Haunted Places in Illinois: 26 of the Most Haunted to Visit
A vanishing hitchhiker on Archer Avenue, a county poor farm on the prairie, a castle on the Mississippi bluffs, a pirate cave on the Ohio and the house at the heart of the state’s slave-trade history. These are Illinois’s best-known haunted places, with what is true, what is legend and how you can visit.
Illinois’s haunted places run the length of the state. Around Chicago are Resurrection Mary, Bachelor’s Grove, Hull-House and the sites of the Iroquois Theatre fire and the Eastland disaster. Downstate are old institutions with hard histories, like Ashmore Estates and the Old Joliet Prison, river towns full of stories, like Alton and Galena, and in the far south the river pirates’ cave at Cave-In-Rock and the Crenshaw House, tied to the kidnapping of free Black people into slavery. We have checked every place below against current sources, so you know which are open, which run tours or allow ghost hunting, which take overnight guests and which you can only see from the road. Haunted Rooms runs its own ghost hunts at six of them: Ashmore Estates, the Old Joliet Prison, Villa Kathrine, the Tinker Swiss Cottage, the Cheney Mansion and the Rock Island Roadhouse.
Seven of the places are hotels where you can spend the night, from the Congress Plaza and the Drake in Chicago to the Rose Hotel on the Ohio River, the oldest of them. Each has its own full guide, linked from its card.
Visit on a tourGhost toursHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
Address 1125 Collins St, Joliet, IL 60432
Where to look The processing area, the cellblocks and the yard
Reported ghosts Figures in empty cells, a woman in white in the yard
Visiting Guided and self-guided tours run by the Joliet Area Historical Museum
Tours Historical tours, flashlight tours and seasonal haunted history tours
Ghost hunting Yes: Haunted Rooms ghost hunts
Designed by William W. Boyington, who also drew Chicago’s Water Tower, Joliet Prison was built from limestone quarried on the site and opened in 1858. Inside 25-foot walls it held as many as 2,000 men in its worst years, with no running water. Leopold and Loeb served their sentences here, and in 1915 the warden’s wife, Odette Allen, was found beaten and burned in her bedroom. The prison closed in 2002 and later starred in The Blues Brothers and Prison Break.
The city of Joliet owns the site and the Joliet Area Historical Museum runs tours. A guide told WBEZ of a menacing presence in the old processing area, and guests have described figures in empty cells and a woman in white in the yard; the museum’s historian says he has seen nothing but stray animals. Haunted Rooms runs its own ghost hunts here.
What investigators report
Investigators report spirit box and REM pod sessions on Death Row, in the Segregation Building and in the prison hospital picking up short phrases, with quiet-time EVP sessions run in the East Cell Block.
Visit on a tourGhost toursHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
Address 22645 E Co Rd 1050 N, Ashmore, IL 61912
Where to look The long brick corridors, the basement and the upstairs patient rooms
Reported ghosts Former residents of the poor farm and hospital, voices and footsteps
Visiting Privately owned; open for booked events, tours and investigations
Ghost hunting Yes: Haunted Rooms ghost hunts and the owner’s own events
Coles County bought 260 acres here in 1870 for its poor farm, and a state committee condemned the first almshouse in 1911 for vermin-ridden walls and bad ventilation. The brick building that stands today went up in 1916 and served the county poor until 1959. It then became a private psychiatric hospital and later a care home, closing in 1986 or 1987. The superintendent recorded 32 deaths among about 250 residents in the 1870s alone, and the county’s pauper cemeteries lie nearby.
Since 2006 the empty building has been a haunted attraction and an investigation site, featured on Ghost Adventures, Ghost Hunters and Destination Fear. Owner Robbin Terry, who bought it in 2014 and put on a new roof, says audio is the most common evidence. Visitors talk of voices in the corridors and footsteps upstairs. Haunted Rooms runs its own after-dark ghost hunts here.
What our team has found
Outside, dowsing rods have made strong contact by the unmarked graves with a spirit identifying as Moses, a name the boiler room spirit box also gave. Cat balls light with intelligent responses on the first floor, the REM pod registers temperature drops, and the SLS camera has mapped figures in the kitchen pantry. Stairwell motion lights have also switched on with nobody near.
From Haunted Rooms event reports
Haunted Rooms tip: Bring a flashlight and an audio recorder: the owner says voices are what people capture most here.
Where to look The second-floor bedroom known as the haunted room, the attic windows and the courtyard
Reported ghosts A woman in white said to be Mrs. Hull, the Devil Baby legend
Visiting Museum open to the public, run by the University of Illinois Chicago
Tours Museum visits; evening ghost tours each October
Ghost hunting No paranormal investigations
Charles J. Hull built this Italianate mansion on Halsted Street in 1856. In 1889 Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr opened it as Hull-House, the settlement house that served immigrant families on the Near West Side. Only the mansion and the 1905 dining hall survive, run by the University of Illinois Chicago as a museum. It is a National Historic Landmark.
