McPike
Mansion Investigation McPike
Mansion Investigation 
The
house was built in 1869 by architect Lucas Pfeiffenberger. Original owner of the
house was Henry Guest McPike. The McPike family owned 15 acres of land, then
known as Mount Lookout Park. Here McPike, a horticulturist, perfected his
McPike Grape. The family lived here until 1936. The house has changed hands
several times since its original owner Henry McPike. The building has been home
to Browns Business College and was later owned by Paul Laichinger, who rented
rooms in the house to other occupants. The house has not been occupied since the
1950s. (Information courtesy of the McPike Mansion website and owners Sharon and
George Luedke: http://www.mcpikemansion.com
For further information about ghost tours and other events contact the owners.
Located at 2018 Alby Street, Alton, Illinois 62002, 618-462-3348
.
Numerous photographs including orbs, balls of lights, shadows, mists and human-shaped outlines have appeared in cameras during visits and investigations. During an investigation of the wine cellar GRS members clearly heard the sounds of approaching footsteps coming down the wooden steps from the upper floors and then the cellar door creak on two occasions. Upon investigating the source, nothing was there, at least nothing physical. While the footsteps weren't recorded or audible on the audio track of videotape recorders running at the time, the creaking of the door was clearly heard and recorded. Rene Kruse videotaped a very strange mist in the wine cellar that seemed to come out of nowhere, approach her and then dissipate. A similar mist was also recorded by GRS member John Cachel during a visit to the basement one year.
The most recent investigation by the GRS of the McPike Mansion was October 11, 2009. Members present that day were: Jim Graczyk, Stan Suho, Joe Tito, Joey Tito, Nicole Tito, Jerry Lutz, Andy Rhodes, Lisa Krick and Dale Kaczmarek. After a tour of the location, our command center was set up in the cellar with Sony Nightshot cameras placed in the wine cellar. Digital trap camera pictures as well as regular digital pictures showed nothing out of the ordinary but there were a few suspicious EVP clips.
With the initial walkthrough, I didn't have any personal feelings as I think I was too concerned about my safety and falling down several floors if I stepped in the wrong area. Throughout the investigation, I felt very calm. At the end of the investigation in the wine cellar, I believed that I heard a loud sigh come from next to Lisa who was sitting across the room from me as we were conducting an EVP session. Several minutes later, I thought I saw a shadow standing behind her.
On the 2nd floor landing with Lisa, I believe we caught a possible EVP of a male's voice saying, "Its Jake," or something similar to that. The original unmodified EVP has been sent out to the entire group pending others' opinions.
In the wine cellar, the audio recorder picked up the "Huh," noise near Lisa before I saw the shadow standing by her. Again, that clip was sent to the group.
Lastly, my audio recorder in the wine cellar had a technical difficulty producing an echo of my voice. This has never happened before when using this recorder and I can estimate that I have used it for hours of EVP recordings. This clip has been set out to the group.
Still Photos: Nothing out of the ordinary.
Stan Suho: Well it was like visiting an old friend. Haven't been there in about 8 years. Because of space and time restrictions, I chose not to do a full setup. I made a walk through with a VHS Camera and Digital Camera. I also walked through the house with a Digital Voice Recorder. I set up the Ion Detector and Geiger Counter in the Wine Cellar monitored by Joey's Camcorder. Nothing showed up on my equipment, although we have had some very unusual experiences in the Wind Cellar during past investigations.
Joey Tito: I
did some free hand camera work at McPike capturing the history of the mansion as
well as a walk-thru guided by
2nd Floor Landing
EVP
Lisa states, "Is there is a message that you want to give someone, this is the time to do it." Then you hear her say, "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," because there is ambient noise from the outside. After that, you hear what I think is a male, almost robotic voice that says, "It's Jake," or something to that effect.
Wine Cellar Echo
When Lisa is asking the question, "They say that there is a mist in this room? Is that you? Is that how you show yourself to people?" In the last sentence, there is a weird echo of her voice like the recorder is messing up. This has never happened before and has not happened since. It could be recorder malfunction, but could also be something else.
Wine Cellar Sigh (disembodied voice--heard in real time)
Lisa asks, "Is there anybody in your group that you want to talk to or give a message to?" Then, there is a loud sigh.
The general feeling was at the time of our investigation, the place wasn't very active. We were conducting our investigation during the late morning, early afternoon hours and not at night, which shouldn't make any difference. The place just did not have the same "feel" as it did during previous GRS investigations.
Video Evidence Collected:
During our 2001 investigation of McPike we were all down in the wine cellar when we suddenly heard the sound of footsteps coming downstairs in total darkness followed by the metal door to the wine cellar creaking open. It happened twice within a few minutes. First time
This was the Second time
This is a video shot by GRS member John Cachel. It was a static IR camera located in the Wine Cellar when a strange mist begins to form and then gets much thicker and swirls around. Towards the end of the clip, look carefully and you will see dark streaks appearing and moving through the fog which we interpret to be shadow figures. Strange Mist
Ghost Research Society (www.ghostresearch.org)
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