HERRINGTON INN

Most of the industries in Geneva, IL in the 19th century produced agriculture-related products. The Butter and Cheese Manufacturing Company, begun in 1874, which later became the Geneva Rock Springs Creamery, and is now home to the Herrington Inn. This carefully restored late 1800's limestone building is home to a variety of uniquely decorated rooms...and a number of reported ghosts.

Investigation

May 5, 2006

8:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m.

Equipment:

TriField emf meter, Trifield Natural em meter, noncontact infrared thermometer, 1 Nikon 35MM SLR camera, 1 Canon Sure Shot 35MM camera, Nikon digital camera, Kodak Black and White 400 film,1 digital voice recorders, digital 8 track recorder with external microphone, 1 mini Dv video camera, 2 security cameras with night vision, DVR, 2 passive IR motion detectors and Toshiba laptop computer for real time analysis.All video cameras equipped with night shot

Investigators:

Jim & Trevor

Baseline readings:

9:00pm:

Basement EMF 3 - 100mg 62° - 70°

Corridor EMF 3 - 4mg 68° - 70°

(elevator 30mg)

10:00pm:

Basement EMF 3 - 100mg 62° - 70°

Corridor EMF 3 - 4mg 67° - 70°

(elevator 30mg)

Weather:

Temperature: 56°

Dew Point: 46.3°

Barometric pressure: 29.98in

Wind: 9 - 13 MPH

Precipitation: None

Geomagnetic Field: Unsettled

Solar X-Rays: Active B2

Moon: First quarter moon

Investigation:

A film crew from Geneva High School contacted us by phone and told us they were filming a documentary about local hauntings. They had setup an investigation of a local hotel that is reported to have had many paranormal occurrances over the years. Their crew was to follow and film us as we tried to collect evidence of the supposed haunting. We arrived at the Herrington Inn at 8 PM on May 5, 2006. We were met by John Trierweiler and three other memebers of his film crew. John walked us through the location, pointing out all of the hot spots, and relating the stories that went along with them. The first area we were taken to was the "dungeon," which was a mechanical area in the basement that was also used as a storage area for the banquet area. This was part of the original building that was used as a creamery, and was also said to have been a holding cell for criminals. There are reports of employees seeing the feet of a hanged man swinging in the air in this room. Also people claim a feeling of being watched and of seeing shadowy figures moving out of the corner of their eyes. Next we were taken to the main building and shown the bar area. On New Years Eve 2002 a bottle of vodka flew off the shelf and almost hitting the bartender, Lindsay. This was witnessed by another employee, Joe. The chandelier lights in this area have dimmed and brightened on several occasions. This and a host of other electrical problems have been witnessed by many people over the year. A corridor on the third floor between rooms 309 and 311 have many stories attached to it. Cold spots have been experienced in this area, and shadows appear on the wall as if someone is behind you, but when you turn around nobody is there. A man staying in room 309 claimed that a woman knocked on his door, and she was selling something. He turned to get his wallet, and when he turned back around the woman had vanished. When the front desk was called, no woman fitting the description was working, nor had she been seen in the building. Lindsay claimed to have seen the "lady in white" in this area. Across the hall from room 309 is a room where the service elevator is located. It is said that if an employee has to use this elevator, it will be waiting with the doors open and the floor selected that the employee is going to. When not in use this elevator is always supposed to be waiting on the ground floor.

The hotel is still in use and every room was booked that night, with a wedding reception going on in the banquet area. This left us with the "dungeon" as the only possible area where monitoring equipment could be setup. Two cameras were positioned here in an attempt to capture evidence of the shadowy figures or the hanging man. The digital audio recorder and external mic were also placed in this area with the hopes of finding recording evps. Recording was started on the audio and video, then emf and temperature readings were then took of this room. Since this is essentially a mechanical room, there were several electrical boxes located here. The emf readings in this room are over 100 mg. We believe that presense of the strong electromagnetic field in the room could be causing employees to hallucinate some of the reported phenomena. It is also a dark creepy basement, which in itself could cause unease in someone going down there alone at night Next we went to the third floor of the main building, and took readings. Nothing anomalous was found, but there were high emf readings in the vacinity of the service elevator. We also noticed that there are lamps hanging at intervals along the wall. The area where people have reported seeing a mysterious shadow behind them is at a corner in the corridor. We found that as you are walking down the hall the different lamps are causing you to cast different shadows on the same wall. We believe that this is what people have experienced, but may have misinterpreted this after hearing the claims of the supposed haunting. We returned to the dungeon area to conduct a ghost watch and attemt to record evps. While Trevor was attempting to record evps one member of the film crew reported being overcome by a strange feeling. We cut our ghost watch short, because there were six of us crowded into a small area, and employees kept coming into the room and turning on the lights. We decided to go back into the main building and record a formal interview. While Trevor was being interviewed by the film crew, Jim went back to the dungeon area to conduct another ghost watch. After this, two of the employees were interviewed about their experiences at the Inn. At this time we decided to wrap up the investigation. After reiewing all the evidence collected at this location, we found nothing anomalous on any of the audio and video recordings. We also found nothing on any of the pictures that were taken. There were many different stories connected to this building, but we believe that many of the experiences can be attributed to electrical problems in the building or imaginations running wild. Some of the stories we can't we can't explain without being able to do an indepth investigation. The fact that the building is still in use hindered our investigation. We were unable to collect enough evidence to say if the location was or wasn't haunted.

"DUNGEON"

3RD FLOOR LOBBY BETWEEN ROOMS 9 AND 11

INN LOBBY

SUPPOSED HAUNTED CHANDELIER