Addams wrote of the house’s half-skeptical reputation for a haunted attic and of tenants who left pitchers of water on the stairs; the museum says the ghost was believed to be Hull’s wife, Millicent, who died in the house in 1860. In 1913 a rumor of a Devil Baby kept in the house drew crowds for weeks. Addams called it a legend, and so does the museum, which now runs ghost tours each October.
Haunted Rooms tip: See the bedroom Addams called haunted, then join one of the museum’s own October ghost tours.
Where to look The alley behind the theatre, once Couch Place
Reported ghosts Children's laughter and cries, shadow figures in the alley
Visiting Working Broadway theatre; the alley is a public way
Ghost hunting No; ghost tours stop in the alley
The Iroquois Theatre on Randolph Street was advertised as fireproof. On December 30, 1903, during a packed afternoon performance of Mr. Blue Beard, an arc light set a curtain alight. Many exits were blocked, and at least 602 people died, the deadliest single-building fire in US history. Many died in the icy alley behind, then called Couch Place, after jumping from the upper floors.
The Oriental Theatre was built on the site in 1926 and renamed the Nederlander in 2019; it still stages Broadway shows. Ghost hunters call the rear alley Death Alley and describe shadow figures, cries and the sound of children laughing, and one woman said a small hand took hers. These are stories; the fire itself is fully documented.
What investigators report
Ghost tour visitors report cold spots and whispers in Couch Place, the alley behind the theatre known as Death Alley, which tours treat as the focal spot.
Address 520 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60605
Where to look Room 441, the 12th floor, the Gold Room, the eighth-floor elevator, the South Tower
Reported ghosts A shadow woman in Room 441; Peg Leg Johnny; the 'hand of mystery'; a mother and two sons tied to 1939
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
The Congress Plaza opened in 1893 as the Auditorium Annex, built for crowds heading to the World’s Columbian Exposition, and it still faces Grant Park across Michigan Avenue. Presidents from Grover Cleveland to Franklin Roosevelt stayed here, Theodore Roosevelt spoke to a crowd from its balcony in 1912, and the Army took it over in World War II. With 871 rooms, it is one of the largest historic hotels in Chicago.
It is also the Chicago hotel with the longest list of ghost stories. Security is said to be called to Room 441 more than any other room, after guests report a shadowy woman at the foot of the bed. A room on the 12th floor is said to have been sealed, staff talk about a one-legged drifter called Peg Leg Johnny, and wedding guests in the Gold Room tell of bridesmaids missing from photos.
What investigators report
One investigation team reports EMF spikes, a sharp temperature drop and whispering on EVP recordings in the south tower stairwell on the 3rd floor, plus cigar smoke and EMF spikes on the 8th floor of the north tower; Room 441 was quiet during their session.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request Room 441 or a 12th-floor room when you book, and walk Peacock Alley and the Gold Room level in the evening. Rooms with a lake view look straight over Grant Park.
Where to look The courtyard and reflecting pool, the basement and the upstairs rooms
Reported ghosts George Metz and his dog Bingo
Visiting Tourist information center open to visitors; self-guided tours
Tours Self-guided tours daily; guided tours by appointment
Ghost hunting Yes: Haunted Rooms ghost hunts
W. George Metz, a wealthy Quincy bachelor who had traveled in North Africa and Spain, had architect George Behrensmeyer build this Moorish-style villa on the bluff above the Mississippi in 1900. Its outside is modeled on a villa in Morocco, with details borrowed from the Giralda in Seville and a small copy of a Tunisian minaret. Inside is a courtyard with a mosaic reflecting pool. Metz shared it with Bingo, a dog said to weigh 200 pounds, and sold it in 1912.
The villa then fell into neglect until the Friends of the Castle saved it from 1978; restoration was finished in 1998, and it is now Quincy’s tourist information center, listed on the National Register. Stories of Metz and Bingo still walking the rooms are part of local lore. Haunted Rooms runs its own after-hours ghost hunts here.
What our team has found
The basement is the most active area, with Estes sessions giving sensible answers, a busy spirit box, REM pod hits and cat balls lighting, and separate groups hearing German speech or singing. Outside, dowsing rods and pendulums repeatedly point to where the dog Bingo may be buried, and dog toys used as trigger objects have set off dead bells and EMF readings at dog level.
From Haunted Rooms event reports
Haunted Rooms tip: Visit by day for the courtyard and the river view from the bluff, then come back for one of our night investigations.
