Villa Kathrine Ghost Hunt, Quincy, Illinois

Villa Kathrine Ghost Hunts

Where a Millionaire’s Obsession, a Lost Love, and a Loyalty Beyond Death Have Kept the Spirits of a Moorish Castle Restless for Over a Century

Standing on a windswept bluff high above the Mississippi River in Quincy, Illinois, Villa Kathrine is a building that should not exist in the American Midwest. A Moorish castle with turrets, domed ceilings, a minaret copied from a Tunisian mosque, and a central courtyard with a reflecting pool inlaid with mosaic tile — built in 1900 by an eccentric millionaire who traveled the world and came home to recreate a piece of North Africa on the banks of the Mississippi.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the two-story villa was designed by local architect George Behrensmeyer from sketches made by its owner, W. George Metz, during years of travel through Morocco, Tunisia, and the Mediterranean. Every room was filled with thousands of artifacts — Egyptian lamps, antique door knockers, divans, crescents crowning the domes — collected from caravan traders across three continents.

Today, it stands as one of the most unusual and actively haunted locations in Illinois.

A Man, a Castle, and a Love That Never Arrived

The story of Villa Kathrine begins with George Metz — the son of a wealthy Quincy pharmacist who never worked a day in his life. After his parents’ deaths, Metz spent two years wandering North Africa and the Mediterranean. He returned to Quincy with a single, extraordinary ambition: to build a Moorish villa modeled after the Villa ben Ahben in Morocco, perched on the bluffs overlooking the river.

But legend has it that the villa was never meant for Metz alone. He reportedly designed it for a fair-haired German woman he met during his travels — a woman he intended to bring back to Quincy. She never came. Metz refused to confirm or deny the story for the rest of his life, and his silence only deepened the mystery of the castle and its reclusive owner.

Whatever the truth, something within these walls carries an unmistakable weight of grief. Owners, renters, and caretakers across multiple decades have reported doors slamming shut on their own.

Objects vanishing from where they were placed and never reappearing. Lights flickering and behaving erratically in rooms with no electrical fault. And footsteps — steady, deliberate, unhurried — pacing around and around the reflecting pool in the central courtyard, as though someone is still walking the rooms of a home they were never ready to leave.

Bingo

Metz lived in the villa for twelve years as a bachelor. His only constant companion was a 212-pound Great Dane named Bingo, brought from Denmark on one of his trips abroad. The two were inseparable. Metz built a special addition off the kitchen for the dog. Where Metz went, Bingo followed.

When Bingo died in 1906, Metz buried him in the rose garden — allegedly wearing a diamond-studded collar. The loss shattered him. He sank into a depression so severe that his family feared for his safety and urged him to sell the villa.

In 1912, he agreed — deceived by a couple who claimed to love the house but were in fact agents for the Alton-Quincy Interurban Railroad, who planned to demolish the castle and build a railyard. Vandals stripped the building bare. Metz returned once, found his life’s work in ruins, and vowed never to come back.

He died in 1937. The villa stood empty and decaying for decades before a painstaking twenty-year restoration brought it back by 1998.

The building survived. But staff members who work at the villa today will tell you — something inside it never left. The most frequently reported phenomenon is the sound of a large dog’s toenails clicking across the tile floors. It has been heard in the quiet of the afternoon and in the early evening, after visitors have left for the day. The sound moves through the rooms the way a dog would move — pacing, circling, waiting.

Bingo, it seems, is still here. Still loyal. Still waiting for his master to come home.

More Than One Spirit

A formal paranormal investigation in 2009 revealed that Villa Kathrine’s haunting extends far beyond one restless animal. Investigators found evidence of multiple intelligent entities — spirits that are aware of the living and respond to them.

EVP recordings captured a woman’s voice screaming in German from the basement — her identity unknown. In Metz’s bedroom, investigators asked aloud, “Mr. Metz, are you there?” and received a clear affirmative response. Other recordings picked up the words “Oh sweet dog,” “I’ll watch the door,” and a whispered name — “Mary?”

Who is she? No one knows. But her voice has been heard, and it was not Metz’s. It was not Bingo. Something else has taken up residence in this castle — something that was here before the restoration, perhaps before the decay, perhaps since the walls first went up.

Paranormal Phenomena

Villa Kathrine has produced a remarkable range of documented activity spanning more than a century:

• Footsteps circling the courtyard reflecting pool when the building is empty
• Doors slamming shut with no draft or human contact
• Objects disappearing from where they were placed, never recovered
• Lights behaving erratically in rooms with no wiring faults
• The clicking of large dog toenails on tile floors, heard by staff across multiple years
• A woman’s voice screaming in German from the basement, captured on EVP
• A clear affirmative EVP response to “Mr. Metz, are you there?” in the master bedroom
• The words “Oh sweet dog,” “I’ll watch the door,” and “Mary?” recorded in empty rooms
• Multiple independent witnesses across decades reporting identical phenomena

Your Immersive Ghost Hunt Experience

Our exclusive investigation grants you unprecedented after-dark access to this extraordinary location. You will explore the Moorish castle room by room — the courtyard with its reflecting pool, the master bedroom where Metz’s voice has been captured on recordings, the basement where a woman’s screams were documented in German, and the tile floors where something with four legs still paces in the dark.

Will you hear the footsteps circling the courtyard pool? Will you capture the voice that answers when you call Metz by name? Will you feel whatever presence still lingers in the basement — angry, trapped, and speaking a language this house was never built to hear?

Villa Kathrine sits on a bluff above one of America’s greatest rivers, a landscape soaked in history and isolation. The energy here is unlike anything else on our roster. This is not a prison. Not an asylum. It is one man’s dream, built from heartbreak and filled with the unexplained.

What Your Experience Includes:

• A full night of ghost hunting with the Haunted Rooms America team,
• Exclusive after-hours access to the villa’s most active areas across both floors, courtyard, and basement,
• Group vigils guided by our experienced team of investigators,
• Solo exploration opportunities for the truly brave,
• Use of traditional and professional-grade ghost hunting equipment,
• Free time to conduct your own investigations at the end of the night,
• Complimentary snacks and refreshments to keep your energy up throughout the night.

George Metz built this castle for a love that never arrived. He lost it to betrayal. His only companion was buried in the rose garden and never stopped walking the floors. And voices that belong to no one living still answer when you speak into the darkness.

Are you brave enough to spend the night?

Space is limited for this exclusive investigation. Reserve your spot today to ensure your chance to investigate one of the most unusual haunted locations in America.

BOOK NOW

TICKETS ARE EXTREMELY LIMITED