decatur ghosts
Decatur and Beyond...

The Third Floor Above Bell's Jewelry Store

Supposedly the "most haunted place in Decatur", this abandoned upstairs living space once occupied a whorehouse and speakeasy during prohibition. The current jewelry store owner has had his alarm set off, and found all the cases opened during the night-- with nothing missing. The sounds of loud footsteps and talking come from the 3rd floor, and an electrical worker working on the lines allegedly heard the same sounds and the whirling of a "roulette wheel". The space has been unused since that time, the walls still plastered with the pinups of "flappers" from magazine ads.

Milliken University

This pricey private University allegedly teems with the spirits of disgruntled co-eds. Nearly all of the hauntings are attributed to the melencholy ghosts of former female students, forlorn in their perpetual student-dom. One dorm was so saturated with sightings of a suicidal former student that it had to be partially closed in the 1940's. I say it's The Man once again, using scare tactics to scare potential female Einsteins into a life of barefoot pregnancy. Or maybe I'm wrong. Who knows.

The Culver House

Oh, when will people learn ot to screw around on sacred Indian burial grounds? This now abandoned and once magnificent house was built by some greedy turn of the century businessman who poo-poohed the fact that his cheaply purchased land was an Indian cemetary once. Of course, he and his family endured strange apparitions from the fireplace, among other things. Later (apparently located in a lousy part of town) tenement residence saw the ghost of the former owner standing in his library-- or was it just the crack making them hallucinate? You decide.

Peck Cemetery

Like Bachelor's Grove Cemetery in the suburbs of Chicago, this cemetery is isolated and abandoned (and dessecrated and uncared for, as is common in our proud state) only to be visited by drunken teenagers and cults. Or drunken teenagers IN cults... whatever. Sightings of "spook lights" are common here.
*** the stories about cults in the rural midwest are completely true. My own sister said when she was a teenager in the late 1970's, she went to a cemetery in Lacon, IL at night with her friends. Upon entering they saw the shadowy figures of several robed people and a large farm animal- a calf or a goat, she couldn't tell which. They left, obviously, and returned in curiosity the following day-- only finding the remains of a fire and blood stains. I don't think my sister took acid back then, so I believe her. And I always hold the firm belief that people are f**king nuts. Also on that note, acouple of guys I knew in high school swear they saw dead headless chickens scattered along the road near an infamous local cemetery near Wenona, IL. There were many haunting stories surrounding that cemetery as well.

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