Beverly Unitarian Church "Irish Castle" Investigation

The Ghost Research Society was the first paranormal organization to investigate this location!

Robert C. Givins while on a trip to Ireland first envisioned the castle-like structure, which now sits on the northwest corner of 103rd Street and Longwood Drive . It is said that he was so impressed by an ancient, ivy-covered castle he saw on the banks of the River Dee that he made a sketch of it to be used as a guide by construction crews here. Mr. Givens, a real estate tycoon, had the structure built out of pale, yellow Lemont limestone in 1886, at a cost of $80,000, as a surprise for his wife who was less than impressed about the design. “Anyone who would build it would be crazy, and anyone who would live in it would be worse,” she remarked on seeing it for the first time. However, they lived there for a short time with their son before selling it in 1908. Local residents have nicknamed the building, “The Irish Castle”.

Even though the castle wasn’t officially sold until 1908, many different people for many diverse reasons used it. By the 1890's, the Chicago Female College , a girl’s finishing school, occupied the building. In 1908, the developer sold the property to John B. Burdett, who lived there with his family until 1921. That same year, Miroslaw Siemens, a prominent Ukrainian physician, bought the home. They lived there until the throes of the Great Depression forced them to sell it. Finally, the Beverly Unitarian Fellowship bought the castle for $14,000 in 1941.

In 1959, plans were drawn up to add a new edifice and classroom wings to be built on the north and east sides of the castle. The project was supposed to be completed in five years with the eventual razing of the castle to make way for a new auditorium of modern design at an estimated cost of over $149,000. The Rev. Mr. Silliman said members of the congregation-approved removal of the castle without regret.

“Of course there is a sentimental attachment to the building and admiration for its attractive appearance,” he said, “but it is highly unsuitable for use as a church. Also we’re crowded now and can’t expect to achieve the kind of growth we think possible without increasing facilities.” However, in 1972, the plans were finally discarded and today the Beverly Unitarian Church remains in the original building. After dozens of temporary repairs, they raised $140,000 to restore the building.

The restored second floor includes a much-needed dining hall, meeting room, kitchen and bathrooms and the third floor will remain an apartment for the church custodian.

Address: 10244 S. Longwood Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60643

Telephone: 773-233-7080

Website: https://www.beverlyunitarian.org

Hauntings: It is a former custodian who had the most amazing encounter during the early 1960's. The haunting here is said to be caused by a previous occupant from the time when the castle was the Chicago Female College. According to the story, a young girl became ill with a serious case of influenza and died in the early 1930s.

She came upon a young girl in a long dress standing in what had been the living room. The young girl spoke in an Irish brogue and said that she had once lived here even though the building had changed quite a bit. After chatting for some time, they said their goodnights with the custodian starting up the stairs. Suddenly she remembered the castle had been a church for more than twenty years. She turned and started down the stairs but the girl had vanished!

She searched the entire building and later tried the various doors and windows to discover that they were bolted shut. Going to the front door, she discovered a freshly fallen layer of snow but no footprints leading either in or out. She quit her position there because she was frightened by an encounter that she could not explain. That same girl has also been seen frolicking and dancing on the east lawn of the castle around twilight. Passersby claim to have seen her in period clothing and she quickly disappears.

In 1973 the Chicago Sun-Times brought a psychic, Carol Broman, to the castle for her psychic impressions. Before even encountering a spirit, she was taken with the strong sense of fire in the castle.

While in the basement, she placed her hand against a wall and said, “There have been fires in this house and there will be more in the next year. It’s fantastic; the walls are full of heat. The fire might start down here. If they would exorcize this house, they probably could prevent the fire.”

Continuing to the main room on the first floor, it suddenly became quite cold. “There’s something here,” she said, “It’s getting hard to breathe. It’s that fire. It’s not far away. Warn them to watch the wiring and the heating this winter.”

