The Iroquois TheaterPosted on 10/25/2004 4:17:52 PM PDT by CurlyBill
Nearly three million people live in Chicago, and that’s with emphasis on the word “live.”
To some, Chicago is not just another city saturated with people—the spirits of the deceased also inhabit it. Or, simply put, Chicago is haunted.
“Chicago is definitely one of the most haunted cities, if not in the world, in the country,” said C.T. Thieme, researcher of the paranormal and guide for the Chicago Hauntings ghost tour.
From wandering apparitions to aggravating poltergeists, Chicago is believed to be home to an assortment of otherworldly forces hiding out in theaters, restaurants, cemeteries and every other location imaginable.
City residents are willing to listen to the haunting tales out of curiosity of the unknown and the thrill of a good scare during the Halloween season.
“I think the excitement that comes with our uncertainty of the unknown and the fear we all have inside us of what else is out there [brings us here],” said Chicago resident Michael Mead on a trip to the allegedly haunted Hull House on the city’s Near West Side.
Mead said ghost lore is so fascinating because of good storytelling.
Angela Whitlow, a Prospect Heights resident captivated by Chicago’s ghostly history, agreed.
“If a story has a factual element, that makes it all the more intriguing,” Whitlow said.
In the spirit of Halloween, The Chronicle visited and researched some of Chicago’s most famous haunted sites to gain an understanding of the supernatural forces that supposedly live among us.
The Iroquois Theater
While most people believe the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was the city’s greatest tragedy, a more concentrated fire in a downtown theater in 1903 surpassed that disaster’s death toll by more than 300 casualties and has left behind a gruesome tale.
Built on the location now occupied by the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, the Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St., the Iroquois Theater was a ritzy performance venue designed to rival Broadway’s theaters in New York. A few weeks after the Iroquois opened in December 1903, the musical “Mr. Blue Beard Jr.” was at the theater, and the place was packed with about 800 people.
The show was going smoothly until the second act, when the drapery hiding the stage caught fire from a footlight. Soon, the set was ablaze and panic ensued.
When patrons rushed to the fire exits, they found the doors chained off. The Iroquois’ owners had paid off the fire department to ignore fire code violations so the owners could keep people from sneaking into shows through the fire exits. As a result, more than 600 people died from the inferno, and the floor was 7 feet deep with bodies.
Those who sat in the balcony that down the fire escape, but when the door was opened, the people found no fire escape—just a five-story drop into the alley behind the theater. As the crowd pushed out the door, 150 people fell to their deaths.
While the Ford Center has replaced the Iroquois Theater, legend has it that the location is inhabited by the victims’ spirits. Inside, disembodied footsteps can be heard, and lights turn off and on during productions. In the alley, people have reported seeing a woman dressed in white meandering between the buildings. And some have felt the touch of a hand while no one is around.
Lincoln Park
Going for a stroll through Lincoln Park, even at night, does not seem like a scary endeavor for most people. However, those who decide to might have some interesting company. Lincoln Park ghost stories range from groups of people in early 1900s period dress to post-World War II soldiers complaining of apparitions.
Policemen on night checks when the park closes talk about catching someone in their headlights and, after chasing them, watching them disappear in the air.
Resurrection Mary
One of Chicago’s most famous ghosts technically does not reside in Chicago, but her story begins downtown at Lake Street and Wacker Drive.
“Resurrection Mary,” as she is known, is believed by some researchers to be Mary Bregovy, a young woman who died in 1934 and was buried in Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, Ill.
After spending the night dancing at the O’Henry Ballroom, now the Willowbrook Ballroom, near Resurrection Cemetery, Mary left with several others in a car headed to Chicago. But Mary was killed when the car struck a post supporting the el tracks above Lake and Wacker.
Legend has it that in 1936, a man spent an evening dancing with a woman he met at the O’Henry Ballroom. When he drove her home down Archer Avenue, she asked to be dropped off in front of Resurrection Cemetery, where she vanished.
Since then, there have been numerous reports of people encountering Mary dressed in a white evening gown as they pass the cemetery where she is believed to be buried.
Harpo Studios
Before 110 N. Carpenter St. was home to Harpo Studios and the Oprah Winfrey Show, it was the Second Regiment Armory in Chicago. After the infamous Eastland disaster, many of the dead and dying were taken to this spot. When Winfrey bought the building in 1988 she had heard stories that the former armory was haunted, but went on with renovations anyway. Though Oprah does not grant interviews on the subject and does not discuss her own experiences, during the 16 years Harpo has been in the building, some employees’ stories have leaked. Corroborated stories of light switches physically being turned back on with no one around and people being locked inside their own offices after claiming to see apparitions are just some of the things employees have confessed.
The most remarkable story: A security guard walking through the halls suddenly smelled the scent of perfume, but after he looked around and saw nothing, he thought little of it. When the guard got back to the security center, the other guards asked him why he didn’t stop the woman. Though he had not seen any woman in the hall with his eyes, the other security guards had, and so had the security cameras.
Abraham Lincoln’s Train
The site of the Eastland disaster on the Chicago River near the Clark and LaSalle Street Bridges. On May 1, 1865, Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train made a final stop in Chicago before reaching its destination, Springfield, Ill. Union soldiers, townspeople, officials—everyone came out to the tracks near Roosevelt Road to meet the train and pay their respects. Chicago residents camped out on May 1 every year at this site to see Lincoln’s ghostly funeral train arrive. People went to see the Union soldiers and their 1860s counterparts until sometime in the 1970s, when the train disappeared into thin air for the last time.
