While Illinois doesn’t offer traditional ghost towns with overnight accommodations, you’ll discover something far more enthralling: historic hotels and estates where you can actually sleep among the spirits. Places like Hotel Baker’s haunted sixth floor, Congress Plaza’s sealed paranormal rooms, and Ashmore Estates’ overnight ghost hunts let you experience authentic supernatural encounters firsthand. These locations combine documented tragedy, notorious history, and active paranormal phenomena—transforming your stay into an unforgettable investigation where the past refuses to rest quietly.
Key Takeaways
- Ashmore Estates offers overnight bookings starting at $249, featuring former almshouse buildings with documented paranormal activity and ghost hunts.
- Hotel Baker in St. Charles provides overnight stays with haunted sixth-floor rooms reporting ghostly encounters and spectral phenomena.
- Congress Plaza Hotel in Chicago offers accommodations across 47 haunted locations, including sealed rooms with intense paranormal reports.
- DeSoto House in Galena features overnight lodging in historic Civil War-era rooms with reported cold spots and apparitions.
- Grand Rose Hotel provides overnight stays in a historic building overlooking the Ohio River with unmarked graves and nightly ghostly activities.
Old Joliet Prison: Where Notorious History Meets Paranormal Investigation
On May 22, 1858, the first 53 prisoners arrived at a limestone quarry outside Joliet, tasked with building their own cage. You’ll discover W.W. Boyington’s gothic prison architecture rising from blocks these convicts cut themselves—a fortress that held souls for 144 years.
Walk where John Wayne Gacy and Baby Face Nelson once paced. The 1975 riot’s echoes haven’t faded, nor have the inmate stories of medieval conditions—no running water, nearly 2,000 men crammed where 1,300 should’ve been. The facility’s notorious inmates also included Leopold and Loeb, the 1924 thrill killers who later worked to improve the prison’s educational programs.
You’re treading conscience ground along Route 66. By 1878, Joliet prisoners themselves constructed a wooden cellhouse with 400 cells, continuing the grim tradition of inmates building their own confinement.
Though tours paused until March 2026, this isn’t just abandoned cells and paranormal thrills. It’s a testament to those who survived unimaginable confinement, their spirits—literal or metaphorical—demanding you remember what happens when freedom’s stolen.
Hotel Baker: The Tragic Tale of St. Charles’ Haunted Penthouse
You’ll find one of Illinois’ most persistent ghost stories tucked away on the sixth floor of the elegant Hotel Baker.
Where a heartbroken chambermaid allegedly took her own life in the Fox River after being abandoned by her lover.
Her former quarters, now transformed into a luxurious penthouse suite, have become the epicenter of unexplained phenomena that’ve plagued guests for decades.
Visitors report invisible hands yanking their bedding away in the dead of night, disembodied voices echoing through empty rooms, and bone-chilling moans drifting from the storage areas where hotel staff once slept.
The historic property, built in 1928 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has welcomed famous performers like Guy Lombardo and Louis Armstrong to its legendary Rainbow Room.
The hotel offers ghost tours and Halloween events throughout the year, welcoming families and paranormal enthusiasts to explore its haunted history.
Chambermaid’s Sixth-Floor Tragedy
Among the Fox River’s most haunting legends, the story of Hotel Baker’s jilted chambermaid stands as a memorial to how profound heartbreak can transcend mortality itself.
During the 1970s, a chambermaid drowned herself in the Fox River after her fiancé—a fellow hotel employee—abandoned her at the altar. She’d lived and worked on the sixth floor, where employee quarters once housed the hotel’s domestic staff.
Today, that same floor hosts the most intense ghostly encounters. You’ll hear moaning from the storage room, feel invisible hands pulling your bedding in the penthouse, and catch strange voices echoing through hallways. Bathroom lights flicker without explanation, and doors move on their own, adding to the unsettling atmosphere that permeates the sixth floor.
Paranormal investigations have captured unexplained music on audio recorders, documenting the chambermaid’s unresolved grief that refuses to fade. The top balcony holds its own spectral resident, where Colonial Baker’s wife, Harriet Rockwell Baker, is believed to wander in eternal vigil.
Paranormal Activity Reports
The penthouse suite occupies the exact space where the chambermaid once slept during her employment at Hotel Baker, and guests who book this sixth-floor accommodation don’t always spend the night alone. You might experience bedding yanked from your body by invisible hands, or hear disembodied voices echoing through the darkness. Ghostly footsteps pace the corridors outside while sudden cold drafts sweep through sealed rooms.
