The Hull House Haunting of Chicago, IL
There is a mansion in Chicago Illinois where stories of ghosts and other strange happenings plague its history; stories of a lady in white, ghostly children at a fountain, a haunted attic, and even a devil baby.
Throughout the decades the mansion has changed its face and purpose but one thing that hasn’t changed is its ghostly residents.
Today we’re looking at the Hull House Haunting of Chicago IL.
Part 1 - The Hull House
In 1856 real estate developer, Charles J. Hull constructed the mansion that would later become the Hull House but before it could do that, tragedy would strike the home.
Just a few years after the construction was complete, in 1860, Hull’s wife passed away in the home. During the 1870s, the home became a nursing home where many elderly lived and died. In 1889 Charles J. Hull passed away leaving his niece the estate, she then allowed future Nobel prize winners, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr, to use the estate to build a settlement house with the intention of helping with social reform.
Jane Addams
Ellen Gates Star
Social Reform
At first, the home was intended to help with the women’s movement of the time, helping foster and promote educational and social reform for women who were expanding out of the traditional roles.
As the years went on and more impoverished immigrants moved into the surrounding areas the Hull House, as it became known, grew into a complex of multiple buildings. It would encompass and promote education and social reform to all.
Classes on art, history, and literature among others, were taught there for free to women and children at first. Eventually, the complex would also provide, among a whole host of other functions, a shelter for domestic abuse victims, public bath houses, daycare, and even provide food to those who were without nutrition.
In 1935 Jane Addams would pass away but the complex continued its work until the 1960’s when the University of Illinois expanded and displaced the complex.
The original building and main dining hall remained and became a museum where you can still take tours today and maybe capture the image of the ghostly figures that inhabit the museum. Throughout the years and accomplishments of the Hull House, many still believed ghosts haunted the ground even Jane Addams herself.
Part 2 - The Ghosts of Hull House
After the death of Charles J Hull’s wife, reports began to spread of her ghostly figure still wandering the halls, kitchen, and second floor of the home, but she wasn’t the only ghost wandering the estate.
It’s said after the mansion became a nursing home hundreds of elderly died during the two decades before Jane Addams and Ellen Gates established their settlement home. This only added to the ghostly sightings, many reported figures watching from windows where no one would be, as well as a ghostly woman in white roaming the kitchen.
The Haunted Rooms of Hull House
Jane Addams would even happily discuss the strange occurrences with friends and acquaintances describing the house as haunted after having seen a woman in a dress in what she called the “Haunted Room”.
Addams was advised to place buckets of water at the bottom of the stairs to deter ghosts from crossing as it was or is believed ghosts could not cross flowing water.
It’s unknown whether she took the advice.
Then in 1913, a newspaper reported the Hull House was home to a baby born of the devil or perhaps the devil itself.
The Devil Baby of Hull House
As the story goes, an unnamed pregnant woman was putting up pictures of the Virgin Mary in her home. When her husband discovered her, he cried out, “I would rather have the devil in this home than the virgin Mary!”
He got exactly what he wished for as their baby was born with scaly skin, horns, and even by some accounts, hooved feet. The family, unwilling to keep the baby, sought to leave it at the Hull House where Jane Addams attempted to baptize the baby. Seeing no other way of saving the demon child, Jane Addams locked it away in the attic.
Of course, that is just a story that was refuted multiple times by Jane Addams, yet many visitors would often travel to the Hull House in an attempt to see the demon child. But the story of the demon child wasn’t the only supernatural story passed around.
Many who visit the museum today report hearing strange sounds coming from the attic, ghostly figures supposedly captured on camera, and glimpses of a woman in white watching from the top window. Those who step out into the garden will feel a cold breeze and report hearing or seeing three young girls playing by the fountain.
But how about you? Would you take a trip to the Hull House in Chicago, Illinois for a chance to experience the ghosts of Hull House for yourself?
