Illinois Ghost Adventures (part 4)

The Hannah House
Alexander Moore Hannah built his Italianate home in antebellum Indianapolis.

One of the few sympathetic Hoosiers, he used his house as a station on the Underground Railroad. After his death, his children sold the home and the property. The new owners, the Oehlers, moved into the house in 1899. Soon after, they began experiencing strange phenomena. Moving objects, phantom sounds, the smell of charred bodies.

After some investigation, they discovered the grisly truth. One night, Hannah sheltered a group of escaped slaves in his cellar. Someone knocked over the lantern, igniting the straw mattresses. Everyone in the cellar burned to death. Hannah later buried the bodies behind the cellar wall.

Today, people still experience ghostly figures moving through the house, cold spots, unexplained sounds, and the smell of burning.

Ghost Hunt
We spent Saturday night investigating the Hannah House with a group of other Ghost Hunters. The moment we arrived, we were filled with a strange sense of foreboding.

We explored the grounds before the events began. The woods around the house were filled with an eerie silence.

We found a hastily disassembled guillotine. Were the current owners French? Were they hiding the murder of the local aristocracy?

Inside the service branch of the house, we met with the other Ghost Hunters.

One couple were clearly professionals. The husband had a tactical vest and both were bristling with expensive ghost hunting technology. EVP recorders, EMF detectors, flashlights, digital cameras. I felt totally outclassed. I later learned that they had investigated hauntings all over the country. There was also a mother-son team who had been to a handful of other haunted houses. When those four learned of our inexperience, they did not seem amused. They moved away from us on the Group W bench. In addition, there was a group of four college kids, also on their maiden ghost hunting voyage.

While waiting for the tour to begin, I inspected the disturbing artwork. What could it mean? What secrets did these writhing, nipply figures hold?

The Guide gave us a tour of the house, explaining the history, pointing out the hotspots. Then they turned us loose to investigate. Aine and I staked out the attic while it was still light. What we found there unnerved us.

According to the Guide, the rugs mysteriously move around the attic floor. I took this picture during the tour.

When we returned, the chair had been moved and the rug missing. I found it behind a column on the other end of attic.

After sunset, we found, to our dismay, that the flash on our camera no longer worked. Did the spirits sabotage our equipment? What follows is the raw, uncut video footage we took as we explored the house.

The Attic
We didn't experience any paranormal activity in the attic, even though people before us had experienced being pushed and hit by an unseen entity. You'll notice the rug has moved from the earlier picture.

On the way up to the attic, I thought I saw one of the other investigators step out of a room, look at me, then return to the room. When I got to the room, no one was there.

Grandma Oehler's Bed
The Guide told us Grandma didn't like people messing with her bed. We taunted the old lady for over an hour, but couldn't rouse her. At one point, Aine was laying on the bed and I was sitting on the other side of the room. I thought I heard Aine whisper something. She sat up. Did you say my name, she asked. I said no. She said it sounded like someone whispered her name in her ear. We both heard it, but have no idea who said it. Also, while in the room, Aine heard a child say the word "mama" twice from the hallway. I didn't hear it and there were no children in the house.

Also, Aine downloaded a Ghost Communicator App on her iPhone. It displays words that, allegedly, are being communicated by nearby spirits. It kept showing us the words airplane and airport which didn't make much sense. But it also kept displaying my name. Then it displayed the word run. Which was a little disturbing. It didn't display my name in any other room or since we left the house. Only in Grandma Oehler's room.

Did Grandma Oehler know who we were? What was she trying to tell us?

The Cellar
We went down to the cellar where people burned to death and were hastily buried.

We took an EMF detector the Guide let us borrow. It didn't react anywhere in the house. While in the basement, the air grew suddenly chilly and the EMF started lighting up. The Ghost Communicator started repeating the words army, murder, and burning.

Extras
A couple other oddities in the house.

Parting Shot
The mysterious rocking chair.

Homecoming 2013

At the end of May, we took a two week trip back to Austin. I needed to put some face time in at the office and we wanted to restomp our old stomping grounds.

The first thing we did when we got into town was stop by our two favorite Austin stores.

I kid you not. There are no decent Used Books or Sport & Outdoors Stores in Champaign.

That middle weekend fell over Memorial Day, so we headed out to the Webb Homestead on Indian Lake, where the agaves and the guineas roam.

I wanted to get in a couple National Historic Register Sites while we were in town. We drove up and down a few back roads looking for the site of the Chicken Ranch, career booster for Marvin Zindler of Slime in the Ice Machine fame, and inspiration for the musical Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Pretty much because it was a whorehouse.