The spirit manifestation intensifies near the storage area—once employee chambers—where mournful moaning pierces the silence at 3 a.m.
Throughout the hotel, paranormal encounters multiply. Fourth-floor guests report bathroom lights flickering on and off for hours, doors moving independently. The Rainbow Room’s dance floor has become another hotspot for unexplained phenomena, where guests and staff alike have witnessed strange occurrences. These disturbances earned Hotel Baker its ranking as Illinois’ seventh-most haunted hotel, attracting ghost hunters seeking encounters with the building’s restless spirits.
Desoto House Hotel: Galena’s Historic Haven of Hauntings
When you check into this former campaign headquarters-turned-haunted haven, you’re not just booking accommodation—you’re stepping into spectral territory.
The hotel’s spiral staircase, ornate parlors, and atmospheric corridors create the perfect stage for paranormal encounters.
Between fires, tragedies, and Civil War-era drama, you’ll understand why this storied establishment remains a magnet for ghost hunters seeking authentic hauntings. The third floor is particularly active, with guests reporting cold chills, bright orbs, and an overwhelming sense of unease in certain rooms.
Witnesses have also encountered vintage-clothed figures sitting on beds or floating through the hallways.
Congress Plaza Hotel: Chicago’s Most Haunted Overnight Destination
You’ll find Chicago’s Congress Plaza Hotel boldly claiming its title as one of Travel + Leisure’s most haunted hotels in America—a recognition earned through over 125 years of documented tragedies and supernatural encounters. Since opening in 1893, this South Loop landmark has witnessed more than 47 distinct hauntings.
These hauntings range from guests fleeing terror-stricken in the night to security guards chasing shadow figures across rooftops. The hotel’s notorious reputation transforms each overnight stay into a potential brush with the paranormal.
Guests report elevators moving on their own, phantom children laughing in empty corridors, and the spirits of suicide victims lingering in the exact spots where they died. The hotel earned its nickname “Home of Presidents” after hosting Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and both Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt during pivotal moments in American political history.
Travel + Leisure Recognition
Why would Travel + Leisure, a publication known for luxury destinations and aspirational getaways, spotlight a hotel where guests report being pushed by unseen hands and awakened by Victorian-era apparitions? Because the Congress Plaza’s haunted history represents something travelers crave: authentic, unscripted experiences you can’t manufacture or replicate elsewhere.
This isn’t sanitized entertainment—it’s raw confrontation with the unknown.
The recognition validates what freedom-seekers already know: the most memorable journeys embrace uncertainty rather than avoid it.
When you’re exploring ghostly legends in Room 441 or walking hallways where shadow figures glide past, you’re choosing adventure over predictability.
Travel + Leisure understands that true luxury isn’t always comfort—sometimes it’s courage.
The Congress Plaza earned its place on prestigious lists precisely because it offers something increasingly rare: genuine mystery.
Paranormal Activity Reports
How does a hotel convince management to permanently seal entire rooms and remove them from revenue-generating inventory?
At Congress Plaza, the answer lies in reports deemed “too horrible” to ignore.
Room 666 and Room 209 now sit boarded up, their secrets locked behind sealed doors.
You’ll find the most intense activity concentrated in specific locations:
- Room 441 generates constant security calls—shadowy women hover over beds, unseen hands poke sleeping guests, and electromagnetic disturbances kill electronics without warning.
- The 12th Floor where a tragic 1930s murder left children’s laughter echoing through halls and elevators skipping floors inexplicably.
- Throughout the South Tower where unexplained apparitions materialize—from Captain Ostheim gliding through corridors to construction workers’ hands reaching through walls.
You’re not just staying overnight; you’re entering documented paranormal territory.
Ashmore Estates: A Night of Terror in Rockford’s Most Haunted Location
When darkness falls over the crumbling brick walls of Ashmore Estates, the building’s violent past awakens. You’ll explore the historic architecture where Joe Bloxom’s full-bodied apparition materializes in hallways, and young Elva tugs at your clothes with ghostly persistence.
The boiler room harbors aggressive energy that physically pushes visitors, while shadow figures drift through rooms where countless souls perished over 150 years.
Since 2006, you’ve been able to book overnight stays in this former almshouse turned psychiatric hospital. The Terrys maintain day tours, night investigations, and extended paranormal visits where you’ll confront unexplained voices echoing through abandoned wards.
