Mcpike Mansion, Illinois.

mysterious world
Jul 2, 2022
3 min read

Updated: Aug 20, 2023

Alton is an old small city in Madison County, Illinois. Alton was a home to native Americans for hundreds of years before the 19th century after which European Americans started settling in the city.

The Clark Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge across the Mississippi River between West Alton, Missouri and Alton, Illinois. — The clark bridge

Greg Linscott

For a small town, Alton has seen a lot of deaths due to its long unreported history. About 1400 confederate soldiers died during the civil war because of smallpox outbreak and many unreported deaths later Alton became one of the most haunted cities in the whole country.

Blackdoll

The whole town is haunted but there are some locations that really stand out. One such location is the Mcpike mansion. Famous all over the country for its 11 or so ghost residents. The house was built between 1869 and 1871 on the highest point in Alton. Henry Mcgike a prominent member of the society and the Three time Mayor of the town moved into the house along with his family. They lived at the house till 1936 but the house was sold to Paul Laichinger who lived at the house till 1951. The house remained abandoned for years and fell in decay during those years due to vandalism. In 1994 Sharon and George Luedke bought the house in order to convert it into a hotel but they could not do so as they were unable to acquire any grant money for that purpose. But even with all those hindrances they managed to complete the renovations of the house through donations and opened the home for tours instead. They still host several ghost tours as well as historical tours. Although renovations around the house are still going on.

Mcpike Mansion in dilapidated state — Mcpike Mansion

Aaron & Mariona

During the earlier renovations the first paranormal activity took place. Sharon was working on the garden one day and she saw a man staring at her from the second floor window. Later after doing some research about the house she found a picture of Paul Laichinger and quickly realized that it was the same person that she saw on the window.

Another spirit that has been spotted inside the house is believed to be Sarah. She used to be a servant in the house and is now a friendly ghost. Sharon often spots her inside the house and she doesn’t feel scared around her. Her spirit roams around in the attic.

Mcpikemansioncrew

The wine cellar is the most active place in the house. People hear footsteps and witness shadows and apparitions infront of their eyes. Often people feel sick around in the cellar although that might be due to the fact that people only visit the cellar during tours and it might get really congested during those tours. People have seen shadowy mist form in the cellar and follow them around. The heavy metal gate at the end of stairs usually takes a little bit of strength to open and close but people have seen it open on its own.

Faces staring from the window of Mcpike Mansion

The above “enhanced” pictures were captured by Tom Halstead of PTF during the (Saturday) July 19, 2008 Workshop. The above enhancements were done by Bruce Halliday of Paranormal Investigating Team (P.I.T.). Bruce’s website can be visited by clicking

Other ghosts residing in the house include that of Mrs and Mr Mcpike and people have heard voices and footsteps of small children in the house, infact when Paul Laichinger used to live in the house and rented some of the rooms, his tenants often complained about hearing kids playing inside the house even when there were no kids present. The child spirits are believed to be the kids of Mcpikes who died young.