Two Brothers Roundhouse Investigation

The Two Brothers Roundhouse, formerly the Walter Payton Roundhouse, America's Historical Roundhouse, and Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Roundhouse and Locomotive Shop is a historic building converted to a restaurant in Aurora, Illinois. It was originally constructed in 1856 as a roundhouse for the Chicago & Aurora Railroad (later Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad) and served in this capacity until 1974. It was abandoned until 1995, when a group of investors led by Walter Payton purchased it and converted the building to an entertainment complex. Its most recent tenant is Two Brothers Brewing. The building is the oldest limestone roundhouse in the United States and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The roundhouse was constructed in 1856 to serve Aurora on the Chicago & Aurora Railroad (C&A) The C&A built its own maintenance shops to facilitate further expansion of the rail system westward. The shops were also capable of producing new equipment for the rolling stock. The roundhouse was designed by Levi Hull Waterhouse, who designed several important structures in the Aurora vicinity. The walls of the structure were constructed with locally quarried limestone from Batavia, Illinois. There were originally twenty-two stalls in the roundhouse, with an additional eight added three years after completion. Ten stalls were added at an unknown later date. A small shop was also present in the roundhouse which catered to locomotive engines.

The C&A merged with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad in 1868, which became the most trafficked railroad in Illinois by 1870. In the 1930s, the focus of the complex shifted to the new Zephyr line of diesel engines. It also constructed many passenger cars, including Pullman cars and the very first dome car. As the automobile increased in usage in the mid-20th century, rail traffic declined. The roundhouse and shops closed in 1974; most of the other shops in the district were demolished soon after.

The structure was abandoned for twenty-one years. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 16, 1978. In May 1988, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers recognized the roundhouse as a landmark in mechanical engineering for its "innovative railroad yard machine shop." In 1995, the Aurora City Council voted to allow an investment group led by former Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton to purchase the building. The building re-opened in 1996 and hosted a brewpub, restaurant, museum, and open-air pavilion. Among the artifacts in the museum is Payton's championship ring from Super Bowl XX. The complex received a National Preservation Award on October 22, 1999, only days before Payton's death.

On May 2, 2011 Two Brothers Brewing Company announced via Facebook and Twitter that they had acquired America's Historical Roundhouse in Aurora Illinois. They opened a restaurant on June 18, 2011, featuring ten of their locally available beers on tap plus an additional two that are exclusive to the establishment.

The roundhouse portion of the building complex is 264 feet long with a local limestone exterior and an iron loggia interior. The roundhouse is actually a tetracontagon. A steel truss structure supports wood-sheathed steel rafters, covered on the exterior by tar paper. The locomotive shop is attached to the north side and is 50 by 180 feet with two 16-foot stories.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia

Address: 205 N. Broadway, Aurora, IL 60505

Phone: 630-264-2739

Manager: Jim Olson

Website: https://twobrothersbrewing.com

Hauntings: In the oldest part of the building built around 1856, reports of mysterious shadow figures have been seen roaming the hallways plus two full-bodied apparitions; one of an older man and the other, a young boy.

Reports of strange voices and footsteps have been heard and recorded in the old Ballroom and Dining Room in the older part of the Roundhouse. Some even claim that the ghost of former Chicago Bear running back Walter Payton have been encountered in the Legends Museum.

There have been encounters of hammering in the middle of the night and a deep hole where it is said that one can come across the devil himself. Olson said that he once saw an apparition of a little girl run across a room and a man with a lantern. Some have touched on the shoulder by unseen entities.

The Ghost Research Society investigated the Two Brothers Roundhouse on October 22, 2023 and the team members included: Charles Williams, Mike Rosario, Diane Oksanen, Mari Huff and Dale Kaczmarek with help from Arielle Raveney and Sarah Dingmann from WBBM Newstalk Radio78.

Equipment setup: REM Epod, K-II Meters, Ovilus, Ovilus V, Phasma Box, Soul Receiver Ghost Box, SB-11 Ghost Box, Samsung Galaxy S-21 Slim Ultra, 4k Camcorder, Sony Nightshot Camcorder, digital recorders, Tri-Field Natural EM Meter, green laser grid, Shadow Tracker, GS-2 laser grid, Melmeter with telescopic probe and trains trigger objects.

