Since Halloween is only a few weeks away I thought it would be fun to go and check out the Stickney Mansion in Bull Valley, IL. I've heard a lot of things about the place and wanted to see for myself. Rob and I have driven by before but never got the chance to go inside like we did this time. Before I get ahead of myself I want to give you some history of the Stickney Mansion and who the Stickney's were.
"George and Sylvia Stickney built the mansion in the middle 1800's. They chose such an isolated place and for their spiritualistic activities. Both of them were said to be accomplished mediums and they wanted to host parties and seances for their friends. The seclusion offered by the Illinois countryside made the perfect setting. Since the seances would be held quite often, they specified that the house should have no square corners in it. They explained that spirits have a tendency to get stuck in these corners, which could have dire results. It has also been suggested that the Stickney’s believed that corners attracted the attention of evil spirits as well, a common belief in Spiritualist circles of the time. According to legend though, one corner of a room accidentally ended up with a 90-degree measurement. How this could have happened is unknown. Perhaps the architect either forgot or was unable to complete the room with anything but a right angle. Perhaps he thought that the Stickney’s would never notice this one flaw. But they did notice! And here, the legend takes an even stranger turn.
The stories say that it was in this corner that George Stickney was discovered one day. He was slumped to the floor, dead from an apparent heart failure, although no visible signs suggested a cause of death. Was he right about the square corners? Could an angry ghost, summoned by a seance, have been trapped in the corner?
After the death of her husband, Sylvia Stickney lived on in the house and gained considerable fame as a spirit medium. The upstairs ballroom was converted into a large seance chamber and people came from far and wide to contact the ghosts of their deceased loved ones and relatives. Sylvia also claimed to stay in contact with her unlucky husband and her deceased children."
When I was googling the Stickney Mansion I came across related websites about the Holcombville Cemetery. Seeing that the sites were linking together I knew that the mansion had some sort of connection to the cemetery. That's when I found out that 4 of the Stickney children were buried in that cemetery. I was unable to find stories on how exactly the their children had died. But I am kind of leaning towards the lack of knowledge and medical experience they had in the 1800's which could have resulted in their deaths. But do not quote me, for I am unsure of this fact. :)
Since Rob was at work my friend Sarah and I went to check out the cemetery and mansion during the day time. It was a small cemetery, actually quite peaceful. Nothing seemed too odd about it. But you could tell right away that it was very old. Most of the tombstones were dated back to the early 1800's. Sarah found the four Stickney children's graves pretty quickly. They were all buried right next to each other. Here are some photos of the cemetery.
While at the mansion during the day, Sarah and I walked around the entire thing probably 10 times. We peeked in a few windows. Didn't really see much. But we did notice the rounded edges of the interior and exterior of the building. Which is creepy in itself knowing the history behind those rounded corners.
The mansion is now occupied by the Bull Valley police department. But it still had a very eerie feel to it. The second story is not used for anything. And we found out later that the only person who has a key to the top floor is the Chief of Police Norbert Sauers. When we were there, there were no cars in the tiny parking lot. The building was empty. At one point we walked up to the doors and heard some noises from inside. Sarah described it as "pots and pans being banged together". Since no one was inside that made us freak out. We left soon after that. But something made us come back later that night with Rob and to check it out further. Here are some some photos of the Stickney Mansion during the day.
This next photo shows you the rounded corners of the exterior.
And the interior with it's round corners.
There were tons of bugs around too. Which just added to the spookiness.
Here are a couple more shots of the exterior.
Now is where it gets really spooky.
Later that night Rob, Sarah and I decided to come back to check out the mansion while it was dark out. Honestly I am not sure what possessed us to even do this! We got to the mansion about 9:30 pm. When we pulled up, like before there were no cars in the parking lot. There was still a light on inside from earlier. But it appeared as no one was there. Rob got out of the car to take a few photos of the side we were parked on and the back of the mansion. As he was coming back to the car a police man pulls in to the parking lot. I thought to myself...oh no, we are gonna get in trouble now. But fortunately he was a really nice man and offered to let us come in and look around after we told him that we heard stories that it is in fact haunted. So we accepted the invitation and we headed inside. The place is just as creepy as it is outside maybe even more so.
He shows us around the bottom floor. We were not allowed to go upstairs because only the Chief of Police has the key for that and he was not there at the time. Even the police officer that gave us the tour was never allowed up there. The thing about this place is that they normally don't give tours out to people. We just got kind of lucky that night.
