Situated among the woods in the quiet town of Grand Lake, Colorado sits a beautiful home with an ugly past.

Warren Gregg and his new wife moved from Indiana with a young son from his first marriage and headed to Colorado, where he had hoped to strike it rich in the mines there. Traveling the plains in a covered wagon, his wife, Mary O'Brien Gregg, gave birth to another son, but sadly, he died on the way, and this sunk Mary into a depression, from which she would never recover.

Warren Gregg was a dreamer and had hoped to make it rich in the mines of Colorado, but he was also an expert builder and woodworker, and once they found their piece of land, he built the house for his wife, hoping to pull her from her depression. The home, built in the latter stages of the 19th century by Gregg was beautifully and artistically made. The lattice work was so intricate it reminded people of how spider webs look, which was how it became known as the Spider House. But the name isn't the spookiest part of this house.

Mary had had four other children but they never seemed to calm her soul and, on a warm summer day in 1904, at the end of her sanity, Mary shot and killed her 4 children, then turned the gun on herself. She would linger for four days before finally succumbing to her wounds. Warren had her buried together with the children in the small cemetery in the town.

Warren, along with his eldest son Lloyd, lived in the home for another 29 years, building homes and fireplaces until a heart attack claimed him in 1933.

Grand Lake is a beautiful place with many stories to tell. None quite like this one.

Spider House Grand Lake Colorado
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Photo of actual "Spider House" provided by Carol Silk, the Historic Rapids Lodge and Restaurant.

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