Gillespie House, later dubbed the Ghost House, circa 1890. Photo Courtesy Aspen Historical Society
The “Ghost House” has been long forgotten because the house is no longer there, but in 1951 debate over its fate dominated community dialogue.
That was the nickname for the Henry P. Gillespie house. Gillespie, one of Aspen’s early founders and reportedly the first to become a millionaire, built the house in 1881. It cost $35,000, ($750,000 in today’s dollars), but at the time it was one of the most elegant of Aspen’s houses, a classic Victorian with lots of gingerbread ornamentation. Gillespie, one of the first mine investors to come to Aspen, bought the Spar and Galena claims on Aspen Mountain from two of the first prospectors to search the area.