The Patterson Inn Hosts The Haunted Writer’s Retreat: An Immersive Writing Experience Led by Author and Journalist Josiah Hesse

Denver author Josiah Hesse is bringing his cannabis-fueled Haunted Writer’s Retreat back for another week of macabre literary wonder, this time at the notoriously spectral bed and breakfast, The Patterson Inn, widely regarded as the most haunted building in all of Colorado.

After the successful debut of his conceptual creative writing retreat at the serial-killer themed Black Monarch Hotel in the ghost town of Victor, Colorado, Hesse is bringing his gothic literary adventure to Denver’s historic Capitol Hill neighborhood, where the tortured ghosts of yesteryear will whisper blood-curdling tales in the ears of those brave enough to write them down.

Spanning three nights and four days, the retreat will include walking tours of Capitol Hill’s most haunted buildings, four creative writing classes, a presentation on Stephen King’s Colorado legacy (along with nightly screenings of King classics like The Shining and Misery) daily brunch provided by the Patterson Inn, along with a swag bag of various cannabis products.

And, of course, guests will have as many undisturbed hours of quiet writing in their rooms as they like—assuming the troubled spirits that haunt the building don’t keep them up all night.

Josiah Hesse is an author and journalist from Denver, Colorado, whose work has appeared in Vice, Esquire, Politico, and The Guardian. Hesse casts a wide net in his journalistic curiosities, covering everything from science, crime and politics, to pop culture, the arts, sex and drugs. After a decade of covering the slow-burn legalization of marijuana, Hesse wrote Runner’s High: How A Movement of Cannabis-Fueled Athletes Is Changing The Science of Sports, released on Putnam in 2021, which Kirkus Reviews called “an eye-opening and potentially mind-expanding read for runners and stoners alike, not to mention the culturally curious.”

Hesse is the author of the psychological horror novel series, Carnality, which the Colorado Independent called “a terrifying mix of childhood nostalgia, nightmarish surrealism, and pop history. Hesse traces the lines between revolutionary, drug-addled ‘60s subculture, and the right wing, evangelical movement that has defined the last 50 years of political strife in the United States.”

His memoir, On Fire For God: Fear, Shame and Poverty In The Christian Right, will be released on Pantheon in 2025.

Based on a sixteenth-century French castle, The Patterson Inn building was constructed in 1890, yet vacated by its first owner six months after moving in, believing the structure was cursed following the death of his mother. The second occupant of the home, Rocky Mountain News editor Thomas Patterson, also died in the home; many have claimed to see him, and his wife, Kathryn, roaming the halls at night.

The building spent many years closed to the public, before being converted into a bed & breakfast. Since then, guests have reported hearing a distant conversation of Irish voices (the two earliest families inhabiting the building were of Irish descent) the sound of a baby crying alongside a distraught woman (it is rumored a baby died in the Patterson and was buried in the basement by its grieving mother) and the sound of dogs barking.

The apparition of barking dogs comes from the widely reported tale from 1973, wherein a pair of Dobermans both jumped through a third story window at the same time, each plunging to their death on the pavement below. What the dogs could have seen that frightened them to this extent has been the source of wild speculation over the years, particularly when the Patterson was featured on Jack Osborne’s ghost-hunting TV show, Portals to Hell.

The Patterson Inn was granted the very first “cannabis hospitality license” in the city of Denver, and aims to have its new “cannabis lounge” open by December.

Tickets to the Haunted Writer’s Retreat will cost $500 per person for the week, plus a room at the Patterson Inn (couples or friends are welcome to share a room together). More booking information is available at the Patterson Inn website.