Ghosts of the Rialto Theatre in Joliet - Joliet, Illinois

The historic Rialto Square Theatre in Joliet, Illinois, not only hosts hundreds of entertainment patrons, but also a couple of resident ghosts.

The theatre began its life as a vaudeville movie palace in 1926 when the six Rubens brothers formed the Royal Theatre Company and desired to build a "Palace for the people.” Designed by the Rapp & Rapp Architect firm of Chicago, the opulent theatre, reflecting Italian Renaissance, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Rococo, Venetian and Baroque architecture, cost nearly two million dollars to build – a staggering amount at the time. After two years of construction, the theatre opened on May 24, 1926.

The Royal Theatre Company leased the operation of the theatre to the Great States Theatre, Inc; however, the property itself remained under the control and direction of the Rubens brothers.

On its opening night theatre-goers paid 50 cents to see the silent movie "Mademoiselle Modiste." As they entered, they were amazed as they viewed the inner lobby, styled after the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles and the dome in the rotunda, reminiscent of the Pantheon in Rome, with one of the largest, hand-cut crystal chandeliers in the country. The arch between the esplanade and rotunda area was carefully copied from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Throughout the theatre were displayed numerous sculptures, art, elaborate drapes and furnishings, and for its patrons’ comfort, was fully air-conditioned. The theatre opened to grand applause and for decades entertained the public with vaudeville and stage productions, musical and comedic entertainers, ballet and opera, and served as a "movie house” during the "Golden Age” of films. Over the years, it hosted such names as Andy Williams, Mitzi Gaynor, Red Skelton, Victor Borge, Liberace and hundreds of others. Interestingly, the Rialto was also one of Al Capone's favorite haunts.

However, time and weather took its toll on the magnificent theatre and by the mid 1970’s it was facing possible demolition. Thankfully, it was rescued by a grass-roots campaign by the Rialto Square Arts Association, now called the Cultural Arts Council of the Joliet Area. With the assistance of local business people, funds were sought from city, state and federal officials, and soon the majestic theatre was undergoing restoration.

Actual work began in April of 1980, and by the following year the Palace for the People” was restored to its former glory, reopening as the Performing Arts Center.

Listed on the National Register of historic Places, and now considered one of the top 10 theatres in the country, the Rialto Square Theatre continues to host plays, concerts, and other talent, as well as being called home to the Rialto School of the Arts, and hosting numerous events and meetings.

The "Jewel of Joliet” not only continues to host hundreds of customers; however, it also is called home to a couple of resident ghosts. The most often spied is a nameless spectral woman who is thought to have been an actress who performed at the theatre many years ago. She is described as being in her twenties, very pretty, sometimes surrounded by hazy light, and thought to have been a well-known performer of her time. She has been reported to have been seen floating around the theatre by staff, customers, and workmen, becoming especially active during the period of time that it was closed to the public. Many believe that she so loved performing there that she’s just not ready to leave this world.

Two more spirits, one male and one female, are sometimes spied in the auditorium’s balcony. According to the legend, the pair fell to their deaths from the balcony, and like others who have died in tragic accidents, they just won’t move on.

Other reports include sudden periods of icy coldness, strange noises, objects that seemingly move of their own accord, and the feeling that they have been "jabbed” by an unseen finger.

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Ghosts of Historic Springfield - Springfield, Illinois

The Ghost of Abraham Lincoln

While there are a number of spirits who are said to haunt this historic town, the most famous is that of Abraham Lincoln himself. According to over a century of legends, Abraham Lincoln continues to lurk around his tomb, now a state historic site in Springfield.

Sightings of the former president have been told almost since the day his body arrived in Springfield in on May 3, 1865. After lying in state at the capitol for a night, the body was placed in a receiving vault at Oak Ridge Cemetery. In December Lincoln’s remains were removed to a temporary vault not far from a new proposed memorial site. In 1871, three years after laborers had begun constructing the permanent tomb, the body of Lincoln and those of the three youngest of his sons were placed in crypts in the unfinished structure.

The construction of the permanent tomb lasted for years and it was at this time that the first sightings of a spectral Abraham Lincoln were reported as he wondered near the crypt. Others would report hearing the sounds of crying and footsteps near the site.

