Charles Hull’s monument at Rose Hill. When the grounds were dedicated in the late 1850s, many prominent citizens stayed after the ceremonies to pick out their plots. Being so close to the gate, I assume that Charles was one of them. While I was the University of Chicago library today, I ran across an 1867 book…
Tag: hull house
Shadows at the Body Dump?
Some interesting shots from the tours lately. First of all, for you Hull House fans, the last tree in the adjacent courtyard (subject of much ghostlore and superstition) fell down some time in the last week: The garden / courtyard area is the subject of a lot of real nonsense stories that go around –…
Some shots from our Tumblr
Now and then I’ll have some fun with instagram filters and post stuff up on our tumblr. Here are three recent ones: Floor 12N on the Congress Hotel. This is the floor the staff always tells me is the spookiest one. This blank space on that floor may have inspired the legend of “the room…
100 Years of the Hull House Devil Baby
Chicago Examiner, 10/31/1913 On Halloween, 1913, exactly a century ago, the Chicago Examiner broke the story that the west side of Chicago was alive with rumors that a “devil baby” had been brought to Hull House, the settlement house Jane Addams operated on the West Side. By then, it was all they’d been hearing about at…
Some Hull House Ghost Myths and Realities
Seeing as how October is coming around, I thought I’d clear up some things people are likely to start hearing about Hull House, the 1856 mansion that Jane Addams turned into a settlement house where she basically invented American social work. That the house is haunted is a story going back to at least 1889,…
Some recent “ghost” shots from the tours
Kiersten, a tour passenger on Friday night, snapped this cool shot – it was the hit of the tour when shown off on the bus! While I’m generally inclined to think of these “stairs” shots as reflections and smears (reflected ears are a common culprit), this is a really nifty one appearing to show two…
A New Hull House Ghost Shot
You know what I say, folks: there’s no such thing as good ghost evidence, only cool ghost evidence. Well, here’s a cool one for you. This was taken on one of my tours this past weekend, and shows what looks like a baby on the staircase at Hull House: A close-up, with the contrast adjusted very slightly:…
The “Glinda Orb”
I suppose that on any website that deals with ghostlore, we have to deal with “orbs” from time to time. Orbs are little white or grey balls of light that often appear in photos, and some say that they’re ghosts. Most of the time, they turn out to be something else – dust, the result…