Granite City YMCA Investigation

The building opened in 1924 and ran as a YMCA until its official closing in 2004, when another YMCA was built nearby. In 1954 the overview area and wing to the racket ball courts was added on. REO Speedwagon once performed in the gymnasium.

There have been some deaths both inside and outside of the building but most cannot be verified by newspaper articles at present. One claim is of a 10 to 12 year-old girl who drowned in the pool, a murder of a man on the front steps by a 14 year-old boy, a possible hanging in the boiler room by a former janitor and a gentleman who died from a heart attack in the men’s locker room and a man named Andrew who died from a heart attack while watching a movie in the dayroom at the age of 63 and another possible death in Room 207.

Located at: 2001 Edison Ave., Granite City, IL 62040

Telephone: 618-771-1111

Website: www.afterdark-paranormal.com

Hauntings: A light bulb at the end of the hallway where the overlook to the racket ball courts has mysteriously come on by itself; one time for three minutes straight. People allegedly hear the little girl who drowned in the pool area and numerous EVPs and many disembodied voices have been heard by people in the past.

The GRS investigated Granite City YMCA on July 6, 2013 and the team included: Stan Suho and Dale Kaczmarek with help from Bob Davies, Jim Boise, Lori Winkie-leger, Kara Padgett and Ryan Buckley of Champaign Urbana Paranormal.

Equipment setup: I placed a static IR camcorder with an additional IR illuminator, REM Epod and motion sensors in the boiler room where the alleged suicide by hanging had taken place. Stan placed his G.E.I.S.T. equipment, camera and microphone in the pool area where witnesses have heard the disembodied voice of a young child.

Experiments performed: EVP, Ovilus X and Ghost Box sessions were conducted in the Boiler Room, Room 201, Room 301 and Room 207. Additional equipment used was Melmeter 8704REM, Geophone, Night vision goggles, Ghost Radar and Ovilus III. A second Command Center was set up by Bob Davies and various locations were monitored with Nightshot bullet cameras.

Personal experiences: There were a couple of instances while in Room 201 that I and the other investigators heard sounds, bangs and noises in the hallway and when upon investigating could find no reason for the sounds. Several heard a disembodied female scream but could not tell if it was coming from within or outside. The static camcorder in the basement only recorded about an hour and a half before the battery went dead so not much was recorded downstairs however a number of noises were heard in the room during that time. Some could have been just dripping water but others were much closer to the camera and sounded different.

Stan Suho: Well this was another big old building that sat around unused for years. We were joined by Bob Davie's group and set up two command post. Bob had 4 cameras running and we had two. After an extensive walk through tour both groups set up in the main lobby. Dale and I decided that G.E.I.S.T. should be used in the lower level and monitor the Swimming Pool area. Dale set up a camera in the Boiler Room also in the lower level. This was a very big building and we could have used more GRS cameras. The complete G.E.I.S.T. setup was used with Dale’s big IR lamp. Even the big IR could not illuminate the entire pool area. It was very dark and quiet in the lower level and the Ghost Microphone gain was turned up to max to pick up every sound. We recorded more than two hours Audio and Video. I also spent some time conducting a training session for some newbie’s from Bob's group, and talking shop with one of their teckies. When I wasn’t busy I followed an EVP group around taking IR pictures and monitoring with my Night Vision Viewer. This took quite some time as the building was very large with many rooms. Since we were overnighting in the area we did a late breakdown.

Conclusion

After reviewing I have nothing to report, however I would recommend this YMCA for a follow up investigation (of course with more cameras).

Evidence collected:

Blue.MPG while conducting a Ghost Box session in Room 201, a question was asked, “What’s your favorite color?” The Ghost Box responds with, “Blue.”

Dale granite city.MPG while conducting a Ghost Box session in Room 201, a question was asked, “Can you say on of our names?” The Ghost Box responds with what sounds like, “Dale.”

David granite city. MPG while conducting a Ghost Box session in the Boiler Room, the Ghost Box suddenly clearly says the name, “David.” David is allegedly the first name of the man who hung himself in the basement.

End granite city.MPG while conducting a Ovilus X session in the Boiler Room, a question was asked, “What did you do to yourself in the other room?” The Ovilus in dictionary mode responds with, “End.”

He moved it.MPG while conducting an Ovilus X session in Room 207 the Ovilus suddenly says, “He moved it”; this is followed by the sound of voices in background.

Response granite city.MPG while conducting an Ovilus X session in the Boiler Room, a question was asked, “Were you working down here?” The Ovilus responds with “Picture” which makes no sense but immediately after that a disembodied voice is heard in the background but I cannot make out what it says.

Scream granite city.MPG while conducting an EVP session in Room 301, a comment was made, “Not trying to invade your space or anything like that; just trying to talk to you.” Immediately after that a disembodied scream can be heard.

Singing in the background.MPG while conducting an EVP session in Room 207, a question was asked, “Who are you?” What is heard in the background is the sound of someone singing very faintly.

They’re here.MPG while conducting an Ovilus X session in Room 207, as soon as the Ovilus was turned on it says, “They’re here.”

White mist.MPG while walking towards our next EVP location, the camcorder goes out of focus and then a strange white mist is seen briefly on the square pillar and near the floor before disappearing.

Conclusions: I found this location to be an interesting spot to investigate however some of the stories need to be verified besides just word of mouth. Newspaper articles or microfilm would be one way to look into the past history of this location. The YMCA was located in a very bad neighborhood and I’m sure that a lot of killings and lesser crimes probably took place around this location or nearby.

I had to work with some investigators that either had never conducted an investigation before or had been in just a few, so some of the EVP sessions were a little contaminated by their talking and moving around and not leaving enough space after a question was asked before asking another. All in all, I don’t believe the location was particularly active when we visited it as none of the meters went above a .4 anywhere in the building and no particularly unusual feelings were sensed anywhere.