Conover Square 2021 Investigation

History: Built in the early 1890s and originally housed a piano factory. Additions have continued on the building for decades. The Schaeffer Piano Company is said to have built the original building which is currently the south wing of this establishment. This was later bought by Schiller. A number of piano brands were manufactured here including; Schiller, Conover and Cable. The Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 featured a piano built at this very facility!

In the 1970s a great amount of this large 120,000 square foot building was converted into a shopping village. In 1975 it was converted into the Conover Square Shopping Mall.

Hauntings: In the attic, an apparition of an angry man has often been encountered. The sounds of someone laboring at a workbench; hammering and sawing sounds, the sounds objects falling over and bouncing have been reported. People feel as though they have been touched and numerous EVPs have been collected in the attic. A male presence has been both sensed and seen as a shadow figure. Some have said that a man was killed when he fell down the elevator shaft (which has never been verified) and that a young girl drowned in a nearby river.

The sound of a young girl has been heard giggling in the hallways and museum. Loud crashes emanate from the unoccupied third floor. Many have been touched in the basement.

The presence of a man and his laughter is sometimes encountered south hallway. In the basement the sound of a cat has been heard as well as an EVP caught by another paranormal team that said, “Chairs.” Sounds of a phantom whistle have been heard on the 2^nd Floor near the piano. Loud noises of things being dropped followed by the something that resembled a cart being pushed across the floor have been heard along with an EVP capture of a little girl crying.

The Ghost Research Society investigated Conover Square on July 31, 2021. Team members included: Marge Sucha, Michael Wright, Ron Lovatt, Barbara Meagher and Dale Kaczmarek with help from Dean Thompson of Ghost Head Soup and Steve Bartel and Josiah Lee Henson from Bartel & Henson Paranormal.

Equipment setup: A Nightshot camera was placed down a hallway and let it run all night with a REM Epod in plain view. Digital cameras and camcorders were employed plus Phasma Box, Ovilus X, and ParaTek app, X-Cam SLS, SB-11 Ghost Box and Echovox. K-II Meters were employed and did alert several times. The Spirit Bottle and Dowsing Rods were also used throughout the evening.

Experiments performed: We conducted Phasma Box sessions on the 2^nd Floor and Basement along with ParaTek app section on the 2^nd Floor and a short Echovox experiment. The SB-11 Ghost Box was used in the Basement. The 4k Nightshot camcorder was used for the initial walk-through and the EVP sessions on the 2^nd Floor and the Basement.

Paranormal experiences:

Ron Lovatt: We investigated Conover Square in Oregon, IL.

We walked thru the site first seeing the hallways, attic, basement, and museum. We had an EVP session using the Phasma Box on the second floor area. We got the following responses from the EVP session.

Mike, long trip, Sept 19th, busted, Lucille Green. I don't know, progress, it's really not, chicken, watch behind, to the beam of it, shut up stupid, song, Eric said it, I can't right now, yes, I got there, Randall, where is it, man it's real, attachment, all of this, 10, Ann, he needs to go, no, darling. You’re protected.

There were not a lot of clear answers to our questions.

The second EVP session was in the basement. There were a lot of words spoken but no real answers to any of our questions. The highlight was that a shadow figure passed in front of me blacking out in front of me for a second.

I think Conover Square is haunted but was not that active that night and that does happen sometimes other nights its crazy active.

Barbara Meagher: The Conover Square Mall toured and investigated. Several EVP sessions were conducted but no EVPs were heard on review of the recordings. Several photos were taken with no paranormal images captured. On the 2^nd Floor an EVP session was done and there was quite a bit of activity. Cold was felt between me and Dean. My EMF meter was very active during the session.

Marge Sucha: GRS members present: Dale Kaczmarek, Barb Meagher, Mike Wright, Ron Lovatt & I.

Equipment: FLIR, SB-7 Sprit Box, Olympus Digital Recorder

Up until this investigation I had only done public investigations here so I was pretty excited to do a private one. Besides the four of us from GRS there were some people from other groups there.

We did several EVP sessions in several locations in Conover Square. While on the second floor during one of our EVP sessions someone asked, “Do you remember us from before” the reply was “Mike” as it turns our Mike was with us before.

Some of the names that came up during our EVP session were Ann, Sally, Brad (more than once), Justin, John, Jen, Alexander, Nancy.