The Red Lion Pub
The Red Lion Pub, 2446 N. Clark St., in Lincoln Park. No one drinks alone at the Red Lion Pub in Lincoln Park.
The pub at 2446 N. Lincoln Ave. is the home of several spirits, including a bearded man in black cowboy attire who wanders around the bar.
One of the most famous stories of Red Lion’s hauntings involves a woman who was killed in one of the upstairs rooms. The ghost now locks people in the women’s restroom, according to witnesses.
The other well-known ghost of the Red Lion is the deceased father of owner John Cordwell . The owner paid tribute to his father by installing a stained glass window on the staircase and hanging a plaque below the window.
When passing the memorial, visitors have reported a person’s touch on their shoulders and occasional dizzy spells.
It is stories like these that suggest when closing time comes at the Red Lion Pub, not everyone—or everything—leaves.
Hull House
When Jane Addams opened the Hull House, 800 S. Halsted St., in 1889 to help integrate immigrants into society, she strongly discouraged legends and stories from the old world being shared among the immigrants living there. She felt that these old tales kept the immigrants from letting go of old ties. This policy backfired, however, as the Hull House is now one of Chicago’s most haunted places.
Windows shatter out onto the garden late at night, shutters open and close when the building is empty, lights turn on and off and motion detectors sense movement where there is none. Some even say they have seen a woman in white, descending the staircase in front hall, leaving some to wonder if Jane Addams is still there.
The Eastland
The Jane Addams Hull House, 800 S. Halsted St., on the Near West Side. Seeing a body floating in the Chicago River would probably be a bit shocking. Seeing a body floating in the Chicago River that disappears without a trace would be downright frightening.
That’s what some people have seen as they look down the Chicago River from the Clark Street bridge in the River North neighborhood, and researchers of paranormal activity believe it’s because of a boating disaster that occurred almost 90 years ago.
At 7 a.m. on July 24, 1915, a group of nearly 2,000 Western Electric employees and their families were gathered aboard the S.S. Eastland on the Chicago River to head across Lake Michigan to Michigan City, Ind., for an employee picnic.
What the passengers did not know was that the Eastland was top-heavy and the crew failed to compensate for this. When a fireboat came up alongside the Eastland and attempted to pass, it created a wave that caused the Eastland to tip over. Passengers on the upper deck fell overboard into the shallow water in one big heap.
The passengers on the lower deck were no better off. They were pinned against the Eastland’s wall with the boat’s furniture piled on top of them.
The disaster claimed about 800 lives.
Today, pedestrians crossing the Clark Street Bridge have said they feel drawn to the rail to look over the edge. Sometimes when they look over, they see bodies floating in the water, and when police respond to the reports, the bodies are gone.
Information for this report was acquired through C.T. Thieme of Chicago Hauntings ghost tours and ‘Chicago Haunts’ by Ursula Bielski.
Haunted Ping!
Haunted Ping!
You forgot #9: The dead come back to vote
Yes...and they vote Democrat!
Thanks! Nice article for research--I've seen lists like this for some European cities but not too many for US ones.
Mitch Berger (Gore recount attorney) was on FoxNews with John Gibson about an hour ago saying that voter fraud was not a problem in this country. He said the problem is low voter turnout. Then he actually said that the only voter fraud in the last election were votes cast in the panhandle region and they were cast for George Bush! What in the hell is this guy smoking? He knows damn well that 99.9% of the fraudulent votes in 2000 were cast for Al Gore. And now, we are going to be witness to the most widespread voting fraud in the history of the free world. I'm just hoping that we can eclipse this with a heavy turnout for George Bush!
Yes, and THAT was the only voter suppression in the election. The Dems strategy is to accuse the Republicans of exactly what they are trying to get away with themselves.... while knowing damn well that the Republicans are above board on this.
None of this surprises me at all. Have had many encounters with ghosts, mostly the nicer ones.
"I'm dead...and I vote."
I'd like to be on your "haunted" ping list!
An excellent pre-Halloween thread but the article comes from: " Information for this report was acquired through C.T. Thieme of Chicago Hauntings ghost tours and ‘Chicago Haunts’ by Ursula Bielski." I think they have a vested interest in those ghosts.:)
Thanks, CB -- Just had to send to pals in Chicago. I wonder if they know!
"He also knows it was algoryhtym's people that disenfranchised the military absentee ballots."
I thought algorythym was the new method of birth control that Big Al developed for Catholic Democrats.
Gee, they left out all those haunted polling places,
probably because the Chicago machine used to bury their
dead voters there until they needed them.
I absolutely LOVE ghost stories!
Several times, my family and I come across sights of "ghosts" or "strange appearances" such as a white floating sweatshirt, (while we were camping near an old graveyard) or the laughter of children (in a deserted wide empty valley) and other things like that... And Hotel Colorado happens to be my favorite hotel because of it's wide-range history
btw, may I be on your ping list? :)
Bump!
Resurrection Mary is probably the most well known Chicago ghost story.
As for voter fraud, as Hugh Hewitt says in his book, "If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat". Actually, they can, but it won't matter.
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