Entering into a trance state with deep breathing she said, “There’s a tall man here. He’s angry. He’s talking about infidelity. He’s saying he’d like to burn the whole place down. Oh, he’s angry.”

As more impressions flooded her thoughts, she continued, “There are two people in the room. One is a young girl. There’s bantering between them. She speaks with a brogue, She keeps telling him, ‘Don’t, don’t, don’t’

“The man was accused of murder, but he was never brought to trial. He wants to tell us about it. He wants us to know how he suffered. Even though he killed someone, he thinks he had a good reason. But he was a rotten husband,” she said.

The young girl that Carol picked up could have been the same girl the custodian had spoken with years ago. But the man accused of murder has apparently never surfaced or has been identified.

Other strange occurrences have been reported in the tower windows at night by passing pedestrians and motorists. They claim to have seen inexplicable lights flickering in the upper windows between the hours of 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. It appears that someone or something is moving about with a candle and looking through the windows. When the pastor had been questioned as to why he was roaming around the building so late, he simply replied that he was fast asleep in the rectory.

Former pastor Rev. Roger Brewin said that on many occasions he had heard the sounds of a party going on inside the building. Champagne glasses tinkling together, corks popped off champagne bottles, music, laughter, conversations and the sounds of dancing feet permeated the building at times. He had tried on numerous occasions to track down the exact locations of the sounds but could not. They seemed to come from everywhere but nowhere at the same time.

The GRS was the first team to investigate The Beverly Unitarian Church on December 11, 2021 and the team included: Charles Williams, Barbara Meagher, Michael Rosario, Andrew Puccetti and Dale Kaczmarek

Equipment setup: A REM Epod was positioned at the top of the stairs leading to the second floor, a green laser grid was focused in the second floor room while investigating there, Melmeter with telescopic probe, 4k Sony Nightshot camcorder, Sony Nightshot camera, K-II Meter, Samsung Galaxy S21 slim ultra was used for Live Facebook sessions, portable laptop for Phasma Box sessions, digital recorders and cameras, Zoom recorder and full spectrum camera.

Experiments performed: Ovilus V in both dictionary and phonetic mode and Phasma Box were used on the Main Floor. Phasma Box, SB-11 Ghost Box ad Ovilus V used on second floor. Phasma Box was used in the Basement and back again on the Main Floor.

Personal encounters:

Barbara Meagher: No report but claims to have seen a small shadow figure at least twice on the staircase.

Andrew Puccetti: We had the opportunity to investigate the Givins Castle in Chicago. This was a beautiful building with an interesting history. The building was made out of limestone, so I was curious to see if that would make a difference. Personally, I used an Olympus voice recorder, a grid pen, a K-II meter, and a full spectrum camera. We did several EVP sessions upstairs, downstairs, and in the basement as a group. Unfortunately, I caught nothing on EVP, nor my full spectrum camera. However, the energy was strong in this building. I definitely felt multiple presences, and many of my fellow team members saw shadow figures on the staircase. Also on the staircase REM Epod’s kept going off. We felt as if it presences were wary of us, and were checking us out. We heard some music, but decided it was probably coming from the apartment upstairs. There wasn’t a ton of activity that night and I didn’t catch any evidence unfortunately, but it was an amazing building and a great time!

Mike Rosario: Equipment and Initial Investigation: For this investigation, we traveled to the historic Beverly Unitarian Church (formerly the Givins Family Castle) in Chicago’s Beverly District, the only existing castle of its kind known in the Chicagoland area today. This investigation took off Saturday, December 11, 2021, at approximately 7:21pm with Dale, Chuck, Barb, Mike, Andrew, and me. Night weather was cold, around the mid-upper 30’s, with clear and calm skies. Equipment used in this investigation were my K-II Meter; a Philips VoiceTracer Digital Voice Recorder; a DVC 4K Ultra HD 48mp Night Shot Digital Video Camcorder, my Fuji Film digital camera for HD exterior pictures, Green Laser Beam to capture anomalies within the green laser grid, and my 3,000 Lumen LED Police Flashlight.