Visiting a haunted place by day is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through a historic building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and vigils, and gives you time to explore on your own. These are the nearest ones we run.
Visit on a tourGhost toursHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
Address 411 Kent St, Rockford, IL
Where to look The family bedrooms, the parlor and the library
Reported ghosts Members of the Tinker family
Visiting Museum open for guided tours; book ahead
Tours Guided house tours and seasonal paranormal tours
Ghost hunting Yes: Haunted Rooms ghost hunts and the museum’s own paranormal tours
Robert Hall Tinker, who later served as mayor of Rockford, built this Swiss-style cottage on a limestone bluff above Kent Creek between 1865 and 1870. He lived here with his first wife, Mary, and after her death in 1901 with his second wife, Jessie. When Jessie died in 1942 the Rockford Park District took over the house and opened it as a museum in 1943, with the family’s furniture, papers and belongings still in place. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Mary Tinker and her sister Hannah both died in 1901, and Robert’s journal records the night he sat alone with Mary’s casket. The museum has long hosted paranormal tours, and the house was investigated on the eighth season of Ghost Hunters. Haunted Rooms also runs its own ghost hunts here with the museum.
What our team has found
REM pods, cat balls and the dead bell respond throughout the cottage, with the parlor and stairs especially active and strong EVP sessions in the parlor. The barn gives spirit box replies in male and female voices, and Estes there has drawn many responses. In the cottage basement, a shadow figure the team believed was Mr. Tinker was seen moving in and out of his office.
From Haunted Rooms event reports
Haunted Rooms tip: Take a daytime house tour first: the original furnishings and the family story make the evening far more meaningful.
Visit on a tourGhost toursHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
Address 601 N State St, Jerseyville, IL 62052
Where to look The basement cistern, Miss Dorothy's room and the upstairs hall
Reported ghosts Miss Dorothy the nursemaid, women's voices, a singing girl
Visiting Museum tours by advance reservation
Tours Historic and haunted tours by reservation
Ghost hunting Yes: Haunted Rooms ghost hunts and visiting teams
The mansion grew around the four-room Red House of 1827, Jersey County’s first frame home, which became a tavern on the Alton to Jacksonville stage line in 1830. Dr. Edward D’Arcy later gave it to his daughter Catherine and her husband, Prentiss Dana Cheney, and three generations of Cheneys enlarged it. After an auction in 1998 the buyers donated it to the Jersey County Historical Society, whose museum it now houses. The society’s marker says it was an Underground Railroad stop, with people hidden in a false cistern.
Investigators have reported an apparition called Miss Dorothy, said to be a nursemaid, in the room named for her, women’s voices upstairs, chairs moving in the dining room and a little girl singing. The Ghost Research Society investigated in 2009. The society offers haunted tours, and Haunted Rooms runs its own ghost hunts here.
What investigators report
Investigators report Ovilus and portal spirit box sessions in the Doctor’s Office and Dorothy’s Room picking up names and short replies, and an SLS camera session in PD’s Room where a figure appeared in the rocking chair after an invitation to sit.
Where to look The front gates on Archer Avenue and the road toward Willow Springs
Reported ghosts Resurrection Mary, the vanishing hitchhiker in a white dress
Visiting Working Catholic cemetery; grounds open daily in daytime
Ghost hunting No: a working cemetery. Chicago ghost bus tours pass the gates
Resurrection Cemetery was consecrated in 1904 on Archer Avenue in Justice, southwest of Chicago, and has grown to more than 540 acres with over 150,000 graves. Its 1969 mausoleum is wrapped in a vast wall of dalle de verre stained glass. It is also the home of Chicago’s best-known ghost. Since the 1930s drivers on Archer Avenue have told of picking up a young woman in a white dress who asks for a ride and vanishes as the car reaches the cemetery gates.
The story says she died after leaving a dance at the Oh Henry Ballroom (later the Willowbrook), which burned in 2016. In August 1976 police found two gate bars bent with marks like handprints; the cemetery blamed a truck and later removed the bars. Researchers have named Mary Bregovy, killed in 1934, but she died downtown, not on Archer Avenue, and no identity has ever been proven.
What investigators report
Ghost hunters report driving repeated late-night loops along Archer Avenue past the main gates looking for the woman in white, and watching the mausoleum, where lights and faint organ music are reported.
Where to look The stairs, the upper lodging floors and the basement
Reported ghosts Women linked to an old brothel, footsteps, shadows and voices
Visiting Privately owned; open for booked events
Ghost hunting Yes: Haunted Rooms ghost hunts
This four-story brick building was finished in 1912 and opened in 1913 as Rock Island’s YMCA, with a gym, a pool and rooms for railroad workers, soldiers from the Arsenal and other men passing through. It was built in the years when crime boss John Looney ran much of the city. The YMCA closed in the 1970s, the building had a mysterious fire in 1976, and it later housed U-Haul and then Dan Vinar Furniture. The city has made it a local landmark.
