AMERICAN HAUNTINGS GHOST HUNTS
NIGHT AT THE OLD MOTOR CAR SHOP
THE CHARLESTON SUITE
NIGHT AT THE OLD MOTOR CAR SHOP
THE CHARLESTON SUITE
CARROLTON, ILLINOIS
NEXT AVAILABLE DATE: NOVEMBER 1, 2024
7:00 PM TO 1:00 AM
$48 PER PERSON
CLICK HERE FOR RESERVATIONS!
Footsteps on the staircase.
Objects moved and misplaced.
Unexplained sounds and voices.
Sheets pulled from beds.
The small towns of Illinois have more than their share of ghosts, and the small town of Carrollton is no exception. We’ve been offering ghost hunts in town for many years now, but this is a new location that hadn’t ever been offered before. Its long history on the Carrollton Square boasts a past from which spirits of yesterday still linger.
Although constructed in 1890, the building now located next to the Carrollton Library wasn’t continually in use until 1911, when William Barnett opened the Barnett Motor Company there, selling fresh-off-the-line Ford and Pontiac motor cars.
The company thrived for years until Barnett retired and sold the business to Elmer Lukeman and Frank McCollister, who changed the name and began offering trucks, tractors, and auto repair. The repair shop was oddly located on the second floor of the building, and vehicles were driven upstairs using ramps.
The business boomed for the next few decades, even through shortages during World War II, and changed owners again in 1965 when Joe Hartman bought the business and began selling Ford and Mercury automobiles. The second-floor repair shop was gone, but it did become a showplace for new vehicles.
In 1987, the building’s connection with Ford ended when Hartman sold the business to Evans Farm Equipment, and they moved the business offsite to the south part of Carrollton. Joe Hartman kept the building, but it remained vacant until 2004 when car enthusiast Richard Abbott purchased it. He converted the second floor into living quarters and used the main level to show off his classic car collection.
Then, in 2020, the building was purchased at auction by the current owners, and work began to restore and upgrade the upper floor of the former auto dealership.
And that was when they found out they weren’t the only ones in the building.
Connecting the history of the building to William Barnett’s Ford dealership in the 1920s, they decided to create a theme around when Henry Ford developed his auto assembly line, the cars of the era, and the “jazz age” of the 1920s – a time of Prohibition, bootlegging, gangsters, music, and dancing the Charleston. With a nod to both the legacy of Ford dealerships and the most famous dance step of the era, the restored living space was opened as an Airbnb called “The Charleston Suite.”
They wanted to honor the past with their new building – not realizing at first that the past had never really left the building behind. It seemed that some of the men who once worked there had simply never left.
When work was being done on the building and then as guests began arriving, many started to notice unsettling feelings that came over them when alone. They heard the sounds of footsteps, disembodied voices, knocking, and even what seemed to be metal on metal – as if someone was tinkering under the hood of a car.
Some of the strange happenings were more interactive – water that turned on and off, sheets pulled from the beds, personal items that moved around, there one moment and gone the next, and more.
Want to experience this spot for yourself – a new location that hasn’t been overrun by ghost hunts and people trying to get on TV? Now’s your chance to come along for this private event and perhaps come face-to-face with the building’s occupants of the past!