In 1874, upon completion of the memorial, Lincoln's remains were interred in a marble sarcophagus in the center of a chamber known as the "catacombs," or burial room. In 1876, however, after several Chicago criminals broke into the tomb, intending to kidnap the corpse and hold it for ransom. However, the attempt failed as one of the men in the gang was a spy for the Secret Service.

Over the years, the legends have persisted as tourists and staff members report uncomfortable feelings, phantom footsteps, whispers, muffled voices, and weeping. Along with our former president, Oakridge Cemetery also has reports that the apparitions of a small boy and a mysterious woman in a flowing red cape have been seen on the property.

Lincoln has also been reported to have been seen walking the streets surrounding Springfield's original courthouse, as well as the hallways of his former home. Others have reported seeing the ghost of Mary Lincoln at their old home located at 413 South Eighth Street. Having a long-standing reputation as being haunted, reports range from apparitions of a woman to toys moving of their own accord. Most people believe that the house is haunted by Mary. Maintained by the national Park Service today, staff deny any reports of paranormal activity. Today the Lincoln home is the centerpiece of the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. Restored to its 1860s appearance, it stands in the midst of a four block historic neighborhood which the National Park Service is also restoring. When complete, the neighborhood, like the house, will appear much as Lincoln would have remembered it.

The most interesting haunting surrounding Lincoln is the phantom funeral train. Said to be seen during the month of April on the anniversary of Lincoln’s death, the ghostly train is said to ride those very same tracks that bore his body to Springfield in 1865. Reports indicate that this ghostly funeral procession is actually two trains, with the first steam engine pulling several cars draped in black, adorned with black streamers, and playing the sounds of mournful music. The second train is said to pull a flatcar that carries Lincoln’s coffin. Unfortunately, the train is said to never reach its final destination.

Dana House

Designed and constructed by renowned architect, Frank Lloyd Wright in 1902, this house is reported to still play host to its original owner. Designed for Springfield socialite, Susan Lawrence Dana, she was said to have thrown lavish parties in her home as well as being a major contributor and volunteer to charitable causes in the city.

Shortly after the home was finished, several family deaths caused Dana to turn to metaphysical and mystical religious groups for comfort. Before long, she became one of the city’s leaders in the Spiritualist movement that swept across American around the turn of the century. Her parties took a different turn with her involvement in the movement and soon her home became a Spiritualist center where séances were common and large parties of occultists gathered.

Finally, when a cousin who had lived with her for many years died, Susan was left alone in her Wright-designed house. A short time later, about 1928, Susan moved to more modest, less costly quarters. Declared incompetent by the courts in 1942, she was admitted to a local hospital, where she died in 1946. Her personal effects were inventoried in 1942 and auctioned at a public sale in July 1943. Her Frank Lloyd Wright House was sold the following year.

Maintained today by the State of Illinois, management denies any paranormal activity. However, there have been dozens of reports by other staff and visitors of object which move of their own accord and the sounds of unseen people speaking in different parts of the house.

The Dana House is located at 301 East Lawrence in Springfield, Illinois and is open to the public from Wednesday to Sunday all year round.

Illinois Executive Mansion

Seven Presidents, including Lincoln, have been received here. Three levels are open to the public including four formal parlors; a state dining room; ballroom; four bedrooms, including the Lincoln bedroom; and a library handcrafted from Native American Black Walnut.

Built in 1855, this is the third oldest continuously occupied Governor’s Mansion in the country, having served as the official residence of Illinois' Governors and their families since Governor Joel Matteson first took up residence. Over the years, the magnificent home has been witness to many of the major events in the state’s history, none so trying perhaps as the Civil War.

During the Civil War, the mansion was called home to Governor Richard Yates and his family. Today, the mansion is said to continue to play host to Yates’ wife, Catherine. Mrs. Yates makes allegedly makes her presence known in a variety of ways, including tampering with electronics and smoke alarms. The upstairs bedroom where her portrait hangs is said to be the most active room in the house. On one occasion Mrs. Yates was credited with trapping an Illinois State Trooper in an elevator for four hours.

The Illinois Executive Mansion is open to the public during certain hours and days of the week. Three levels can be viewed which include four formal parlors, a state dining room, ballroom, the library, and four bedrooms, including the Lincoln bedroom. The mansion is located at 5th and Jackson.

Springfield Theatre Center

Built in 1951, the Springfield Theatre Center has hosted performances continuously through today. In addition to numerous wonderful performances throughout the years, the place is said to have been haunted for most of its existence.