Experiments performed: EVP sessions using the Soul Receiver Ghost Box, Ovilus 5, SB-11 Ghost Box, Phasma Box, Ovilus and conducted a Quiet Time session to see if anyone or noise was heard that wasn’t caused by the GRS crew.

Personal experiences:

Mari Huff: During the investigation of the Two Brothers Round House I mainly worked independently.  I was using a Mel-Meter, a K-II Meter, and an iPhone camera. My K-II Meter reacted a couple of times in the ballroom.  I didn’t get any fluctuations on my Melmeter.  I explored both upstairs and downstairs.  I took several photographs with my I-Phone on both levels of the building.  I will submit these photographs for review to Dale Kaczmarek.  I also tried conducting an EVP session with the recording device on my I-Phone, but I didn’t get any anomalies.

Diane Oksanen: I used a K-II Meter which alerted throughout the evening. I saw shadow figures in areas, unexplained.  In the Banquet Room, I had my pants pulled on. 

Mike Rosario: For this investigation, we traveled to the Two Brothers Roundhouse in Aurora, Illinois. This took off on Sunday, October 22, 2023 at approximately 8:30pm with Dale, Chuck, Diane, Arielle, Sara, and me. The night’s weather was a bit cool, with clear skies, and calm.  Equipment I 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 with an LED IR Light, FujiFilm FinePix A330 3.2mp Digital Camera for interior shots; and my two (2) 1989 New Bright G-Scale (Large Scale) Union Pacific Railroad Battery-Operated Model Train Engine and Tenders, with 2 two Foot LGB Straight Tracks for each train.

For this investigation, I was accompanied primarily by the entire group during all locations: upper and lower banquet halls. I first began by doing my usual K-II sweeps in and around the second floor upper banquet hall area to get some base readings. Around a low and steady 0.1-0.2mG. The first floor lower banquet hall also had a little fluctuation, around 0.2-0.4mG. I had positioned my IR camera near the rear side of the upper banquet hall, right to where the spirit of a little girl has been seen in the back room. I also had positioned my IR camera near the center of the lower banquet hall where apparitions and other noises are said to be heard. EVP sessions were conducted on all two levels with the Phasma Box, and other ITC devices. I had interjected in between these EVP sessions to use my model trains in the roundhouse as trigger objects, just to see if that could conjure a particular pastime moment in time, and trigger a response from whatever entity that night have been with us that night. I used these trains on both levels to try to stimulate a response. During our investigation, these two main areas of the building yielded some interesting results with the Phasma Box ITC device sessions, mainly. A very interesting night, however! 

Upon reviewing all of my evidence, I did not capture any video or photographic evidence, but did capture some interesting audio whilst during our EVP Phasma Box session on the two floors of the building. I also think that using my model train was a success whilst using it as a trigger object because of the fruitful responses we received during the night! It was an overall very productive, fun night, and can’t wait to visit again!

Charles Williams: 4K Camera set to Blu-ray quality, Zoom Recorder, Melmeter, IR Light, Full Spectrum Camera, trigger object, rail road spike.  

Noises were heard in differing areas, unexplained. 

Spirit Box, Ovilus, Phasma Box sessions held in Banquet and Ballroom areas.  Train noises heard, intelligent responses, Arielle’s name came through, Fire brought up, place has a history of fires.  Spirit got Sara’s name wrong as Cheryl, but identified she was a photographer. 

I had dinner there before investigation, good food, would like to go back.  There were multiple system failures. 

Dale Kaczmarek: This was an amazing place and many thanks to manager Jim Olson for allowing us access to this building and especially the older sections that were not in use during our visit and where most of the activity had taken place in the past.

I felt some cold chills while downstairs Ballroom and caught a glimpse of a dark shadow figure behind the cozy bar that I believe a few others also did. Perhaps this was one of the several dark shadow figures that had been reported in the past by restaurant staff.