Just outside of La Grange is the Monument Hill State Park. In 1842, Mexican troops attacked a small band of Texas militia, killing 36 of them. In retaliation for this skirmish, which became known as the Dawson Massacre (named after the militia's commander), the Texas militia launched a raid against Mexican border towns which culminated in the Battle of Mier. In the so-called Mier Expedition, the militia inflicted heavy casualties on the Mexican Army, but they eventually had to surrender. The 243 prisoners were marched south to Mexico City. Most of them escaped, but became lost in the desert without supplies. They had to surrender again. Santa Anna, enraged that they escaped, ordered them all executed. After diplomatic pressure from US and British diplomats, Santa Anne compromised. Only 1 in 10 had to die. The men were forced to draw beans from a jar. For every 9 white beans, there was 1 black bean. The man who drew a black bean was taken outside and shot.

In the 1848, the State of Texas recovered the remains of the dead from the Dawson Massacre and the Black Bean Incident and buried them in a common tomb. In the 1930s, They erected this Art Deco monument over it.

The 40 acre park has several trails, one of them overlooking the La Grange and the Colorado River. The old Kreische Brewery sits in ruins in the park, along with Kreische's house. A German immigrant and prominent member of the community, Kreische operated the third largest brewery in Texas and tended the tomb. After his death in the 1880s, the brewery fell into disuse and the State of Texas bought the land.

Also, there were hundreds of lizards. Probably Texas Spiny Lizards (Sceloporus olivaceus). When two males of this species vie for dominance, they have a push up contest. They continue until one gives up and runs away.

We took a drive through downtown to see an official Historic Texas Tree, the Muster Oak.

The men who would die in the Dawson Massacre first mustered under this tree. The tree became the muster point for troops from La Grange. Soldiers mustered under this tree for the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, and both World Wars.

La Grange is a quaint little town, not run down and closed up like a lot of smaller towns. Downtown, across from the Muster Oak, you'll find the Fayette County Courthouse. Down the street are the Texas Quilt Museum and the Community Garden.

The Irish Invasion of Campus

Falling Down on the Job
So much has happened since my last post. I took a two week trip to Texas. We have new living room furniture. The catalpa has bloomed. I tried making Neufchatel and failed horribly. My classy next door neighbors vacated. No one has replaced them yet. Which makes me uneasy. Like the saying, the devil you know is worth two in the hand. Or something like that.

We have a long way to go to catch up. I'm afraid we have to go back to March to wrap up the Irish Invasion.

Shen-Anne-igans
We took Anne for a tour of campus. You know what that means. We had to visit all the usual spots.

Ricker Redux
You remember our old buddy, Nathan Ricker: first person with an Degree in Architecture in the US, designed Altgeld Hall and Harker Hall.

He also designed the Natural History Building which sits to the East of Harker Hall.

Built in the American High Victorian Gothic style, whatever that means, in 1892, it served as the home to a variety of science departments as well as the now dispersed Natural History Museum. The 3,000 piece cultural artifact collection moved to the Spurlock, another local gem we have not yet strip mined for a Jabbo post.

We also dragged Anne to the Ricker House. It's interesting to see what architects design for themselves. Frank Lloyd Wright chose the Shingle Style rather than the Prairie Style for which he was famous. We've seen Ricker work in Richardsonian Romanesque (Altgeld), Second Empire (Harker), and (most recently) Gothic (not to mention two more buildings we haven't seen yet). So how did he design his own home? In 1892, he designed and then moved into a quaint little American Gothic house on Green Street in Urbana.

And, yes of course, both of these buildings are on the National Historic Register.

What is American Gothic?
Ok, that's a tough one. Since its popularity peaked around the same time as Victorian, it's difficult to tell the two apart. In fact, they sort of ooze together at times. Look for a steep, cross-gable roof (as opposed to the a hipped roof with cross gables that you usually see in Victorian). These houses are mostly symmetrical with ornate scroll work on the eaves and porches. Roughly 1840s to 1880s.

Disappointment: It's What's for Dinner
We've still been trying some new things. Some better than others. Here are two that didn't cut the mustard.

Millet Chard Wraps from the Forks over Knives Cookbook. I executed this dish flawlessly. If you like rainbow chard or millet, this is probably the dish for you. We liked neither.

I found the innocuously named Root Vegetable Bake online. It included almost every root vegetable you could imagine: red potatoes, yams, carrots, parsnips, jicama, and turnips. After baking for an hour and a half, most of the ingredients were still a little crunchy and we mostly didn't like it at all. If I ever do this one again, I'll probably boil the roots first. That is, if I can talk myself into the half hour of peeling and chopping required.

