Illinois Ghost Adventures (part 3)

White Hall, named after Thomas Dresser White (4th US Air Force Chief of Staff), functioned as an integral part of life on Chanute Air Force Base from its construction 1939 to its closing in 1993. Lovingly called Buckingham Palace by the Airmen who lived, trained, and ate there, White Hall remained the largest military building in the country until the dedication of the Pentagon.

Today, the building has long since fallen into disrepair. Filled with asbestos insulation and lead based paint, officials have deemed the building in need of too much repair to keep open and too expensive to demolish. In the picture below you can see a tree growing from the roof.

Even after its addition to the National Register of Historic Places, no one has any idea what to do with the building. The basements are flooded, stalactites grow from the ceilings, and telephones, chairs, clothes, and toys lay around as though hastily abandoned. 

In recent years, people have reported hearing footsteps in the abandoned hallways, seeing phantom airmen patrolling at night or working at desks, and feeling a dark presence. Mr. Kleen, who gives White Hall two little ghosts out of four, relates the story of Dutch, the police dog from Rantoul PD. Dutch's K-9 unit arrived at White Hall one night in the early 2000s, in response to a call about suspicious figures seen in the building. Dutch was a well-trained, experienced police dog and had participated in almost a thousand arrests. Dutch caught the scent of something and pursued it into the building. He raced up the stairs to the roof from where he inexplicably and without warning jumped to his death.

Do the spirits of Airmen still haunt the abandoned recesses of this building? In person, it looked and felt creepy. You couldn't help feeling someone or something was staring at you from one of those darkened windows.

Sources:

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/other/2006-07-28/glory-days-have-passed-rantouls-chanute-base.html

http://midwestgothicstories.com/2011/10/12/gothic-places-white-hall/

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/people/2011-05-16/chanute-museum-curator-delves-history-city-air-base.html