Haunted Ruebel Hotel, Grafton: Abigail, the Little Girl in the Halls

The Ruebel Hotel stands on Main Street in Grafton, a river town where the Illinois River meets the Mississippi, about an hour north of St. Louis. The brick building dates to 1913, after a fire destroyed Michael Ruebel’s original 1879 hotel, and it is the only historic hotel left in Grafton. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and keeps its stained glass, a dining room called Abigail’s and a bar the hotel describes as the 1904 World’s Fair bar.

The restaurant’s name is a clue. The Ruebel is one of the few hotels in Illinois that tells its own ghost story: its history page describes soft footsteps in the early morning, curious smells and small things going missing as though a child had taken them, and says these led to the story of Abigail, a little ghost girl who may still roam the halls. For more across the state, see our guide to haunted hotels in Illinois.

The ghosts of Ruebel Hotel

Abigail

The Ruebel’s ghost is a little girl named Abigail. The hotel’s own history says that when the owners moved in and stayed in the lower back rooms, they noticed soft footsteps early in the morning, unusual smells and small items going missing, as if a child had taken them. Those experiences, it says, led to rumors of a little ghost girl who may still roam the halls and playfully toys with the occasional guest.

Enjoy Illinois, the state tourism office, describes her as a young girl from the 1800s who has been heard walking in the hallways.

Who was she?

Nobody knows, and the stories do not agree. One version says Abigail died of tuberculosis at the hotel. Another says she died in the 1912 fire that destroyed the first building. A 2021 NewsTalk 1280 piece repeated both and did not choose between them.

We have found no record of a child’s death at either building, so treat both as local tellings. The hotel itself does not give her a cause of death, only a name and a habit of moving things.

Orbs, voices and a 3 a.m. walk-through

The hotel says recent guests have shared photos with unexplained orbs. Local radio reported that a ghost-hunting team recorded voices with EVP equipment some years ago, and that one person said they encountered Abigail during a 3 a.m. walk-through, along with flashes of light and footsteps.

Orbs and recorded voices are the weakest kind of evidence, but the footsteps and missing things come from the people who live and work in the building, which is why the story has lasted.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Riverview Room: Rooms looking toward the river. Ask for one upstairs if you want to be near the hallways where Abigail is heard.
• Jacuzzi Suite and Private Balcony Suite: The hotel’s larger rooms, good for a weekend away.
• Ruebel Standard and Superior rooms: The historic rooms in the 1913 building.
• Abigail's: The restaurant downstairs, named for the ghost, with the hotel’s historic bar beside it.

History of Ruebel Hotel

Grafton was founded in 1832 by James Mason and named for his birthplace, Grafton, Massachusetts. At their peak, five limestone quarries in and around the town employed nearly 2,000 men, and stone from here went into the Eads Bridge in St. Louis. Commercial fishing and boat building kept the river town busy.

Michael Ruebel opened his hotel on Main Street in 1879. It burned down in 1912, and the brick hotel that stands today was completed the following year. The new building had 32 rooms that rented for a dollar a night to river travelers, quarry workers and dockworkers, and it included a saloon and a restaurant. It was considered one of the best hotels in Jersey County.

The building is a Commercial-style brick hotel with decorative brickwork, a corbelled cornice and raised brick panels above the arched second-story windows. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 16, 1994, and is the only surviving historic hotel in Grafton.

The Great Flood of 1993 badly damaged Grafton, and about a third of its residents left. The town now lives mainly on tourism: Main Street shops and wineries, the Sam Vadalabene Bike Trail and bald eagle watching in winter, with Pere Marquette State Park, the largest state park in Illinois, a few miles west. The Ruebel is family owned and operated by Tony and Lisa Usiak.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Eat at Abigail’s downstairs and ask the staff about the girl it is named for.
• Walk the upstairs hallway late in the evening or early in the morning, when the owners first heard the footsteps.
• Visit in January or February for bald eagles along the river bluffs, or in October for the fall colors.
• Ride the Sam Vadalabene Bike Trail along the Great River Road to Alton.
• Original Springs Hotel in Okawville is a little over an hour away if you want a second haunted night in southern Illinois.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Haunted hotels in St. Louis: the closest big-city haunted stays, about an hour south
• Original Springs Hotel, Okawville: an 1893 mineral springs hotel and its lady in white
• Historic Rose Hotel, Elizabethtown: Tote in the mirrors, on the Ohio River
• Haunted hotels in Illinois

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

• Ruebel Hotel: Our history
• Ruebel Hotel: official site
• Wikipedia: Ruebel Hotel
• Wikipedia: Grafton, Illinois
• Enjoy Illinois: Spooky sights and scary stays in Illinois
• NewsTalk 1280: A creepy walk through the Ruebel Hotel

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