Haunted Places in Boise, ID

The history

Boise's haunted ground is concentrated in two places, and both are documented buildings: a territorial prison east of downtown, and a downtown of hotels and theatres built when Idaho's capital was young. Boise is Idaho's capital and its most populous city, the Ada County seat on the Boise River, with a population of 235,685 at the 2020 census, on its Wikipedia article. The prison came first. The Old Idaho Penitentiary's first building — the Territorial Prison — was constructed in 1870, when the Idaho Territory was seven years old and two decades from statehood, and the penitentiary functioned as a prison from 1872 to 1973, on the penitentiary article. From a single cell house it grew into a complex behind a 17-foot sandstone wall, the stone quarried from the nearby ridges by the convicts themselves, who also assisted in later construction. The Idaho State Historical Society, which operates the site today, puts the same span on its own page: built in 1870, 101 years of operation, one of only four territorial prisons open to the public today.

The record inside those walls is full without any ghosts. Over its 101 years the penitentiary received more than 13,000 inmates, among them 216 women, on its Wikipedia article. Two of its famous inmates are named there: Harry Orchard, who assassinated former Governor Frank Steunenberg in 1905, and Lyda Southard, known as Idaho's Lady Bluebeard for killing several husbands to collect their life insurance. Serious riots over living conditions came in 1952, 1971 and 1973 — the hospital burned in the 1971 riot, and the dining hall and Cell House 2 burned in 1973 — and the penitentiary closed on December 3, 1973, its 416 resident inmates moved to a new institution south of Boise. The buildings the article describes are the ones visitors still walk: Siberia, the second solitary-confinement section, built in 1926 with twelve cells of three by eight feet, one inmate per cell; and Cell House 5, built in 1954 as maximum security, with a built-in gallows and Death Row. Ten executions took place at the penitentiary in all; the last six were hangings, and the last of them was Raymond Snowden, hanged on October 18, 1957, on the article's execution list. The Rose Garden, now planted, was the hanging ground. Against that severity the article also keeps one gentle documented fact: Dennis, a kitten found in the prison barn in 1952, was kept for sixteen years, and when he died in 1968 the inmates gave him a funeral and a headstone — the only "inmate" buried within the prison walls.

Downtown's two haunted landmarks are younger and civilian. The Idanha Hotel, at 10th and Main, was built in 1901 at a cost of $125,000 — the most expensive building in Boise to that date, on its Wikipedia article — a six-story red brick French-chateau building with round turrets, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and converted from a hotel to apartments in the 1970s. The Egyptian Theatre opened in 1927, also known as the Ada Theater, and is the oldest theatre in the city on its article.

The legend

This section is folklore — reported by the operators and local accounts listed below, and never asserted as fact here.

At the Old Pen, the local haunted-places accounts collected in search concentrate the reports in the two harshest buildings. The maximum-security 5 House, where Raymond Snowden was hanged in 1957, and the solitary cells inmates called Siberia draw the most accounts, on the This is Boise account: visitors and guides are said to report feelings of dread, footsteps in empty rooms and full-body apparitions, and the penitentiary's own site acknowledges the reputation in its programming — the Historical Society has run an event literally titled Haunting History, billed as "a night of stories of hauntings and the darker side of the Old Idaho Penitentiary's history, along with Boise true crime stories," on its own event page. What is documented is the gallows, the cells and the ten executions; the dread is reported, and is labelled reported here.

Downtown, the repertoire belongs to Boise Ghosts, and it is the operator's own telling. The Idanha Building, in the operator's account, is haunted by a ghostly bellman who still operates the elevator, with restless spirits disturbing modern residents. The Egyptian Theatre, in the same account, keeps a lingering projectionist from the 1950s who still watches over the auditorium, alongside phantom aromas. The Owyhee, once a lavish hotel, is said by the operator to hold phantom footsteps, moving objects and spectral figures in its upper floors and basement. The Belmont Barbershop, under its 1898 brick exterior in the operator's telling, hides subterranean tunnels from a bootlegging past, and the Adelmann Building carries dark basement whispers.

Haunted today

Hountix lists 5 places in Boise, ID. Seasonal attractions keep their own open dates, so check each business's own site before you go.

• Boise Little Theater — haunted place, 100 E Fort St, Boise, ID
• Egyptian Theatre — haunted place, 700 W Main St, Boise, ID
• Old Idaho Penitentiary — haunted place, 2445 Old Penitentiary Rd, Boise, ID
• The Idanha Building — haunted place, 928 W Main St, Boise, ID
• The Owyhee — haunted place, 1109 W Main St, Boise, ID

Attraction stories

Old Idaho Penitentiary

The Old Idaho Penitentiary is the rare haunted attraction whose operator publishes no ghost at all — and does not need to. The Idaho State Historical Society's own page sells the documented record: "Built in 1870, the Old Idaho Penitentiary in Boise is one of only four territorial prisons open to the public today. During its 101 years of operation, the site saw escapes, scandals, and the effects of Boise's transition from the 'wild west' to a mid-20th century capital city." Its current Halloween format is on its homepage: regular hours close October 29–31 and the site opens October 30–31 for Fright Nights, 7 to 11 p.m.

The history a visitor walks is set out in The history above, from the anchor article: a prison of 1872–1973 behind convict-quarried sandstone, more than 13,000 inmates, riots in 1952, 1971 and 1973, and closure on December 3, 1973. The practical visit is the Society's own: 2445 Old Penitentiary Road, Boise, ID 83712, phone (208) 334-2844; self-guided tours during all operating hours and guided tours most days for $2 more, booked at the front desk; admission $9 for adults, $7 for seniors and $5 for children 6–12, members and under-6 free; winter hours noon to 5 p.m. and summer hours 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Professional photography is not allowed during regular visitation hours, on the same page. The reported hauntings — dread in 5 House and Siberia, footsteps, apparitions — come from the local accounts in The legend, not from the Society. A state historical society that runs its prison as a museum by day and lets the building's own record do the frightening after dark: that is the Old Pen's record, presented as such.

*Website: https://history.idaho.gov/oldpen/*