We also had some Melmeter and K-II meter activity together while random words were coming thru.

While in the basement I asked “What country are you from?" The word "Korean" came thru.

Despite the fact that we didn't have a lot of activity that night, overall we had an interesting evening.

Michael Wright: Went up to the Second floor with Dale, Barb, Marge, Ron and I doing an EVP session with the Phasma Box. I was using my Dowsing rods, Recorder, Spirit Bottle and K-II Meter, the Dowsing Rods were responding to some of the questioning also the Pendulum in the Spirit Bottle was swaying a little while it was stationary on a small table. There were some strange voices coming through the Phasma Box which seemed to be answering the questions but it was very hard to understand. We went into the back museum on the second floor but did not stay long because there was little activity. Also did a walk through with Dean Thompson in the attic and saw some shadows that were moving.

We went into the basement for a shorter EVP session with Ron, Dean, Marge, Barb and Dale but things were pretty quiet did not pick up anything on my recorder or responses on the dowsing rods.

Dale Kaczmarek: I did not feel or sense anything out of the ordinary during our investigation here however Meagher did have the chills when around the piano on the 2^nd Floor, Sucha said she saw a white haze move back and forth in front of her eyes and Lovatt claimed to have seen a black shadow in front of him. The last two experiences happened in basement.

All the equipment functioned properly this time without any malfunctions or battery drains. There was minimal use of two-way radios but they did not affect or set off any equipment. The building was fairly quiet of paranormal contact that day; just a lot of random words coming through the various devices used.

Evidence collected:

Abort thirty conover.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the 2^nd Floor around a large piano, a question was asked, “Can you tell us how many years ago we were here?” The device responded with, “About thirty.”

EMF burst conover.MP4 – Kaczmarek’s static Nightshot camcorder facing down a hallway where a lot of paranormal activity and disembodied voices were heard suddenly is struck by an apparent, “EMF burst” which affected the magnetic recording 8mm tape being used. A REM Epod was positioned on the floor which never went off despite the possible burst of EMF energy.

Yep Mike was an asshole conover.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the 2^nd Floor around a large piano, a question was asked, “Do you remember some of us from the last time we were here?” The device replied with, “Yep. Mike was an asshole.”

Words spoken by the Phasma Box: 2^nd Floor – to, yep, long trip, stop, busted, about thirty, music, you, July 10^th, blood and fuck; Basement – February, Archie, tell me more, Baltimore, good morning to you, green, I don’t, never, (laughing) and bye-bye.

Words spoken by the ParaTek app: 2^nd Floor – ground, example, heard, one, Sally, breath, six, Justin, lag, enough, three, trouble, wow, given, one, afraid, record, John, paragraph, paint, five, us, gave, sad, rage, react, Jen, Alexander, yes, Betty, scream, trouble, head, eleven, one, breaker, able, three, Nancy, section, industry, edge, find him, felt, cat, throw, fear, team, indirect, warm, one, kop, Beelzebub, yet, bet and science.

Words or phrases spoken by the Echovox: people, in every breath, so clear, spirit, fever and scientists.

Conclusions: Our thanks to Steve and Josiah for the extremely useful walk-through of the building and allowing the GRS to investigate. The last time that we investigated was in 2015 and was part of a public event sponsored by Kathi Kresol and the Haunted Rockford Tours. This was our first opportunity of having the building completely to ourselves.

There were quite a few names that came through various devices use including: Sally, Justin, John, Jen, Alexander, Betty, Nancy, Archie and Beelzebub. A few of the names that were called out corresponded to K-II or Melmeter increases in EMF. After the name Justin was mentioned, Meagher got extremely cold chills on her back. A Nightshot camera was placed facing in her direction but nothing visual was recorded.

After the word “afraid” came through almost all of us heard the audible sound of a snap materialize from around the corner on the 2^nd Floor near the large piano. Melmeter hits were significant, rising to .9 to 1.2 on the 2^nd Floor and they corresponded with K-II hits at the same time.

The word “cat” came through on the 2^nd Floor and that is interesting as past investigators have heard the sounds of a cat on the property but particularly in the Basement.

It was an interesting evening however we could have used other equipment to communicate with any possible entities that might have been hanging around. With all the antiques which are trigger objects, it is no wonder that Conover Square is so very haunted!