I did have a couple of devices stop working due to some inexplicable battery drain including the Phasma Box and Ovilus V. Both of these devices were fully charged before coming to our investigation.

During our Live Facebook session, someone tuning in reportedly saw some strange white lights traveling across the ceiling of the basement Ballroom which our crew did not see. This happened on multiple occasions. During our Quiet Time session a couple of the crew did here some low sounds off in the direction of the Kitchen. By this time however, almost all of the staff had left the building. I cannot ascertain for sure if these sounds were caused by some late-night staff or a ghost.

Evidence collected:

Arielle hi roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus session in phonetic mode in the basement Ballroom, the device said, “Arielle hi.” (This was very relevant as one of those present was Arielle Raveney from WBBM radio.)

Ask anybody to roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the upstairs Dining Room, the device blurted out, “Ask anybody to…”  

Benji roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Banquet Room, a question was asked, “Who takes the tickets?” The device responded with, “Benji.”

Boring roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Banquet Room, the device blurted out, “Boring.”

Dick roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus X session in the Basement, a question was asked, “What’s your first name?” The device responded with, “Dick.”

Fire roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus session in phonetic mode in the basement Ballroom, a question was asked, “Who are we talking to? What’s your first name?” The device responded with the word, “Fire.”

Four roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting a Soul Receiver session in the Banquet Room, a question was asked, “How many people are up here now?” The device said, “Four.” (This could mean the amount of spirits as there were more real people here.)

Get off her roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus session in phonetic mode in the basement Ballroom, the device blurted out, “Get off her.”

Help roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus session in phonetic mode, the device said, “Help.”

Help help fire roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus X in phonetic in the Banquet Room, the device said, “Help fire fire.”

Hi he said nothing roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting a Soul Receiver session in the Banquet Room, the device said, “Hi he said nothing.”

June sometime roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting an EVP session in the Basement, a voice was recorded that said, “June sometime. “

No shit roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Banquet Room, a comment was made, “Doesn’t sound like t was so exciting, you said it was boring.” The device said, “No shit.”

Oh yes roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the upstairs Dining Room, a question was asked, “Do you like trains?” The device replied, “Oh yes!”

Sit up roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting a Soul Receiver session in the Banquet Room, the device blurted out, “Sit up.”

They’re watching fuck you roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Banquet Room, the device said, “They’re watching, fuck you.”

This is very scary roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting an EVP session in the Ballroom, a low voice was recorded saying, “This is very scary.”

This one roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the upstairs Dining Room, a question was asked, “Touch the one you like best.” (Referring to which model train that was on the table) The device replied with, “This one.” (However the response wasn’t too specific, so we were unable to determine which train the spirit liked best.)

Up yours Chuck roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Banquet Room, the device said, “Up yours Chuck.”  

Who wants to know roundhouse.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Banquet Room, a question was asked, “Were you one of the mechanics working on the turntable?” The device replied with, “Who wants to know?”

Conclusions: This location was fairly active especially later as the night wore on and there were fewer employees in the building. The word “fire” came out a few times and in researching the buildings we discovered that there were indeed several fires in the past that destroyed and/or damaged many buildings on the property.

Several members saw shadowy figures behind the bar when all the lights were extinguished in the downstairs bar area. The figure was only visible for a few seconds and no one was able to capture this apparition on their camera. The word “mirror” came through and there was indeed a mirror nearby. We asked the ghost if he could appear in the mirror as mirrors sometimes act as portals to the other side.

The lead reporter from WBBM Radio had her name called out, “Arielle.” A number of our EMF devices reacted to something unseen throughout the evening. Battery drainage was frequent even though those batteries were fresh and other devices fully charged.

Several of the members experienced chills or cold spots downstairs later in the evening. There were a lot of explicatives heard and recorded throughout the EVP sessions conducted in the Banquet Room and Ballroom.

All in all, this was a very interesting and somewhat successful evening at the Two Brothers Roundhouse. We would like the opportunity, if possible, to revisit this site and set up even more equipment with the hope of capturing even more paranormal evidence.