HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
An Irish family's grocery on the west side of Beloit where all the children died in the 1918 flu pandemic — locals report a girl's apparition in the upstairs window.
St Lawrence Ave at Hackett St, Beloit, WI 53511
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Drive-by or walk-by on public street; no admission
Access
Wheelchair OK
Public sidewalk at street level
Equipment
Photos OK
1918 influenza pandemic community loss · Irish immigrant family history in west Beloit · Local folklore tradition documented by Beloit press
Beloit's west side was home to waves of immigrant families in the late 19th and early 20th centuries — Polish, Irish, Italian, and others who worked the city's foundries and mills. The Gallagher family operated a grocery at the corner of St. Lawrence and Hackett among these communities.
The 1918 influenza pandemic reached Wisconsin in the fall of 1918, killing tens of thousands statewide. Beloit was hit hard, and the Gallagher family's children — the exact number is not documented in surviving public records — are reported to have all died during the pandemic. The nature of that loss, compounded by the immigrant family's isolation and grief, appears to have anchored the building in local memory.
The 967 Eagle feature on west Beloit haunted buildings documented the Gallagher Building among a cluster of sites along St. Lawrence Avenue with persistent community folklore. The Beloit Daily News has also covered the west side's haunted folklore tradition, placing the Gallagher Building within a broader neighborhood pattern of reported activity.
Sources
The haunting associated with the Gallagher Building is specific and consistent: a child's apparition visible in the upstairs window. The 967 Eagle article describes it plainly — 'A little girl in the upstairs window looking out' — and this image has circulated in Beloit's west-side folklore for years.
The figure is described as appearing in the window and then being gone when observers look again or return. No sound phenomena are typically associated with this site; the sighting is almost entirely visual, centered on that upper-floor window. The Beloit Daily News's coverage of west-side haunted folklore has reinforced the building's place in local oral tradition, even as the original Gallagher family's records remain difficult to trace in public archives.
The Gallagher Building is a commercial building at the corner of St. Lawrence Avenue and Hackett Street, identifiable from the public street. Visitors come to see the upstairs window where an apparition of a child has been reported. This is a drive-by or brief walk-by stop on any Beloit haunted-buildings tour.
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