On a single night this October, one of Provo's most storied and normally private addresses will swing its doors open to the public. The Hines Mansion, a Victorian landmark at 383 West 100 South, is hosting a one-night-only Halloween tour on October 14, 2026, inviting visitors eighteen and older to walk through its guest rooms and main areas while the house is dressed in its Halloween finery. The evening promises light refreshments, hot chocolate, and a telling of the mansion's long history — a rare chance to step inside a building that has spent most of its life as a residence, not a museum.
That the house is opening at all is the story. The Hines Mansion is not a public hall or a civic building; it is a working inn, and for most of its life it has been a family home. Its doors have generally opened only to those who booked a room. A single evening of public tours, timed to Halloween, turns a private landmark into a shared one — and gives Provo a look at a house that has quietly anchored its downtown since the nineteenth century.
The mansion was built in 1895 for Russell Spencer Hines and his wife Kitty, using money Hines had accumulated through local mining, business, and real estate ventures. According to the inn's own account of its history, the house was conceived as a showplace, rising during Provo's recovery from an early boom-and-bust cycle in the region's economy. It was one of the first homes built by what the inn calls Provo's first-generation gentry, and it remains among Utah County's most historic residential landmarks.
Its architect is a point of genuine historical interest. The inn credits the design to Richard Kletting, the Utah architect best known for the Utah State Capitol. Wikipedia, however, notes that the design has been attributed either to Richard K.A. Kletting or to Richard C. Watkins. What is not in dispute is the building itself: a two-and-a-half-story Victorian of brick with brown and orange coloration, loosely square in plan with four extended gabled wings. The main floor holds a kitchen, parlor, living room, and stairway; the upper floors contain the guest rooms. The mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 12, 1978, and was designated to the Provo City Historic Landmarks Registry on March 7, 1996.
Over the decades the house has gathered a remarkable set of stories. The inn recounts that the infamous outlaw Butch Cassidy is rumored to have frequented the mansion — an appropriately Utah Valley legend, given the region's outlaw history. Guests entering today are greeted by a chandelier in the foyer that, according to the inn, once hung on the set of the classic film Gone with the Wind. More recently the mansion has served as a filming location for the YouTube movie Lady in the Locket. Whether or not every tale can be documented, they have become part of the house's identity, and they are exactly the kind of lore a Halloween tour is built to share.
The mansion also carries a reputation for the supernatural. Provo ghost tours routinely feature the Hines Mansion among the city's most haunted locations, describing a frightful figure that lingers there. That reputation makes the house a natural fit for a Halloween event — a building that already occupies a place in local ghostlore opening itself, for one evening, to visitors who want to see the rooms behind the stories.
Today the mansion operates as a luxury Victorian inn, with themed suites that include private bathrooms, two-person jetted tubs, and modern amenities layered over the period architecture. The inn's own materials describe eight luxurious guest rooms, while the event listing for the Halloween tour refers to nine guest rooms. The discrepancy is worth noting for anyone planning to attend; the tour description promises access to the guest rooms and the main areas, so visitors should expect to see the house's principal spaces regardless of the exact count. The event is listed as open to those eighteen and older.
Details beyond the date remain thin. The listing does not state an admission price or a ticketing method, nor does it give specific start and end times for the evening — only the date of October 14, 2026. The event appears on the Utah Valley calendar, and the listing notes that it is brought by NowPlayingUtah.com, the online events site powered by the Utah Cultural Alliance. Prospective visitors would be wise to check with the venue directly for times, cost, and whether advance reservations are required before making the trip.
What is certain is the appeal of the setting. Provo has changed enormously since 1895, but the Hines Mansion has stood through nearly all of it — a brick-and-Victorian survivor from the city's first generation of grand homes. For one night in October, with the rooms decorated and the hot chocolate poured, that survivor becomes something it almost never is: open to anyone who wants to look inside.