malevolent about them. Like we, and you know, I mean, it’s not like they can cause you harm, but I mean, as you’ll recall, I, maybe you remember this story. Um, our friend Cameron lived in a house in Clovis that had ghosts. I mean, it was like, they would wake up in the night and there would be a bad spirit like hanging over the bed, um, frightening them. And, and they, they took pictures and there were orbs. And, um, and that was a scary experience. They were like, we we’re leaving this house. Um, I, you know, I read, um, there’s some people who live in White Oaks who two different people, two different households, and White Oaks, of course, is a tiny little community down by Zoso. But, um, there, there are diff different people who would just say to the ghost after a while, you know, what, if we’re gonna, if we’re gonna live in the same house, you have to be a little less noisy. You have to choose not to startle me. You know, that’s, and there are people who say that they’ve lived peace peacefully with a ghost in their house, but I’m, I’m, I’m not really interested in doing .

Johanna : (27:19)
Yeah, me neither. . Like, you can have it. Yeah. I dunno. I guess if,

Bunny : (27:24)
I guess if it was somebody you loved and it was, you know, you felt like you were seeing them, um, I don’t know. You know, animals seem to see them, you know, if they’re, if your dog is barking at something odd. The other night, Ruby was barking at something in the house and Toby said, she’s either blind or we have a ghost. I can’t figure out which one. So

Johanna : (27:48)
Yeah. Yeah.

Bunny : (27:49)
Who knows?

Johanna : (27:50)
Who knows. Well, I mean, there’s just so many places. I know when we start talking about this, there’s a list of, you know, probably a hundred haunted places in New Mexico all over the state. And I mean, we might have to revisit this theme next year because there’s so many cool places. But I’m really excited to hear, um, about the Cloudcroft Lodge.

Bunny : (28:14)
I, and I just wanna remind people, I mean, this is the kind of stuff we love to share. Send us some stories, get in touch with us if you’d like to tell your story on the blog, because, um, that’s what it’s all about, right?

Johanna : (28:26)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, happy Halloween, .

Bunny : (28:29)
Yes. Happy Halloween. You guys go out and scare somebody. .

Johanna : (28:35)
Bye.

Bunny : (28:37)
Thanks to all of you for taking the time to listen to the I Love New Mexico podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please feel free to share it with your friends on social media or by texting or messaging or emailing them a copy of the podcast. If you have a New Mexico story that you’d like to share with us, don’t hesitate to reach out. Our email address is I love New Mexico blog@gmail.com, and we are always, always looking for interesting stories about New Mexico. Subscribe, share, and write a review so that we can continue to bring you these stories about the Land of Enchantment. Thank you so much.