On May 13, 1955, an actor Named Joe Neville left the theater after a dress rehearsal then committed suicide once he returned home. Apparently, during an audit at the company where he worked, it was found that substantial funds had been misappropriated and a fellow employee fingered Joe.

Said to have been an eccentric and unfriendly fellow, he loved the theater and at the time he killed himself, he was scheduled to play his first lead role. After his death, the theater group simply replaced him and the show went on.

But, apparently, that wasn’t the end of Joe. Returning to the theater after his death, his disposition evidently was as nasty as ever. Almost immediately strange and inexplicable events began to occur. While some of these are seemingly harmless, such as lights turning on and off on their own, doors opened by unseen hands, and several who have reportedly seen Joe’s filmy apparition; other antics of Joe’s are down right dangerous. On one occasion when two men were building a set, one of the men voiced his skepticism about the ghost. The next thing they knew, the saw started up by itself, several sheets of plywood fell to the floor, and a standing ladder was seemingly pushed over by unseen hands.

The tampering with stage sets is the most often occurrence, but other smaller happenings occur such as items moving of their own accord, missing costumes, and the permeating smell of Noxzema wafting through the air, despite the fact that the cream was long ago banned in the theater. On one occasion a girl reported having her hand held by an invisible escort while she was crossing a room.

Not open to the public except during show times, the theater is located at 101 East Lawrence Street.

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The Mother Road

The often romanticized Mother Road inspires in many of us a nostalgic bone which niggles at something buried deep within us. While some may see Route 66 as a link to our parents and grandparents, others perhaps feel the sense of freedom that the road provided to those early travelers. And then, for those of us that live continuously in the nostalgic past, the Mother Road is, but yet, the next adventure beyond the Santa Fe Trail. Whatever the reason, the Mother Road is an experience, a feeling, a perception, a taste of sight and sound, and a mystery that can only be resolved by driving the pavement itself.

The "super-highway,” as it was thought of in 1926, represented unprecedented freedom to travel across the American West. Spawned by the rapidly changing demands of America, entrepreneurs, Cyrus Avery of Tulsa, Oklahoma and John Woodruff of Springfield, Missouri conceived of the grand idea of linking Chicago to Los Angeles and began lobbying efforts to promote the new highway. While other East/West highways existed at the time, most followed a linear course, leaving out the rural communities, dependent upon transportation for farm products and other goods.

No doubt a daunting task for the pair, the federal government finally pledged to link small town U.S.A. with metropolitan capitals in the summer of 1926 and designated the road as 66. Unfortunately, shortly after work began on the Mother Road came the depression, halting progress on the new "Super-Highway.

However, in 1933, thousands of unemployed men were put back to work and road gangs paved the final stretches of the road. By 1938 the 2,300 mile highway was continuously paved from Chicago to Los Angeles.

John Steinbeck, in 1939, proclaimed Route 66 as the "Mother Road” in his classic novel The Grapes of Wrath. When the movie was made just a year later, it immortalized Route 66 in the American consciousness. Shortly thereafter, more than 200,000 people migrated to California to escape the Dust Bowl of the Midwest, symbolizing the highway as the "road to opportunity.”

When World War II broke out, Route 66 proved to be invaluable in transporting troops, equipment and products across the vast West to California, where the government established multiple industries and armed force bases. When the war was finally over in 1945, the Mother Road served to transport thousands of troops home.

Perhaps more than any other American highway, the Mother Road symbolized a new positive outlook that spread through the nation’s postwar economic recovery. For thousands of returning servicemen and their families, Route 66 was more than just a highway. "It became," according to one admirer, "an icon of free-spirited independence linking the United States across the Rocky Mountain divide to the Pacific Ocean."

Almost immediately, the tourist industry began to grow, giving rise to countless tourist courts, motels, service stations, garages and diners. However, the excessive truck travel during World War II and the ever expanding automobile industry had left the Highway in appalling conditions, with narrow pavements and poor road conditions.

In the mid 1950s public lobby was demanding a federal sponsorship for a system of divided highways and in 1956, the Federal Aid Highway Act was passed for a national interstate highway program.