Owner Lisa Vinar told KWQC in 2025 that she hears footsteps on the stairs when alone, sees shadows and has caught voices on a recorder, and some believe women from an early 1900s brothel linger. Paranormal teams have investigated since about 2018, and Haunted Rooms runs its own overnight ghost hunts here.
What our team has found
The speakeasy is the standout, where the dead bell answers yes/no questions with group after group and REM pods and cat balls trigger often. Spirit box sessions in the boiler room have given names and acknowledged John Looney, and Estes works well in the mirror and boiler rooms. On the fourth floor REM pods, dowsing rods and pendulums answer questions, and teams have smelled cigar smoke.
From Haunted Rooms event reports
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask about the building’s Prohibition-era history when you arrive: it is the backdrop to most of the stories.
Visit on a tourGhost toursParanormal investigations allowed
Address 2018 Alby St, Alton, IL 62002
Where to look The wine cellar, the attic and the front windows
Reported ghosts Paul Laichinger at the windows, Sarah the servant in the attic, voices in the cellar
Visiting Privately owned and under repair; visits limited to the cellar by advance registration
Ghost hunting Occasional events that raise money for the restoration
Henry Guest McPike, businessman and mayor of Alton, built this mansion, which he called Mount Lookout, between 1869 and 1871. Paul Laichinger later rented out its rooms, and it has stood empty since the mid-20th century. Sharyn and George Luedke bought the derelict house at auction in 1994 and are slowly stabilizing it.
The Luedkes say it is haunted by a former owner and a former servant; the usual names are Laichinger, seen at the windows, and Sarah, a maid linked to the scent of lilies in the attic. Visitors talk of voices and mists in the wine cellar, and photos of lights and outlines in the windows. Ghost Adventures filmed here in 2019.
What investigators report
Investigators concentrate EVP sessions in the wine cellar, reporting a loud sigh and an echoing voice during questioning, and a possible male voice saying “It’s Jake” on the second floor landing.
Address Chicago Riverwalk between Clark St and LaSalle St, Chicago, IL
Where to look The south bank of the river between the Clark and LaSalle bridges
Reported ghosts Faces in the water, cries and splashing
Visiting Public riverwalk with a historical marker, open at all hours
Ghost hunting No organized investigations; Chicago ghost tours stop here
On the morning of July 24, 1915, the excursion steamer Eastland, packed with Western Electric workers and their families bound for a company picnic in Michigan City, rolled over at her dock on the Chicago River between Clark and LaSalle streets. She went over while still tied to the wharf, and 844 passengers and crew died, the worst loss of life in any Great Lakes shipwreck. Twenty-two whole families were lost.
The dead were laid out in temporary morgues, including the 2nd Regiment Armory, which much later became Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios. Ghost hunters and tour guides say people on the riverbank have heard screams and splashing or felt sudden panic, and apparitions have been reported at the old armory. A historical marker on the Riverwalk tells the story.
What investigators report
Investigators report recorder and app-based word sessions on the Wacker Drive riverfront where the ship capsized, logging replies such as “east” when asked where passengers were going, though wind, water and boat noise make EVP work hard.
Where to look The third floor, Room 333, the lower-level stairway, the hallways
Reported ghosts The Lady in Black; footsteps from floors that no longer exist; phantom cigar smoke
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
The DeSoto House opened in Galena in April 1855, billed as the largest hotel in the West, and it is the oldest operating hotel in Illinois. Abraham Lincoln spoke from its Main Street balcony in 1856, Stephen Douglas followed in 1858, and Ulysses S. Grant ran his presidential campaign from Rooms 209 and 211. Fire, a boiler explosion and the removal of its top two floors shaped the 55-room hotel you stay in today.
Its best-known ghost is the Lady in Black, a woman in a dark period dress who is said to walk down a stairway and through a wall. Staff tell how flood repairs revealed an old doorway at that very spot. Guests on the third floor report footsteps overhead, though no floor has existed above it since 1880, and Room 333 is the one people ask for.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request Room 333 or any third-floor room, and book the Haunted Galena Murder and Mayhem show, which is staged inside the hotel.