For this investigation, I was accompanied by the entire group as one large team. I began by doing my usual K-II sweeps in and around the house areas. I kept getting a low and steady 0.2-0.5mG reading. It did spike occasionally every now and then, as high as about 1.2mG in other various areas of the building, but really nothing substantial. We performed many EVP sessions after this period, half with the Ovilus and half with the Phasma Box. I did take some pictures when we did get some decent responses, or when a team member had experienced a fluctuation in their equipment or senses. I must say that the night was quite interesting. Some intelligent responses here and there, and words and names seemed to match up with the physical area, like “Church,” “Castle,” “Halo,” “Angel,” etc. It was very much an exciting evening! The Castle definitely did not disappoint! I would love to come back and have another investigation here, soon, to capture more!

Evidence: Upon reviewing all of my evidence, I didn’t have any visual evidence captured on my devices per se. However, I did capture an abundance of audio evidence, including some disembodied voices during the EVP sessions. The audio evidence list is as follows:

1^st Floor

~ “Church; …we’re farmers.”

~ “Castle.” “Hey!” (Male voice)

~ “What balcony?” (Girl’s voice)

~ “Lisa.”

~ “True...(inaudible)…slow.” (Male voice)

~ “Otto; …yes.” (as a confirmation)

~ “Hey, Rosari‼” (Male shouting, possibly shouting at Mikey, because his last name is not Rosari, but Rosario). It’s either this what’s being said or perhaps maybe “Say you’re sorry‼” It’s either one or the two. Why he’s shouting at Mikey, we don’t know; he didn’t do anything wrong!

~ “Yeah.” “Hello.” (Same girl’s voice as above)

~ “Yeah.” (Young female voice)

1^st Floor Con’t

~ “Climate change.” (Female voice)

~ “You’re welcome.”

~ “Dale!”

~ “Titanic.” (Possibly in an Italian accent)

~ “…it’s in the past.” (Female voice)

2^nd Floor

~ “…as a ballroom.”

~ “Ten (10).”

~ “The Tooth Fairy.”

~ [It’s from] “Joliet.”

Basement

~ “Ingrid; …yes” (as a confirmation)

Charles Williams: Equipment: 4k Cameras, IR lighting, Zoom Recorder, REM Epod, Melmeter & Infrared Camera.

Personal Experiences: Felt creepy feeling during investigation on 2^nd floor.

Not much coming through on EVP sessions, but REM Epod activity on whichever floor we were not on. Nothing on full spectrum photos

Dale Kaczmarek: A whole lot of random words came through the Phasma Box and the Ovilus V however nothing discernable was heard from the SB-11 Ghost Box. There were a lot of minor alerts on the REM Epod at the top of the stairs but I believe those were caused by a low battery because I’ve never seen that device alert so often. No one was in the proximity of the device and no fluorescent lights were on and no 2-way radios were being used.

There were also some K-II Meter hits downstairs but that was caused by cell phones being too close to that device.

I believed that I and my camcorder had picked up some shadow play around the stairs, however upon review, there was nothing evident. I did some small live Facebook sessions where I did have a small audience for a while.

Evidence collected:

3% sh surprise irish.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus V session on the Main Floor, a whispered voice said, “3%”. Rosario counted down to take a flash picture and the Ovilus V said, “Sh” followed by, “Surprise!”

A farm irish.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “Was there a carriage house or boarding house…?” The device responded with what sounded like, “A farm.”

Church irish.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus V session on the Second Floor, the device blurted out, “Church.”

Footsteps irish.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked “Walk around on the floor.” The device created sounds like some very heavy footsteps.”

Hang on irish.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “Do you want us to stay or do you want us to go?” The device responded with, “Hang on.”

He farted irish.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “Can you come over and sit by me?” The device replied with, “He farted.”

