By Cheryl-Eichar Jett

Downtown Springfield, Illinois, is a treasure trove of historic buildings, and more than a few are said to be haunted. For this year’s October issue, here are a half-dozen among some of the most well-known sites that are said to have unearthly happenings. If and when you visit these sites, plan to enjoy a great meal or a drink, a luxurious overnight, a historic tour, or a popular theater production! (Please check open hours, fees, and visitor rules.)

The Inn at 835

835 S. 2nd Street (former Bell Miller Apartments)

Bell Miller, an enterprising young businesswoman, became a well-known Springfield florist for several decades beginning in the 1890s. She hired architect George Helmle to design a three-story, yellow-brick building as luxury apartments, which enabled her to have her own apartment in an age when a lady usually did not have her own residence. The beautiful building was constructed in 1909 at 835 S. Second Street in an area once known as “Aristocracy Hill.”

In 1994, the building underwent a total renovation to transform it into luxury guest rooms. Known today as the Inn at 835 Historic Bed and Breakfast, both guests and staff believe that Bell never left her home. A woman’s voice or the clink of a candy jar lid is occasionally heard, and the elevator sometimes takes a guest to a different floor, regardless of which button is pushed. The Inn at 835 is an operating bed and breakfast with many amenities, ghost or not.

Legacy Theatre

101 E. Lawrence Avenue (former Springfield Theatre Guild)

The Springfield Theatre Guild, after meeting and performing in various locations since 1947, was able to raise $175,000 to build their own modern theater building, which opened its doors in 1951. The guild, consisting of several thousand people, hosted many popular productions over the years, but after 1955, an unwelcome ghost was said to have visited often.

Joe Neville, an actor known to be temperamental and unfriendly, went home from rehearsal the night of May 13, 1955, and committed suicide, rumored to have embezzled money from his workplace. From then on, lights flickered, doors opened and closed, costumes were moved, and actors complained of an unfriendly presence on the stage with them.

The guild eventually moved to the Hoogland Center for the Arts and the building sat dormant until 2011, when it was purchased, renovated, and re-opened as the Legacy Theatre. See a performance here if you dare!

Dana Thomas House

301 E. Lawrence Avenue

The Dana Thomas house in Springfield, considered to be one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most elaborate home designs, was planned for Susan Lawrence Dana in 1902. The construction of the multi-level home cost her $45,000 plus another $15,000 for all the coordinated furnishings designed by Wright.

Susan was a world traveler, a political activist, a patron of the arts, and a seeker of spiritual truths. From 1904 until the late 1920s, Susan lived in the house, and was said to hold seances there after suffering the loss of numerous loved ones. Volunteers at the home have reported humming noises, floating curtains, and a woman dressed in black on the stairs.

The Dana Thomas home is located at the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Fourth Street, and is open for tours – highly recommended.

Norb Andy’s Tabarin (Virgil Hickox House)

518 E. Capitol Avenue

Dating to the 1830s, the Virgil Hickox family lived and operated their mercantile business here. Among other occupants over the past nearly two centuries, there was the Sangamo Club in the late 1800s; Norbert Anderson’s longtime Springfield tradition, Norb Andy’s Tabarin, from 1937 to 2017; Anchors Away; and more recently, the return of Norb Andy’s Tabarin.

(The building also was used as a morgue during the Spanish Flu epidemic before operating as a speakeasy during Prohibition.)

Over the years, some old ghosts apparently were still there. Stories of unexplained phenomena including cold spots, touches, and hair pulling, and various apparitions – including “Alice,” “Jessica Rabbit,” and Norbert himself – abound, as have paranormal investigations.

Norb Andy’s Tabarin offers “craft beer and homey pub grub…with live music and trivia nights.” At press time, Google has the location marked “temporarily closed.”

Lincoln Home

413 S. 8th Street

The house at 413 S. 8th Street is the only home that President Abraham Lincoln ever owned, purchased in 1844 before winning the presidential election and moving to Washington, D.C., in 1860. Constructed in 1839 for the Reverend Charles Dresser, the home is now cared for and maintained by the National Park Service, and the Lincoln Home National Historic Site Visitor Center is open daily with tours of this restored home available.

Although Lincoln did not live to enjoy many years in this home, rumors of sightings began not long after his death, both at his tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery and in downtown Springfield. In the home specifically, reports of a female apparition and artifacts moving of their own accord are claimed, with some believing that the house is haunted by Mary Lincoln.

Ghosts or not, this is worthwhile visit.

Springfield High School

101 S. Lewis Street

Springfield High School, actually the fifth building in which the school operated, was built in 1915-1916 on the site of a church and the Hutchinson Cemetery, which was established in 1843 as the first private burial ground in Springfield. Before construction could begin on the high school in 1915, gravestones and remains had to be removed and taken to Oak Ridge Cemetery on the northwest side of the city.

The new school was designed and built in the Beaux Arts style and was considered to be the most modern public education edifice in the state at that time. The school is still in use, but the student body and faculty may not be the only inhabitants.

The Springfield High School ghost of note is identified as “Rachel,” who is said to have been hanging around the school for 40 years.