Matties House of Mirrors
1946A Market St
Denver, CO


History of the location:

The original “House of mirrors” was built in 1889.

The house was built by a Madam by the name of Jennie Rogers.
 (b. Pittsburgh, July 4, 1843- d. Denver 1909) she is buried in the Fairmount cemetery under the name "Leah Wood"



Jennie Rogers built the location to compete with her competition, Mattie Silks. She ran the establishment until  about 1910 until Mattie took over the operation.

The House was built on what was then called Holladay St.


An  early painting of Matties by artist Herndon Davis

During the early years of the house it was run by Jennie, until 1910 when Mattie Silks
took it over. ( It was run and owned by both of them for a while)
Mattie ran the house until about 1915.


Mattie was born either in Kansas or Terre Haunte IA in 1846. At the age of 18 she was working as a Madam in Springfield IL.
She moved to Colorado in 1875 and settled in Georgetown but soon moved to Denver and started an operation on Holiday Street. Her new location was at 1916-22 Market street.
In 1877 she met the man who would become her husband, Cortez Thompson. Thompson was a famous foot-racer and was already married with a daughter. Thompsons wife died in 1884. Mattie and Cortez were engaged and held an engagement party at the Olympic gardens on Colfax Ave near the Platte river.
It has been said that Mattie  had a “Duel”  over Thompson with either Kate Fulton or Jennie Rogers ( her main competition in denver) , and depending on the source it can range from a gunfight to a topless sword duel.  Some even say that Jennie shot her lover “Jack” either during or around the time of the “Duel”.  None of this has been verified, but it has become our idea that by what the public records and reports of the time stated, that this was little more than a minor fistfight.
Thompsons daughter died and left a small child, this child was adopted by Mattie and was placed in a local boarding home.
Mr. Thompson died when Mattie was only 54 years old. She is buried next to him at the Fairmount cemetery.

Mattie hired Jack Ready as a financial advisor and married him when she was 77 years old. They both lived in a house on Lawrence street until Matties death in either 1923 or 1929. ( there are many conflicting dates of her death)

While Mattie was operating the house, it gained a great reputation for being one of the best “gentleman’s” places and was even said to have one of the finest eating establishments.  Mattie even offered the girls benefits for working for her, such as higher pay and medical attention.
While the Brothel was in operation, the first floor was dedicated to the restaurant and “viewing” area. The 1st floor was a very well respected eatery, that was a common place for men to dine. 

The 2nd floor was where the girls had their rooms, the layout was very unique. The building was divided into small 9x7 rooms and some larger rooms ( To make space for a wood burning fireplace)
The Design of the room was so the “guest” of the girl would come into her room and then a bed would drop from the wall and block the door.  This was a way for the men to feel more secure in the girls room.
The prices for “services” at the brothel ranged anywhere from .75 to $2.00
The latter being for a room with heat.


The only recorded death at the house was the suicide of Ms. Ella Wellington.
It was recorded that she committed suicide with a 32 revolver to the right side of her head.  Another one of the girls found her in her room already dead.
In a different censuses of the time. Ella Wellington was listed as an owner and a "Resident" of the House of Mirrors.

Matties was a very upscale and popular place until around 1915, when a national moral reform movement came to town and closed the brothels in the area.
 
When Mattie died, she left her estate (Less than $4000.00) to her adopted daughter and Jack Ready. Jack died just a few years later.


After Mattie closed the House it went through several different owners.
Shortly after the brothel closed, it was purchased and converted into a Buddhist temple. The temple had many problems with the acceptance of the general public, and was more or less forced to close by the city.

There has also been a reported suicide at the location near the rest rooms on the 2nd floor. This has never been verified.




After the Temple the building was empty for many years, then used as a warehouse, a barbershop, a bicycle repair shop and eventually purchased and restored to the restaurant that it is today.  The current owners have built a restaurant and bar with a kind of museum to honor the history of the building and the girls that worked there.


Reported activity:

Throughout the years, there have been many reports of paranormal activity. Most of the activity seems to be on the second floor of the location.

Staff members have reported hearing parties when there was nobody else in the building.

The Piano on the 2nd floor is reported to play by itself.

Many staff members refuse to go to the second floor alone.

On one occasion, a small child went to the women's room on the second floor and upon returning asked the wait staff "who has been smoking in the bathroom?"
The concerned staff member went to the rest room to make sure that nobody was in there smoking, just to discover lots of smoke and an old box of matched on the tank of the toilet, but there was nobody in the room.

The elevator is reported to move between floors when nobody has called it.

Reports of reflections of faces in the mirrors in the mirror bar have been reported by staff and guests.

Footsteps have been reported throughout the building by staff members who were in the building alone.

Investigation:

The investigation was on 12/11/00 from 10:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m.

Upon starting the investigation, we turned off the main heat for the building, to avoid noise and air movement throughout the building.

E.M.F., Air Temperature, & Surface Temperature were taken throughout the building and repeated on an hourly basis.

Throughout the night there were no noticeable changes in E.M.F. or Temperature readings (The whole building did drop several degrees due to the heater not being on)

At 2:00, 2:14, 2:25 The service elevator went to all 3 floors of the building without human intervention.

Notes:
Throughout the evening we had problems with multiple pieces of equipment, the audio pre-amplifier burnt out for no apparent reason. The video camera that was placed in the corner where the death reportedly took place repeatedly turned off ( a physical switch). The hanging lights on the second floor were seen to slightly swing (the air was turned off)  A voice was recorded in the same area that the video camera was having problems.