The policeman showed us an album of black and white photos taken of the Stickneys when they were alive. Have you ever noticed how in old black and white photos no one is ever smiling? Creepy! After he showed us the photos he told us about some of the "paranormal" experiences he has had while working there for 11 years.
He told us that one time he was there working all alone and he heard a noise outside...thinking maybe some kids were out there he went to investigate and found no one. Upon returning back inside, he heard the same noises again. So he retreated back outside to see if there was someone out there this time. When he passed by the window of the Chief of Police's office he saw a man standing there in an old time war outfit with his hands on his belt. He is pretty sure it was the ghost of George Stickney himself. He said he couldn't believe his eyes. Had he really just seen that? He looked again and the ghost had vanished. The Chief of Police's office was locked from the inside so there is no way someone could have gotten in there and played a prank on him. A little freaked out he went back inside and got back to work. Later that evening at 2 am while he was still on the clock he heard a ball bouncing on the second floor. Let me remind you the second floor of the mansion was used as an old ball room where they held seances. The only person to have a key to get up there is the Chief of Police and he was not there that night. After he heard the ball bounce and roll a little bit he heard a whisper say "Get the ball Billy." After the officer heard that he said he bolted out of the building and didn't come back until his next shift.
Another experience he told us about was the time he had his brother and sister-in-law in the mansion with him. Him and his brother were in the basement doing something. They heard his sister-in-law from the first floor yelling "quit playing with that ball!" They didn't have a clue what she was talking about. So they just carried on with what they were doing. When they returned to the first floor she asked them "What were you doing with that ball? I kept hearing it bouncing." They told her they had not been playing with a ball at all.
The third experience he told us was the time he stepped out of the office. No one was there but him so when he left he set the alarm. Upon his return he found that all the chairs in the office had been turned into a circle. The stapler and tape dispenser were standing straight up. And even the pens on his desk were standing straight up and down. If you think about it...there's no way someone who was pulling a prank on you could stand a pen straight up and down and walk away without it falling. There is just no way that is possible. Try it. It doesn't work. His first thought was someone was playing a joke on him. He printed out the alarm log to see if anyone had been in to turn the alarm off and then back on again when they left. The log showed nothing of this sort. The only person who could have done this would have been a ghost. Crazy huh?
One more thing he mentioned to us was that there was a time when one of the other police officers drove by the front and snapped a picture of the front door. There was no one standing there when they took the picture but later when they looked at it there was a dark silhouette in the photo. Could have been a ghost.
I have to say that the entire time we were in the building talking to the officer I felt this strange heaviness on my legs. Like someone was pulling on them. I am not just saying that to make this story seem more real and scary. I honestly felt something odd. Like a strange presence.
After we were done touring and talking to the officer we thanked him and left. He had said to take as many pictures as you want of the windows and the outside. He said you might be surprised at what you will see in the photos. His wife has taken pictures of the windows before and has seen orbs that look like snowflakes and when you zoom in it's definitely a ghost.
Rob decided to take some more photos of the outer windows just like the police man had said. There was one window in particular on the second that seemed strange to us. In the window there was a fake candle lit, just like all the other windows had. But when Rob snapped the picture it showed complete darkness in the window. Not even a tiny glow showed up. But the other windows with the same candles showed light. Here is a photos of the other windows on the side of the house.
Rob decided to take some more photos of the outer windows just like the police man had said. There was one window in particular on the second that seemed strange to us. In the window there was a fake candle lit, just like all the other windows had. But when Rob snapped the picture it showed complete darkness in the window. Not even a tiny glow showed up. But the other windows with the same candles showed light. Here is a photos of the other windows on the side of the house.
This window should have looked like the above ones. It had the same candle stick as the rest had. But the photo came out completely dark instead.
The next day I was going through the photos and I couldn't help but think there is something odd about that one dark window. So I opened up that photo. Zoomed in as much as I could and remembered what the police officer had said about the Oras appearing as white snowflakes. So I increased the contrast of the photo to pull out any white in the picture. And to my surprise, when I did this a ghost of a lady appeared in the photo to the right of the window. She is standing straight up and her face is very white. She is wearing a long black dress. Rob had captured her in two photos. Here they are.
I know a lot of people choose to believe what they want to. And some of you might think I tampered with and edited the photos to look the way they do. But I didn't. What you see is real. You can choose to believe the story of the Stickney Mansion or not.
Thanks for reading!! :)
