1865 Spiritualist Mansion, Now the Bull Valley Police Station
1904 Cherry Valley Rd, Bull Valley, IL 60098
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The mansion is now the Village of Bull Valley municipal building and police station. It is not open for self-guided tours. Exterior viewing is free.
Access
Limited Access
Rural roadside, gravel shoulder
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1865 · 19th Century Spiritualism · Italianate Architecture · McHenry County History · National Register of Historic Places · American Spiritualist Movement · Adaptive Reuse as Municipal Building
The George Stickney House was built in 1865 on a rural McHenry County parcel that is now part of the Village of Bull Valley. George and Sylvia Stickney were practicing Spiritualists who hosted seances in a second-floor ballroom that ran the full length of the building. According to Atlas Obscura's profile and Wikipedia's entry on the house, the Stickneys instructed their builders to round all interior corners in the outer perimeter rooms because Spiritualist doctrine held that spirits could become trapped or hide in right angles. Local lore notes that the house contains a single ninety-degree angle, and that George Stickney died at that spot.
The house's second-floor ballroom is now used for storage of village records but retained its original full-length proportions. The Village of Bull Valley acquired the building and converted it to a municipal hall and police station. Police Chief Norbert Sauers gave a series of interviews in 2005 about events he and his officers had experienced inside.
The house was profiled in Atlas Obscura, Slate, and the Digital Research Library of Illinois History Journal, and is listed by the Illinois Haunted Houses regional database.
Sources
The Stickney House's most authoritative paranormal account comes from inside the police department itself. In 2005, Bull Valley Police Chief Norbert Sauers gave on-the-record interviews describing phenomena that had become routine for village staff: footsteps in the second-floor ballroom when the floor was empty, objects shifting on his desk between his arrivals and departures, lights switching off without input, doorknobs turning, and a doorway that has opened by itself. He also reported a single instance of hearing a shout in his ear when no one else was present.
A second officer at the department has reported encountering an apparition matching the description of George Stickney's father-in-law in the upper hallway. Local news coverage referenced by Officer.com and the Digital Research Library of Illinois History Journal indicates that two armed officers have resigned over events at the property.
Local lore associates one upstairs room with the suicide of a Stickney child, though this account is not corroborated in surviving primary records. The Stickneys' own seance practice is the firmer historical anchor: this was a household actively designed for contact with the dead, and the architecture reflects the belief system.
Notable Entities
View the curved-corner Italianate facade from Cherry Valley Road. The Stickneys built the house in 1865 with rounded interior corners on the perimeter rooms — a Spiritualist design intended to leave spirits no place to hide. The building is now the Bull Valley Police Department; respect signage and do not approach the doors.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Lebanon, IL
McKendree University, founded in Lebanon, Illinois in 1828 as the Lebanon Seminary, is the oldest college or university in Illinois. Pioneer Methodists established the institution under Archbishop Edward Raymond Ames, and it was renamed in 1830 to honor Bishop William McKendree, the first American-born Methodist bishop. The Alumni House on campus has a documented history of deaths among its occupants.
Bull Valley, IL
The George Stickney House is an 1865 stucco-over-frame mansion in Bull Valley, Illinois, built for spiritualists George and Sylvia Stickney. The Stickneys, both practicing mediums, are said to have designed the interior without right angles to ease the movement of spirits during seances. The building has served as the Bull Valley Police Department since 1985 and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979.
Alton, IL
Henry Guest McPike, Alton mayor and horticulturist, built this 16-room Italianate Victorian mansion in 1869, completing it in 1871 on a 15-acre site he named Mount Lookout. Architect Lucas Pfeiffenberger designed the home, which McPike occupied until his death in 1910. The property passed to Paul A. Laichinger around 1925, fell into severe disrepair after midcentury, and was purchased at auction in 1994 by Sharyn and George Luedke, who have undertaken restoration through tours and donations.