La Posada & Haunted Santa Fe

A few weeks ago K and I went to one of our favorite bars in Santa Fe, La Posada.  La Posada is also a hotel and spa but the bar is really nice, quiet, and comfortable.  The bar is located in the old Staab House.  The Staab House is named after its original owners, Julia and Abraham Staab, and was built in the 1880s.  The legend is, Julia Staab committed suicide in her bedroom and the Staab House has been haunted ever since.  Her bedroom is actually the largest suite in the hotel and the haunted room demands a premium.  Here's a link to the whole story. 

Here we are, sans ghost, finishing up a glass of wine in the bar.  It was chilly so we sat by a fireplace.


I actually had one of their delicious cocktails- a Lemondrop.  mmm.  Also, I am no photographer so I caught the flash in the mirror above the fireplace.  Oh well!
Here's a photo of the hallway leading to the bar.  The story is that the ghost of Julia Staab is frequently seen to be walking down the stair (which are behind me in this photo) and into the hallway below.



I learned about this story last year when I went on a Santa Fe Hearse Tour.  This is an awesome nighttime activity where you tour around in a modified open-air hearse. 

On the way back to the car, we passed another haunted area.  Here's a creepy photo:


This is an abandoned mental hospital.  No joke.  Well, it was once a mental hospital, then at some point became a nursing home, but now it is mostly abandoned.  The rooms are rented out to film production companies and other short-term enterprises.  It's really the strangest thing because it's a large plot really close to downtown.  One would think that it'd be a prime candidate for either remodel or tear down.  It's probably the fact that it's incredibly haunted that detracts potential developers. 

Happy Halloween everyone!