Address Rubio Woods Forest Preserve, off Midlothian Turnpike, Midlothian, IL
Where to look The quarry pond, the Fulton family stones and the old road bed
Reported ghosts The Madonna of Bachelor's Grove, a phantom farmhouse, lights and phantom cars
Visiting Open grounds in a Cook County forest preserve; short walk from the Midlothian Turnpike
Ghost hunting No organized events; respect the graves and the preserve’s rules
This one-acre pioneer graveyard sits inside the Rubio Woods forest preserve near Midlothian, reached by a short foot path from the Midlothian Turnpike. Settlers arrived in the 1830s and the name probably comes from the Batchelder family. The first burials date from 1838 to 1844 and the last from 1989, with about 200 people buried here. Vandals broke, sprayed and stole most of the stones from the 1960s on, some thrown into the quarry pond beside it. Cook County has looked after it since about 1976.
Ghost stories took off in the 1970s: floating lights, phantom cars, a farmhouse that vanishes as you approach, and the Madonna of Bachelor’s Grove, a woman in white photographed sitting on a stone by a Ghost Research Society member in 1991. Local historian Brad Bettenhausen says few of the tales have any basis in fact and asks visitors to treat it as a burial ground.
What investigators report
Investigators report Ovilus and EVP sessions at the checkerboard tombstone and by the lagoon getting one-word replies, with dowsing rods and Mel meters also reacting near the infant headstone.
Where to look The Inez Clarke monument and the Eternal Silence statue
Reported ghosts The girl in the glass box who vanishes in storms; the statue that shows your death
Visiting Working cemetery; grounds open to visitors in daytime
Ghost hunting No: a working cemetery
Thomas Bryan founded Graceland in 1860, and its landscaped grounds hold Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, Mies van der Rohe, Marshall Field, Potter and Bertha Palmer, George Pullman and Jack Johnson. It is listed on the National Register. Two monuments draw the ghost stories. The first is a life-size girl with a parasol in a glass case, marked Inez Clarke, 1873 to 1880. The second is Lorado Taft’s hooded bronze Eternal Silence on the Dexter Graves grave.
Legend says Inez was killed by lightning and that her statue vanishes from its glass box when it storms; guards have been quoted saying it disappears. Records tell a different story: the cemetery says she was almost certainly Inez Briggs, who died in 1880, apparently of diphtheria, and one historian thought the statue was a sculptor’s sample. Locals also say that looking into the eyes of Eternal Silence shows you your own death.
Haunted Rooms tip: Pick up a map at the gate, find Inez Clarke, then see Eternal Silence: both are easy walks from the entrance.
Where to look The main staircase, the old pool rooms and the Crystal Ballroom bar
Reported ghosts The Jasmine Lady on the stairs, Clarence by the pool, a drinker in the old bar
Visiting Shops, a ballroom and a curiosities museum open to the public
Hours and season Shops Tuesday to Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM; American Oddities Museum Friday to Sunday noon to 5 PM
Ghost hunting American Hauntings has run ghost hunts here but says those events are ending; the ballroom hosts occasional paranormal evenings
In 1914 the Luer brothers began digging an ice warehouse for their meatpacking business, struck a sulfur spring and built a spa hotel instead, opening the next year with more than 100 rooms, mineral baths and what it called the largest swimming pool in Illinois. It declined from the 1960s, closed in 1971, and reopened in 1978 as a mall of small shops. Ghost author Troy Taylor’s American Oddities Museum is now inside.
Visitors often report a jasmine perfume near one staircase. The old story is of a woman who fell there after a quarrel, but Taylor links the Jasmine Lady to a guest named Pearl Sons, who died in her room in 1965. Clarence Blair, 18, drowned in the pool during a swimming lesson, and people describe a young man in a white shirt and tie at the pool’s end. A drinker who shot himself in the bar is also told of.
What investigators report
Investigators report ghost box sessions in Pearl’s Room returning the name “Pearl”, and K-II meter lights responding to requests in an upstairs bedroom; the old pool area is another focus for EVP work.
Address Hickory Hill Lane, near Junction and Equality, IL
Where to look The third-floor attic rooms
Reported ghosts Moans and strange noises in the attic
Visiting Closed to the public by the state
Ghost hunting Not allowed: the site is closed
John Hart Crenshaw made a fortune leasing the state salt works near Equality, worked largely by enslaved and indentured Black laborers even though Illinois banned slavery. The state says there is strong evidence he helped seize free and fugitive Black people for sale into slavery; he was indicted for kidnapping in 1842 and acquitted. His house, Hickory Hill, went up in the 1830s or about 1842, and its attic has 12 small rooms long said to have been cells.
The Sisk family, who bought it in 1913, showed it to paying visitors as the Old Slave House until 1996, and stories grew of moans and strange noises in the attic; talk of noises upstairs goes back to 1851. Archaeologists now doubt captives were caged there; the rooms may have housed workers. The state bought it in 2000 and it has been closed to the public ever since.
Haunted Rooms tip: The house is closed and on private access roads: learn its story online or at the Gallatin County museums instead.