Sticks to Your Ribs
We did find a couple recipes we loved.

Also from the Forks over Knives Cookbook: Cuban Style Black Beans with Brown Rice. We slapped these on some corn tortillas and added some feta. This is now a popular dish in the McWebb household.

And just as glorious was the Pad Thai with Shrimp we tried. I found this recipe on the Closet Cooking blog. It tasted super duper, but next time we'll probably try the version in the Betty Crocker Cookbook as is popular among certain Holmeses we know. It's slightly tastier and a lot easier to fix.

But this one was still top notch.

Parting Shot
In unrelated news: ANGRY CAT!

The Irish Invasion of Bloomington

My mother-in-law Anne came for a visit at the end of March. Being Irish, she had no interest in Lincolnalia. She said she saw the preview for the Lincoln movie and that was quite enough for her, thank you very much (she wholly approves of the half-Irish Daniel Day Lewis, though). Don't get me wrong, Anne passed the oral exam required for citizenship a few years ago, which means she knows more about US History and Government than your average graduating senior. I helped her study for the exam and learned a few things myself.

Since Lincoln was right out, we visited some sites formerly unexamined by the Jabbo Exploration Team. I'll tell you all about them, but first, let's talk about National Historic Landmarks.

National Historic Landmarks
So far, we've been ticking off sites from the National Historic Register as we find them. However, within the ranks of the National Historic Sites, there exists an elite subclass, known as National Historic Landmarks. To rise to the status of Landmark, the site has to have National Level Historic Significance. The National Historic Register lists almost 90 thousand sites, and only 3% are National Historic Landmarks. You can find 25% of those in three states: Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachussetts (basically, where all the best stuff between 1600 and 1800 happened). Illinois has 85 (I've seen 6), Alabama has 37 (I've seen 1), Oklahoma has 22 (I think I've been to 1), and Texas has 46 (I've seen 14, 3 of those on my honeymoon).

To see the Landmarks in your state, check out this list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Historic_Landmarks_by_state

Clover Lawn
We took Anne on her first Illinois Day Trip to the bustling Twin Cities of Bloomington-Normal. There, we found a National Historic Landmark that was only sort of Lincoln-related. Clover Lawn.

As you can probably tell, Clover Lawn looks like a hodgepodge of Victorian elements, a style known as Victorian Eclectic. It has a crested roof and asymmetrical facade, both common to all Victorian houses, but it has the Mansard of a Second Empire, the tower and bays often seen in Queen Anne, and the bold eaves of Italianate.

By the time David Davis commissioned Clover Lawn, he had made himself one of the richest men in Illinois. So rich, they had a masonry outhouse.

So rich, he had the money to get incredibly fat.

Public Domain

Davis grew up poor, but studied law, passed the bar, and rode the 8th Circuit in Illinois. On the 8th, he became a devout Whig and close friend of (don't tell Anne) Abraham Lincoln. During his first term, Lincoln appointed Davis to the Supreme Court where he was influential in Ex Parte Milligan, a landmark court case that held civilians can't be tried by military tribunals.

They wouldn't let us take pictures of the interior, but the house was beautiful. And big. It even had a servants wing (I felt like I was touring Downton). The lady told us when the family tried to donate the house to the state, the state didn't want it. The state did want, however, the huge collection of correspondences between Davis and Lincoln sitting in the attic. The family said, you can have the letters, but you have to take the house with them. Which is the only reason the house is still standing.

Also standing are the original out buildings, including the coach house, which is also a Quilt Barn.

And before you ask...

Quilt Barns
I researched this and found the precise definitions required for Quilt Barnhood. A Quilt Barn is any barn or farm building that displays a Barn Quilt. A Barn Quilt is a wooden 8x8 ft. square painted with geometric or floral designs. Apparently this is a thing. There currently exist over 3 thousand Quilt Barns in 43 states and 2 Canadian provinces. Some say the tradition dates back to German immigrants in the 1830s, but the current popularity started when the first modern Barn Quilt went up in Adams County, Ohio in 2001. Several states have Quilt Barn Trails published online and you can follow them from barn to barn. Apparently, there are quite a few Quilt Barns in Oklahoma, but no one has created a list or a marked trail. That would be interesting for someone from Oklahoma to do. Compile an online list of Quilt Barns. Just saying.

Here's a good Quilt Barn site:
http://www.barnquiltinfo.com/

John W. Cook Hall
We couldn't go all the way to Bloomington without paying homage to another building funded by our favorite Progessive Patron, Governor Altgeld. That's right. Our second Altgeld Castle.

