An 1879 Romanesque Revival Kirkbride campus on 119 acres, with underground tunnels and a 1939–1940 typhoid epidemic that killed more than 50 patients and staff.
100 E Jeffery St, Kankakee, IL 60901
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Active state developmental center; campus is not open to the public. Exterior viewing from Jeffery Street and surrounding roads.
Access
Limited Access
Active state facility with restricted access. Exterior only from public roads.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1879 · Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane — one of Illinois's largest Kirkbride-plan complexes · Romanesque Revival architecture on 119 acres with interconnected underground tunnels · 1939–1940 typhoid fever epidemic killing more than 50 patients and staff · National Register of Historic Places 1995 · Currently the Samuel H. Shapiro Developmental Center, active state facility
The Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane opened in Kankakee in 1879 as one of the state's most ambitious institutional projects of the era. The campus was designed in the Kirkbride tradition — a large central administrative building flanked by ward wings — executed in Romanesque Revival style across 119 acres. The buildings were connected by an underground tunnel network that allowed movement of patients, food, and staff in all seasons, a standard feature of large Midwestern institutional complexes.
The institution served the state's psychiatric population for over a century. In 1939, a typhoid fever outbreak traced to the campus water supply began spreading among patients and staff. By the time the epidemic was contained in 1940, more than 50 individuals had died. The Kankakee County Museum has documented this outbreak as one of the most significant public health disasters in the county's history, and its ghost stories collection specifically references the epidemic in its account of the campus's haunted reputation.
The institution transitioned over decades from a psychiatric hospital to its current function as the Samuel H. Shapiro Developmental Center, serving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities under the Illinois Department of Human Services. The historic buildings within the 1995 NRHP district continue to be used as part of the active facility. The Victorian towers and the tunnel network remain physically present on the campus.
Sources
The Kankakee County Museum has actively documented the ghost stories associated with the Kankakee State Hospital campus, positioning the institution's Victorian towers and underground tunnels as central to the local haunted history. The museum's 2024 post on the Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane is notable as an institutional source — a county historical organization acknowledging and collecting the site's paranormal reputation — rather than a commercial ghost-tour operator.
The specific historical anchor most often cited in the lore is the 1939–1940 typhoid epidemic. More than 50 patients and staff died during that outbreak, and the deaths occurred on a campus from which most victims could not simply leave. The concentration of institutional deaths on a specific, contained site — with the underground tunnel network that connected the buildings they died in — provides a concrete historical basis for the haunted tradition.
The typhoid epidemic at the nearby Manteno State Hospital (1939) offers broader regional context, documented by writer Michael Kleen, for the pattern of institutional public health disasters across Illinois's psychiatric hospital network in the same period.
Because the campus remains an active state facility, investigation access is not available. The lore is primarily maintained through local historical channels rather than commercial ghost-tourism.
The Romanesque Revival towers and interconnected buildings of the Kankakee State Hospital Historic District are visible from Jeffery Street and surrounding roads. The campus is an active state facility (Samuel H. Shapiro Developmental Center) and is not open to the public.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Quincy, IL
Solano Hall at Quincy University stands on the site of St. Aloysius Orphanage, which burned in the late 1890s killing multiple children. A connected 1899 fire at St. Francis parochial school on or near the campus killed twelve girls during a rehearsal.
Blackfoot, ID
Opened in 1886 as the Idaho State Insane Asylum, State Hospital South in Blackfoot is Idaho's first state psychiatric institution. In 1889, a fire killed at least two patients and left up to seven missing. The campus includes underground tunnels built in the early 1900s and an on-grounds patient cemetery used through the mid-twentieth century. The hospital continues to operate under the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
Bolivar, TN
Western Mental Health Institute in Bolivar is the last of Tennessee's three Victorian-era state psychiatric hospitals still standing and still operational. Construction ran from 1886 to 1889. The campus includes an underground tunnel system that was built to connect the ward buildings and service infrastructure, a common design feature of large nineteenth-century institutional complexes.