Hey Mickey irish.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, the device said, “Hey Mickey!”

I don’t know irish.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “Are you male or female?” The device responded with, “I don’t know.”

I just met her irish.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, and “Who’s the little girl with the red hair?” The device replied with, “I just met her.”

I’m happy now irish.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus V session on the Main Floor, a whispered voice in the background said, “I’m happy now.”

I’m so drunk postman irish.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, the device said, “I’m so drunk.” A question was asked, “What are you so drunk from? What did you drink?” The device said, “The postman.”

Jacket irish.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus V session on the Main Floor, a whispered voice was picked up in the background saying either, “Jacket” or “Jackie.”

Mommy’s friend ten irish.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Second Floor, a question was asked, “How old are you?” The device replied with something that sounds like, “Mommy’s friend” followed by, “Ten.”

No irish.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “Did you hear the banshee?” The device replied with, “No.”

Rob irish.MP4 – while in between EVP sessions, the digital recorder picked up a whispered voice that seems to say, “Rob.”

Something’s coming irish.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, the device said, “Something’s coming.”

Ten irish.MP4 – while conducting a Ovilus V session on the Second Floor, a question was asked, “How old are you?” The device responded with, “Ten.”

The tooth fairy irish.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “From the 19^th century, who came over from Ireland?” The device answered whimsically with, “The tooth fairy.”

Walter hey irish.MP4 – while conducting an EVP session on the Main Floor, a whispered voice was said to say, “Walter” and “Hey.”

Who’s there irish.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, we attempted to do the ‘Shave and a Haircut’ bit and waited for a response. However, the device responded with, “Who’s there?”

Yeah irish.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “Did you like when they put that addition on over there? Were you happy?” The device responded with an emphatic, “Yeah!”

Words spoken by the Ovilus V on the Main Floor in dictionary mode – ceiling, Ray, cable, planet, forever, real, consul, finish, American, blue, diction, rot, southern, square, nine, contrition, befriend, master, chills, mini, make, dress, halo, shh, spoon, plants, shh, surprise, students, egg, news, terms, remember, Lisa, hold, history, justice, chest, as, friends & snap. Phonetic mode on Main Floor – you are horrible, boy here, help there, aye & I hear. Ovilus V in dictionary mode on Second Floor – find, H, farmers, form, history, churning, dress, nickel, aqua, shh, knife, Nana, Ann, details, project, belays, spank, unlock, threshold, body, slur & belay.

Phasma Box on Main Floor – stop it, fifty, help me, I’m so drunk, peace of mind, please, yeah, was a mistake, bullshit, crybaby, Richard, hello, digital keyboard, wait, ain’t worth it, I take it & a lot better, I see you, ouch, John, hello, here we are; Second Floor – false alarm, as a ballroom, ten, they’re out there, no, Joliet & investigation. Basement – stalemate.

Conclusions: This was an interesting investigation in a building that had never been investigated before. The Main Floor and Second Floors seem to be the active. There were quite a few intelligent responses that were recorded. There were mostly recorded on the Phasma Box but some came through the Ovilus V. There were also a couple that seemed to be true EVPs as they did not come through any real-time devices but apparently weren’t disembodied voices as no one heard them in real-time

The Basement area wasn’t at all active and this was an area that psychic Carol Broman picked up evidence of an old fire. There were no scorched timbers when we visited the downstairs. We weren’t allowed on the upper floors which would have been nice to explore. The reason being is that there were resident(s) living up there. We would have also enjoyed investigating the new addition on the north side of the building as this structure altered the true classic castle lines and might have been active due to the change of floor plans and architecture.

While the group was upstairs, William’s camcorder picked up some thuds and other sounds, but they could not be identified as paranormal due to possible movement and noises created by the group members upstairs at the time.

The gentleman that allowed us access to the building was very nice and very trustworthy giving us the keys to the back door. I would like to investigate here again sometime in the future.