These ghostly legends aren’t manufactured—they’re rooted in documented suicides, fire victims, and suffering patients who never left.
Grand Rose Hotel: Elizabethtown’s Riverside Retreat With a Ghostly Presence
Perched on a limestone bluff above the Ohio River’s rolling currents, the Grand Rose Hotel has welcomed travelers through its brick doorway since 1812.
This two-story L-shaped structure showcases historical architecture that’s evolved from James McFarland’s original tavern into Illinois’s oldest operating hotel.
You’ll discover unmarked graves in the backyard—remains of believed former slaves and guests found during excavations and respectfully left undisturbed.
Your stay offers three distinctive experiences:
- Custom-designed rooms with sweeping riverfront scenery from the wraparound porch
- A Victorian gazebo perched cliff-side for breathtaking river vistas
- Midnight encounters with unexplained phenomena throughout the 200-year-old halls
The State of Illinois now owns this National Register property, leasing it to private operators who maintain its intimate bed-and-breakfast charm while preserving its spectral reputation.
Planning Your Haunted Overnight Stay in Illinois
Illinois’s haunted hotels transform ordinary getaways into supernatural adventures, where you’ll sleep within walls that harbor decades of spectral activity.
You’ve got choices ranging from $249 overnight packages at Original Springs Hotel—complete with dinner and all-night ghost hunts—to bunkhouse stays at Ashmore Estates, where investigators report strange lights and shadowy figures.
Check out local ghost stories before booking: Hotel Baker’s sixth-floor penthouse hosts a drowned chambermaid’s spirit, while DeSoto House’s apparitions roam in old-fashioned attire.
For haunted tour tips, arrive early for check-in (typically 4:00 PM) and bring recording equipment for private investigations.
The Ruebel Hotel offers family-friendly hauntings with playful ghost Abigail, while serious paranormal enthusiasts tackle Travel Channel-featured locations with limited participant access.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Paranormal Investigation Equipment Should I Bring to These Haunted Locations?
You’ll want essential paranormal tools like K-II EMF detectors, infrared thermometers for cold spots, and digital voice recorders for EVP capture. These investigation techniques help you document spectral energy while exploring Illinois’s haunted settlements independently.
Are Children Allowed on Overnight Ghost Hunts at These Illinois Hotels?
Most hotels don’t explicitly ban children from overnight ghost hunts, but you’ll want to take into account child safety first. Check directly about age restrictions, as paranormal investigations often run late with potentially frightening content that might unsettle young ones.
How Much Do Overnight Paranormal Investigation Stays Typically Cost in Illinois?
Think of overnight paranormal stays as treasure hunts through darkness—you’ll invest $129-$550 depending on your crew size. These immersive experiences let you chase local legends and explore historical significance firsthand, uncovering mysteries that standard tours can’t offer.
Can I Request a Non-Haunted Room if I Change My Mind?
Unfortunately, booking policies don’t mention non-haunted room options at these paranormal destinations. You’re committing to the full supernatural experience when paying room rental fees—there’s no escape clause once you’ve embraced the haunting adventure.
What’s the Best Time of Year to Visit Haunted Locations in Illinois?
Fall reveals Illinois’s haunted heart best—crisp air amplifies whispers, shorter days deepen shadows, and historical background merges with local legends. You’ll find fewer crowds, comfortable temperatures for midnight investigations, and autumn’s mysterious atmosphere intensifying every paranormal encounter you seek.
References
- https://www.hauntedrooms.com/illinois/ghost-hunts/old-joliet-prison
- https://1440wrok.com/ixp/723/p/most-haunted-hotels-illinois/
- https://www.illinoishauntedhouses.com/real-haunts/hotels.aspx
- https://q985online.com/best-haunted-tours-illinois/
- https://www.enjoyillinois.com/plan-your-trip/travel-inspiration/galena-ghost-tours/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPviWVj1mKo
- https://97zokonline.com/you-can-spend-the-night-at-the-most-haunted-place-in-illinois-if-you-dare/
- https://www.bumpinthenight.net/night-at-the-original-springs-hotel
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joliet_Correctional_Center
- https://artsandculture.google.com/story/old-joliet-prison-a-unique-site-of-conscience-along-route-66-landmarks-illinois/VQWhX–ABR1a0Q?hl=en
