Clarendon Hills Roadhouse With a Lingering 1950s Tragedy
241 W 55th St, Clarendon Hills, IL 60514
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Casual American restaurant; burger and bar menu pricing. Call (630) 325-1444 for current hours.
Access
Limited Access
Flat, parking lot access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1922 · Local History · DuPage County
In 1922, the original owner of the property at what is now 241 West 55th Street in Clarendon Hills decided to build a roadhouse on the edge of town — a tavern and small store on the ground floor, family quarters upstairs. The building sat at a bend in 55th Street where the road approached a tree-lined stretch, and it became a gathering point for the surrounding community through Prohibition and its aftermath.
Ownership changed several times over the following decades. By the 1970s the building had accumulated its share of ordinary history: local arguments, ordinary tragedies, the slow accumulation of lives lived in a neighborhood bar. In 1974, David Regnery and three partners acquired the property and undertook a renovation that transformed it into the Country House as it is now known — a casual American restaurant with a strong local following and a reputation for reliable burgers.
The restaurant's paranormal reputation emerged almost immediately after the 1974 renovation. Owner David Regnery and a contractor witnessed six shutters opening simultaneously in the bar — an event that launched the ghost legend and has since attracted media coverage across newspapers, podcasts, and television segments.
Sources
The story attached to the Country House comes from the previous owner's account, shared after the 1974 renovation revealed unexplained activity. A young woman in her late twenties — blonde, according to the mediums brought in by Chicago ghosthunter Richard Crowe — had been involved with a bartender at the roadhouse in the late 1950s. She came to the bar one night asking if she could leave her child there for a short time while she attended to some errand. The bartender refused. She took the child and drove away fast down 55th Street, and approximately half a mile from the building she drove into a tree. The death was treated as a suicide.
The activity that followed the 1974 renovation was persistent enough that Regnery eventually contacted Richard Crowe, one of Chicago's most documented paranormal investigators. Crowe brought mediums who independently described the same young woman — late twenties, blonde, abdominal injuries consistent with a car crash.
Staff reports from across the restaurant's operating history include pounding on walls from empty rooms, the sound of an infant crying with no source, pots and pans shifting in the kitchen, and a strong floral scent that appears and disappears without explanation. The woman has been seen on multiple occasions in the second-floor window, described as beckoning to people in the parking lot below. Several accounts place her walking through the dining room during off-hours. A jukebox has reportedly turned on by itself. Footsteps have been heard in empty rooms on the second floor where the original family quarters were.
Notable Entities
Country House has operated as a neighborhood burger and bar since 1974 in a building dating to 1922. The second-floor window where the apparition has been reported beckoning to passersby is visible from the parking lot. No organized ghost programming is offered; the haunted reputation is informal and woven into the regular dining experience.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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