El Paso
Today, we’re heading west…wayyyy west, to El Paso, Texas, where the desert wind carries more than dust. This is a city layered in memory, where history clings to the walls and the dead don’t always stay quiet. From haunted schools to haunted soup, El Paso offers a full menu of eerie encounters. Let’s explore four of its most chilling locations.
El Paso High School: The Lady on the Hill
Built in 1916, El Paso High is an architectural marvel, and one of the most haunted schools in America. Nicknamed “The Lady on the Hill,” this grand Romanesque building was once the site of a morgue during the 1918 flu pandemic and again during WWII. Its basement remains sealed, but rumors say it holds more than dust: frozen classrooms, flickering lights, and the feeling that someone, or something, is watching.
The most famous ghost is the Girl on the Balcony, a young woman in white believed to have jumped to her death. She’s still seen gazing out over the city. A 1985 class photo even shows a mysterious girl who wasn’t present when the photo was taken.
Other reports include poltergeist activity, shadow figures, and a ghostly girl in an ’80s prom dress haunting the catwalk above the theater. In 2024, a local poll crowned El Paso High the most haunted place in the city, and it’s easy to see why.
The De Soto Hotel: A Portal Below
Just a few blocks away sits the charred shell of the De Soto Hotel, built in 1905. Once a quiet borderland stopover, it became infamous for its basement, where paranormal investigators captured disturbing energy, and some believe satanic rituals were performed.
Room 7 was home to “Devil Dave,” a man who allegedly took his own life after dabbling in dark practices. And then there’s Sara, the ghost of a little girl seen near burned-out walls, giggling and disappearing into smoke.
A fire in 2022 severely damaged the building, but some say it released the spirits trapped inside. As renovations continue, one question lingers: What happens when you rebuild over a haunting?
Monteleone’s Ristorante: Dining with the Dead
This cozy Italian spot on Gateway Boulevard serves more than pasta. During renovations, owner Gary Monteleone discovered a hidden room full of funeral prayer cards and a plaque marking the space as a spiritualist circle from 1923.
Since then, guests and staff have reported flying objects, cold spots, a Virgin Mary statue that turns itself, and a ghost named Thomas who doesn’t appreciate company. Psychic investigators say four spirits remain…mostly friendly. One playful entity even pops the caps off beer bottles for guests.
Haunted or not, the food is fantastic. Try the lasagna, and maybe leave the beer cap on just in case.
Concordia Cemetery: City of the Dead
Sprawling across 52 acres, Concordia Cemetery is home to over 60,000 souls, including gunslingers, soldiers, nuns, and railroad workers. Among its most famous residents: outlaw John Wesley Hardin, his killer John Selman, and a woman named Lady Flo, whose perfume has been smelled near her grave.
Most chilling is the Infant Nursery, where visitors report phantom crying and intense waves of grief. One woman even said she felt pain exactly where her C-section scar was; it was as if the spirits were speaking through her body.
Ghost tours report shadow figures, disembodied voices, and photos of transparent men in wide-brimmed hats. Concordia isn’t just a cemetery. It’s alive with stories.
From the marble staircases of El Paso High to the haunted booths at Monteleone’s, the city of El Paso holds its ghosts close. These spirits don’t just haunt buildings. They haunt history itself.
So next time you're in West Texas, listen closely. That breeze might be more than the wind.
Want more haunted Texas? Subscribe to the You Two Scare Me podcast. And if you visit any of these places… be respectful. And maybe don’t go alone.
