The story goes that there was once an orphanage on the edge of town, and one day a fire broke out with the children trapped inside. The building burned down, and new home was built on top of it but never completed and now stands abandoned and haunted. The Haunted Orphanage is quite a tale indeed and one of the lesser known of our local urban legends. How much of it is true? Is there really an abandoned orphanage in Las Vegas? As always, the truth is just as intriguing as the legend.

The first place to begin any such investigation is tracking down the actual location. In this case, the orphanage was said to have been on Copper Road, near Hollywood Boulevard and Bonanza Road on the east side. Relying on Google Maps in this case will send you to the wrong place; type in “Copper Road Las Vegas” and it will instantly show you a very short street by that name jutting out from a Madge Street, in between Bonanza and Stewart just west of Hollywood BLVD. It did not take more than a few minutes to see that there was no abandoned building here, and definitely never an orphanage. There is a horse stable at the end of the little unpaved road; perhaps that looked enough like a big mansion to inspire this tale?

While that location is very close to the description, it is entirely misleading. Thanks to a YouTube comment that pointed me in the right direction, I was able to track down the actual address of the supposed orphanage building. As it turns out, Copper Rd picks up again on the other side Hollywood BLVD. Without an exact address, Google will not show you that even shorter portion of Copper Rd.

Further research found that there was a house there and it was abandoned for years. It was more of a mansion, in fact. The two storied house totaled 10,945 sq ft with an 1,800 sq ft garage on 4.92 acres of land, according to county records, and it even had a basement.

There was never an orphanage in Las Vegas; the closest thing to one would be the St. Jude’s Ranch for Children in Boulder City. Aerial photos of the area prove that prior to the house, there was never anything else ever built there. Considering the size of the mansion, it is easy to see how such a backstory could be imagined about it.

What about the fire? According to an article from the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, there was a fire at the Copper Rd house that caused over $200,000 worth of damage to the house in 1996. The fire was real, but there were no injuries reported and certainly no deaths. It is uncertain if anyone had ever actually lived inside the mansion, in fact. It was constructed in 1994, so at most it could have been inhabited for only two years. The spooky mansion was left to the elements afterward, drawing graffiti artists, the occasional homeless squater, and Vegas teens looking for a thrill. The windows were broken and beer cans were strewn about.

The whole thing was demolished in 2012, after the lot was sold to a new investor. All that remains now is the partial foundation and driveway. A few photos were found online of what the place looked like before it was knocked down (photo 1, photo 2) and one of it before it was abandoned (photo 3).

Judging by the area today, it does no look like anything will be there any time in the foreseeable future. The driveway is blocked, the desert is slowly reclaiming the empty lot, and there is no indication that anything is planned for the lot.

Oddly there were no actual ghost stories associated with the mansion, other than the implication it was haunted by the orphans that died in the fire. Some random comments found around the web from teenagers that had been inside before the mansion was demolished said that it felt eerie inside, but what else would it feel like? One story claimed that there was a sealed tunnel in the basement that led to an old mine shaft where a child may have died, and subsonic booms are said to be heard beneath the ground in the area too. The Haunted Orphanage is definitely a fascinating legend.