Where to look The 10th floor, the Gold Coast Room, the Palm Court, the eighth floor
Reported ghosts The Lady in Red; Jacob and Flora Franks; a Woman in Black
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
The Drake opened on New Year’s Eve 1920 at the top of the Magnificent Mile, an Italian Renaissance palace by Marshall and Fox built for brothers Tracy and John Drake. Winston Churchill, Princess Diana, Walt Disney and Frank Sinatra all stayed, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio carved their initials into a bar here, and afternoon tea in the Palm Court is still a Chicago ritual. It is now part of Hilton, with 535 rooms.
Its ghost is the Lady in Red. The story says that on opening night she found her fiance with another woman and jumped to her death from the 10th floor or the roof. Guests report a woman in a red dress on the 10th floor, in the Gold Coast Room and in the Palm Court. Other stories tie the parents of murdered boy Bobby Franks to the hotel.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a room on the 10th floor if you can, and take afternoon tea in the Palm Court. Pets are welcome for a fee.
Address 195 South Main Street, Elizabethtown, IL 62931
Where to look The mirrors, the upstairs rooms, the river gazebo
Reported ghosts Tote, a former servant; former guests; members of the McFarland family
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
The Rose Hotel sits on a bluff above the Ohio River and is one of the oldest hotel buildings in Illinois. Its oldest wing is credited to James McFarland, who ran it as a tavern and inn for river travelers, with additions through the 1800s. Widow Sarah Rose bought it in 1891 and her family kept it until the state bought it in 1988. Today it is a five-room bed and breakfast run under the state’s historic sites program.
Its best-known ghost is Tote, a former servant whose reflection is said to appear in the hotel’s mirrors. Bruce Cline of the Little Egypt Ghost Society told the Daily Egyptian his group found evidence every time it investigated, and author Jim Jung wrote of gentle shades of former guests. McFarland family members and guests who died there are buried on the grounds.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book one of the five river-view rooms (the McFarland suite is the largest) and sit out by the 1882 gazebo above the river after dark.
Address 506 North Hanover Street, Okawville, IL 62271
Where to look Room 350, the third floor, the end-of-hall stairway, the second floor, the laundry room
Reported ghosts Former owner Tom Rogers; a lady in white; a friendly second-floor figure
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Okawville’s mineral springs drew health seekers from St. Louis and beyond from the late 1860s, and the Original Springs Hotel is the survivor of that spa era. The first Okawville springs hotel opened in 1867; today’s wooden hotel, with its double-deck wraparound porch, was rebuilt in 1893 after fire. It still offers mineral baths, a pool and a restaurant, about 50 minutes east of St. Louis.
The hotel’s ghost stories center on Room 350 on the third floor, where former owner Tom Rogers is said to have been found dead, and where guests report pressure on the bed and a lady in white. Housekeepers are said to avoid the stairway at the end of the third-floor hall. The hotel featured on Ghost Hunters in 2019 in an episode titled ‘Suicide Hotel’.
What investigators report
TV investigators report mic pack batteries draining while they asked questions on the second floor, where staff describe a lady in white, and footsteps recorded on the third floor coming from above, though there is no fourth floor.
Address Woodlawn Cemetery, 7750 Cermak Rd, Forest Park, IL
Where to look The mass grave and its five elephant statues
Reported ghosts Elephants heard trumpeting at night
Visiting Working cemetery, open daily until dusk
Ghost hunting No: a working cemetery
Before dawn on June 22, 1918, an empty troop train ran into the back of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train near Hammond, Indiana, after its engineer fell asleep. The wreck caught fire and 86 people died. Five days later more than 50 of them were buried together in Showmen’s Rest, a plot the Showmen’s League of America had bought at Woodlawn Cemetery. Few could be named, so stones read Unknown Male, Baldy, Smiley and 4 Horse Driver.
Five stone elephants with lowered trunks, a sign of mourning, guard the plot. The legend says elephants died in the wreck and are buried here, and that you can hear them trumpeting at night. No elephants are buried here; the cemetery says there are only people, and the sounds were most likely the elephants at nearby Brookfield Zoo.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask at the cemetery office for directions to the plot, and visit before dusk when the gates close.
Address 100 West Main Street, St. Charles, IL 60174
Where to look The top-floor penthouse (former staff quarters), the riverside, the Rainbow Room
Reported ghosts A jilted chambermaid said to have drowned in the Fox River
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Colonel Edward J. Baker opened his Spanish Revival hotel on the Fox River on June 2, 1928, when a room cost $2.50 a night. Its Rainbow Room had the first lighted dance floor, with 2,620 colored lights under glass, and Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey and Lawrence Welk played there. Nicknamed the ‘Honeymoon Hotel’, it is on the National Register of Historic Places and has 53 rooms, about an hour west of Chicago.