With the passing of the Interstate Highway Act, Route 66 would soon be doomed. Doomed or not, by the 1960s, many points of interest were familiar landmarks to a new generation of travelers and the television series, "Route 66” was aired "driving” the Mother Road into homes all over America. Though the series created great interest in the American public, it was to be short-lived, as by 1970, nearly all segments of original Route 66 were bypassed by modern four-lane highways. By 1984, all of the poorly maintained vestiges of Route 66 had been completely succumbed when the final section of the original road was bypassed by Interstate 40 at Williams, Arizona.

As Route 66 was decommissioned, its signs were removed and the Mother Road was almost lost. Even to this day, the Mother Road appears on very few current maps. Most states have installed Historic Route 66 along portions of the road, but, unfortunately, they rarely give exit directions where the road so very often veers off from the interstate highways.

Obviously, the route today is not what it was in the past. The sights and sounds of the Mother Road change daily with the emergence of new businesses and development along the old highway. You will want to take a lot of pictures, because what is here today might be very well gone tomorrow.

However, much is preserved and the Route 66 Historical Associations and private groups have done much to preserve these vintage treasures. As you travel along, you will often see a sign or marquee of the vintage road as these icons of history are preserved, though their buildings are long gone.

Traveling the road, you will experience everything from the frustration of finding the route in a metro city to being pleasantly surprised by the next small town that you venture into. The landscape quickly changes from the hustle and bustle of metropolitan area, to quiet meandering roads, to tall grass prairies, where you feel as if you might be the only person left on earth.

While it’s a good idea to plan your trip, because the road can be confusing, the whole idea is to experience the Mother Road. Our advice is to get a couple of really good Route 66 books and some good maps before you begin your adventure. Here and there, some places will give you a road sign when the road veers off the interstate, but mostly not. Even with a few good maps, you will, no doubt, take a wrong turn here and there. Take the Business Loops off the interstates when possible – they will often lead you to your photo opportunities of our scenic past.

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Haunted Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City - Oklahoma.

The Skirvin Hotel built in 1910 by oilman W.B. Skirvin, who was determined to have the finest hotel in the Southwest. Opening its doors in 1911, the plush hotel had two, 10-story towers containing 224 rooms, was one of the first buildings in Oklahoma City to have air conditioning, then called "iced air,” had running ice water in each room, a ballroom that seated 500, and imported Austrian chandeliers that cost more than $100,000 each.

Skirvin’s daughter, Perl Mesta, brought the hotel a national reputation by being the ambassadress to Luxembourg, and then Washington’s "Hostess with the Mostess," portrayed in the famed Broadway musical, "Call Me Madam."

In 1930, a third wing was added, raising the structure to 14 stories and increasing capacity to 525 rooms.

The Oklahoma showplace became a popular speak-easy during Prohibition. It was during this time that W.B. Skirvin was said to have had an affair with one of the hotel maids. According to legend, the maid soon conceived and in order to prevent a scandal, she was locked in a room on the top floor of the hotel. The desolate girl soon grew depressed and even after the birth of her child; she was still not let out of the room. Half out of her mind, she finally grabbed the infant child and threw herself, along with the baby, out of the window.

The maid’s name remains unknown, but her ghost continues to haunt the Skirvin Hotel and she was nicknamed "Effie” by former employees. Though the old hotel closed in 1988, former guests would often report not being able to obtain a decent nights sleep due to the consistent sounds of a child crying.

Effie was apparently a woman of loose morals and many men who have stayed in the hotel have often reported being propositioned by a female voice while alone in their rooms. Others have seen the figure of a naked woman with them while taking a shower. One man even claimed he was sexually assaulted by an invisible entity during his stay.
Other strange noises and occurrences were reported by staff and guests including things seemingly being moved around by themselves, such as the maid’s cart being pushed down the hall when no one was there.

In October, 1979 the hotel was listed on National Register of Historic Places. When it closed in 1988 the building stood empty for more almost fifteen years. However, the historic hotel has now been fully restored and now open once again for guests.

The $46.4 million project included the original exterior finish, installation of historically accurate windows, reconfigured guest rooms, new guest elevators, an elegant lobby, restaurants, and state-of-the-art meeting rooms. Wherever possible, historical elements such as moldings, tiles and ceiling treatments were incorporated into the design.

Despite the millions of dollars spent to renovate this historic hotel, Effie allegedly continues to reside there.

The Skirvin Hotel is located at 1 Park Avenue in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

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