Built in 1898 as a Gymnasium (not the Greek kind), Cook Hall now houses the the School of Music for Illinois State University. Altgeld rejected the original plans for the building. He wanted it to look like one of the Rhineland Castles in Germany.

Here's Lahneck Castle on the Rhine for comparison:

Holger Weinandt

The Rhine River is also home to Lorelai, a Llorona-style legend who drowned in the river and whose spirit lures sailors to the rocks where they crash and sink. That's interesting if you know anyone named Lorelai.

Altgeld's architects acquiesced to his demands, but took some poetic license. They used Bedford Limestone on the exterior, limestone from a small area of Indiana. Limestone from the same vein was used on the Biltmore, the Empire State Building, and the Pentagon.

Art Deco Churches
Completely randomly, we happened to pass this church. I screamed until Aine pulled over to let me take a picture. This is the first and only Art Deco Church I've ever seen: Holy Trinity Catholic Church (it's also on the National Historic Register).

Though the US has several churches with Art Deco inspired elements, I could only find three Official Art Deco Churches. These include Madonna della Strada Chapel in Chicago and Christ the King Roman Catholic Church in Tulsa. Tulsa also has the Boston Avenue Methodist Church, both Art Deco and one of Oklahoma's National Historic Landmarks. (Apparently, Tulsa hit its second oil boom just in time to catch the Art Deco fad spreading across the US. As a result, Tulsa has enough Art Deco buildings to rival Chicago or New York, and an Art Deco museum to boot.)

A tornado wiped the original Holy Trinity off the map. The second one burned down in a fire. So you're looking at the third try. The Convent and Rectory building from the original structure (built in Richardsonian Romanesque) still stands behind the church. They are actually just left of this picture, but I didn't get them because I had no idea what I was doing.

Normal Theater
I saw this from the car and thought it might be important. I was totally right. National Historic Register site. The Normal Theater, dating back to 1937, was built in the Moderne style (a late version of Art Deco). Moderne features strong horizontal lines and rounded elements. MGM designed The Emerald City in the 1939 Wizard of Oz to look Moderne because that was the hottest new thing at the time. Go back and watch the movie: everything looks so Art Deco, it's disgusting.

Kroger
No joke. I took a picture of a grocery store. I didn't know you could find one north of Conroe. Apparently, Bloomington-Normal has one. Little known fact: Krogers have a unique Kroger smell that you can't smell in any other grocery store. A smell that makes me feel like I'm 16 again.

Uptown Girls
For lunch, we stopped in Uptown Normal, a trendy little main street area with shops and restaurants.

Anne said No Mexican Food. So we stopped at the locally renowned Reggie's Sandwich Shop.

Anne and Aine both got something boring with chicken, but I got the Chicago Style Beef. Mostly it tasted like a supreme pizza.

Anne hates having her picture taken, so I try to take as many pictures of her as possible. Here's one of my favorites from lunch.

Aine and I got in on the action too.

Downtown Man
After filling our bellies, we drove over to Downtown Bloomington, a city center somewhat more austere and old-timey than Uptown Normal. So, the McLean County Courthouse and surrounding square counts as one National Historic Site and then the entire business district around that counts as another.

The Courthouse itself lives on the site of three previous courthouses. It seems in Illinois, the life of a courthouse is cheap. The current one dates back to 1903, where it served in an official county capacity until 1976, the same year Bob Dylan released his album Desire, though I'm not sure the two events are connected. In 1976, the Courthouse became the headquarters for the McLean County Historical Society and the site of their museum.

I know what you're thinking. You're looking at those fluted columns with acanthus leaf capitals, that pedimented gable, the balustrade across the roof, that symetrical floor plan, and you're thinking, I'm looking at Neoclassical. Well, congratulations. You got this one, at least.

The business district includes the Ensenberger Building, built in 1926 to house Ensenberger's Furniture Store. Originally built as Gothic Revival with massive Gothic spires on the roof, the owner renovated the outside to look Art Deco in the 1940s. This place must have been special. It received 40 thousand visitors the week it opened, many coming from New York and California. Today it houses condos for the Bloomington Yuppie Class. The architect, Philip Hooton also designed the green terra cotta panels on the building's facade.

The venerable Mr. Hooton also designed the State Farm Building in 1929. That's three years later, so you don't have to do the math. As the name implies, this building served as the State Farm headquarters for Illinois for almost 50 years. Totally Art Deco.

On this next building, I found no information. As far as I can tell, it has no historical importance. I thought the copper Mansard looked sort of awesome, though.

Lincoln #15
In the shadow of the courthouse, we found another Lincoln, a 2000 work by Rick Harney.

 Parting Shot
Here's your opportunity to play our favorite Champaign game: Find the Cat.