Its ghost story is a sad one. Local legend says a chambermaid who was jilted by her fiance drowned herself in the Fox River, right below the hotel, and came back to work. The maids once lived on the top floor, now a penthouse suite, and guests there have reported sobbing, voices and bedding tugged by unseen hands.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask about the penthouse suite on the top floor, where the maids once lived, and walk the riverside terrace after dark.
Where to look The hallways, the lower back rooms, the restaurant
Reported ghosts Abigail, a little girl said to wander the halls
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay
Michael Ruebel opened his hotel on Grafton’s Main Street in 1879, where the Illinois and Mississippi rivers meet. That building burned in 1912 and the brick hotel you see today went up in 1913 with 32 rooms at a dollar a night. It is the only historic hotel left in Grafton, it is on the National Register of Historic Places, and it still has a restaurant and bar downstairs.
The resident ghost is Abigail, a little girl who is said to play tricks on guests. The hotel’s own history page says the owners first noticed soft footsteps early in the morning, unusual smells and small things going missing, and guests have shared photos with unexplained orbs. Local retellings disagree on who she was: some say she died of tuberculosis, others link her to the 1912 fire.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book an upstairs room facing Main Street, eat at Abigail’s downstairs, and walk the quiet hallway late in the evening.
Address Cave-In-Rock State Park, Cave-In-Rock, Hardin County, IL
Where to look The cave mouth above the Ohio River and the bluff trail
Reported ghosts Moans and cries said to echo in the cave
Visiting State park, open daily
Ghost hunting No
A 55-foot-wide cave opens in the limestone bluff above the Ohio River here, first recorded by a French visitor as the cavern in the rock. Around 1797 Samuel Mason, a former Revolutionary War officer turned river pirate, spent about six months here with his family and gang, robbing flatboats. Legend also places the murderous Harpe brothers here, though the state says no documents link them to the cave. Mason’s head was later handed in for a reward. The cave appears in the 1962 film How the West Was Won.
Visitors say moans and cries echo from the cave after dark, and some tie them to buried pirate loot. There is no record behind the ghost stories, and the state itself says there is no historical evidence the cave sheltered outlaws for more than brief stops. It is a 204-acre state park with trails, camping and a lodge.
Haunted Rooms tip: Walk down to the cave in late afternoon, when the light comes in off the river, and climb the bluff trail for the view.
Address East River Rd at Lawrence Ave, Norridge, IL 60656
Where to look The boulder marking the Robinson graves and the trail toward the Des Plaines River
Reported ghosts Drumming, lights on the trail, the scent of lilacs, the sound of chopping
Visiting Cook County forest preserve of 265 acres with trails and picnic groves; the Robinson family burial ground is marked with historical markers
Hours and season Sunrise to sunset, all year
Tickets Free
Ghost hunting No organized events
Alexander Robinson, known as Chee-chee-pin-quay, was a leader of the Potawatomi, Ottawa and Ojibwe who ran one of Chicago’s first taverns and helped survivors escape the Fort Dearborn fight in 1812. In 1829 his family was granted 1,280 acres along the Des Plaines River. He died in 1872 and was buried on his land, now a Cook County forest preserve, beside a large boulder. Family headstones removed in the 1950s were returned to his descendants in 2016.
The woods carry darker memories. In May 1955 the old Robinson homestead burned in a fire nobody explained, and the county bought the land soon after; that October the bodies of three boys, John and Anton Schuessler and Robert Peterson, were found nearby, a case not solved until 1994. Ghost researchers have reported drumming near the graves since the 1970s, lights in the woods after closing, the sound of an axe, and the scent of lilacs near the boulder in winter. A 2022 Ghost Research Society visit recorded nothing unusual.
Haunted Rooms tip: Visit in daylight, walk to the boulder quietly and remember this is a family burial ground.
Address Near Devil's Backbone Park, Grand Tower, IL
Where to look The path to the top and the house ruins on the summit
Reported ghosts A young woman in white, often called Esmeralda
Visiting Outdoor site with a steep path; no facilities
Ghost hunting No
The Devil’s Bake Oven is a rocky hill on the Mississippi at Grand Tower, near the Devil’s Backbone ridge and Tower Rock. Mark Twain mentioned it in Life on the Mississippi, joking it did not look much like anybody else’s bake oven. An iron foundry was later built on top with a house for the superintendent’s family, and a steep dirt path still leads up past the remains of a two-story house.
The legend says the superintendent’s daughter, often called Esmeralda, fell for a riverboat man her father would not accept; he died or left, and she died soon after. People since have told of a misty woman in white on the paths and moans that grow louder in storms. Grand Tower historian Charles Bruckner believes she existed but found no documents, and few reports have come in recent years.
Haunted Rooms tip: Climb the path in daylight with good shoes: it is steep, and the view up the river from the top is the reward.
These places appear on older lists of haunted places in Illinois. We keep them here so you know the facts before you go, but you cannot (or should not) visit them, or there is too little on record to list them fully.
Hotel Kaskaskia, LaSalle
The Hotel Kaskaskia opened in 1915 and closed to guests around 2008 when its systems wore out. A restoration never finished, and the building went to auction in 2025 without a sale. Former staff described phantom footsteps and an elevator that opened by itself. For a haunted stay in northern Illinois, try Hotel Baker in St. Charles.
Choate Mental Health Center, Anna
Opened in 1875 as the Southern Hospital for the Insane, with buildings linked by tunnels. Stories tell of faces in windows and something felt in the tunnels. It is a working state mental health facility, not a place to visit.
The Hundley House, Carbondale
Former mayor J. Chas Hundley and his wife, Luella, were shot dead in this brick house on Main Street in 1928, a murder never solved. Later a bed and breakfast, it has long been a stop on lists of the region’s haunted places. It is not open to visitors.
Pulaski County Courthouse, Mound City
Built in 1911, with the county jail in its basement until a 2004 remodel. Staff stories name four ghosts, including the last man hanged in the county and a Taffeta Woman. It is a working courthouse rather than an attraction, and we could not find more than one published source for the stories.
BPL Plasma, Carbondale
The old Carbondale post office now houses a plasma donation center. Employees have told of doors that move and an apparition, but it is a working medical business, not a place to visit.
Elmwood Cemetery and Violin Annie, Centralia
A statue of Harriet Annie Marshall, who died in 1890 aged eleven, holds a violin atop her family monument, and locals say violin music is heard at night. The cemetery is public, but the story rests on one local folklorist’s account, so we have not given it a full listing.
Lebanon Road, Collinsville
An urban legend says that driving under seven railroad bridges on Lebanon Road at midnight opens a gate to Hell. We have found no record behind it, and stopping under bridges on a narrow road at night is dangerous. Please do not go looking for it.
Haunted Illinois by city
Haunted places in Chicago: Resurrection Mary, Bachelor’s Grove, Hull-House, the Iroquois and Eastland sites and Joliet
Haunted places in Alton: the McPike Mansion, the Mineral Springs Hotel, the First Unitarian Church and the old prison
Changes in this edition: the Rose Hotel’s best-known ghost is now given as Tote, a former servant, as the hotel and local investigators tell it, rather than Sarah Rose. The Crenshaw House is listed as closed: the state has kept it shut since buying it in 2000.
Visited one of these places? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from visitors and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your visit. We read every story before it’s published.
Resurrection Cemetery near Chicago, home of the Resurrection Mary legend, and Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery are the most famous. Ashmore Estates and the Old Joliet Prison are the best known places you can ghost hunt, and the McPike Mansion in Alton is the most famous haunted house.
Where can I go ghost hunting in Illinois?
Haunted Rooms runs its own ghost hunts at Ashmore Estates, the Old Joliet Prison, Villa Kathrine in Quincy, the Tinker Swiss Cottage in Rockford, the Cheney Mansion in Jerseyville and the Rock Island Roadhouse. See all Illinois ghost hunts for dates.
What is the most haunted town in Illinois?
Alton, on the Mississippi, calls itself one of the most haunted small towns in America, with the McPike Mansion, the Mineral Springs Hotel and the old Civil War prison.
Can you stay overnight in a haunted hotel in Illinois?
Yes. The Congress Plaza and the Drake in Chicago, Hotel Baker in St. Charles, the DeSoto House in Galena, the Original Springs Hotel in Okawville, the Rose Hotel in Elizabethtown and the Ruebel Hotel in Grafton all take guests.
Is the Old Slave House open?
No. The Crenshaw House near Equality, known as the Old Slave House, has been closed to the public since the State of Illinois bought it in 2000.
Is Ashmore Estates haunted?
Ashmore Estates, a former county almshouse and psychiatric hospital, is one of the most investigated buildings in the Midwest and has been on Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters. Haunted Rooms runs its own ghost hunts there.
Sources and how we research
Every place in this guide is checked against its official website, historic register listings and news coverage, and we confirm whether it is open, closed, private or gone before we list it. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and local historians tell them; we say so where records contradict a story. Each place shows how many independent sources we checked it against; our own Haunted Rooms pages are not counted.
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every place in our guides using official sites, historic registers, local archives and news coverage, and we report ghost stories as the stories they are. We review each guide regularly so you are not sent to a place that has closed, changed hands or banned visitors. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
