Chicago is well known as a town with a rich haunted history spanning over 200 years, with ghost stories from every part of the city. Victorian homes and cemeteries are common for ghost stories in Chicago, but when castles are mentioned, dark hallways and rattling chains are often pictured, this past October the Supernatural Ventures Investigative team was given the opportunity to visit the only existing castle in Chicago, The Givins Castle in the Beverly community on the south side.
With the kind permission of the Beverly Unitarian Church we were allowed to verify or disprove the legends and mythologies surrounding the Castle, from the mysterious lady in white to the vanishing child on the second floor. Armed with the documented history of the castle provided by Carol Flynn and the Ridge Historical Society we were ready to begin. Our team of nine, Daniel with the Gopro, David with the handheld EMF, Terra with the voice recorder, Anna an empath, Jack Chavez and Franchesca Kelly from Paranormal Chicago, reknowned Chicago ghost historian Tony Szabelski, myself and my wife Melissa with the camera. We began our investigation on the main floor. The doors of the main entrance were made of sturdy dark wood and entered into a large room with a fireplace at the southern wall and a grand piano in the corner.
An REM pod (Radiating Electro-Magneticity) was placed on the piano in the corner and cameras began recording, in no time at all my camera picked up a flurry of orbs which curiously did not appear on any other camera. Melissa's camera captured a mist that appeared at the doorway entrance as we entered as though we were being welcomed. I began our session with a variety of questions to possibly invoke a response from the alleged lady in white, and we were not disappointed
The REM pod gave specific responses in the form of flashing lights to the questions “We’d like to see our hostess” and “Can you see us?” The name Sarah came to me and I assumed that to be the name of the entity we were communicating with. An SLS (Structured Light Sensor) camera picked up an image walking around the piano at that time, it was later discovered that the piano had a tendency to play on its own at odd times.
Next we explored the basement and once again we got a quick response. David's handheld EMF registered an electrical anomaly as soon as we descended the stairs, our baseline was a 1.5 but his EMF jumped to 16.5 and fluctuated. We looked for any electrical interference in the area but concluded that at a standstill there shouldnt be any fluctuation, therefore something unseen was causing the interference and was following us around the basement.
Tony, David and Daniel discovered an open door in the basement which led to a hallway that opened up at a daycare center. A quick exploration yielded nothing until they tried to leave. As they turned off the light, a toy dog started barking in the dark room and stopped whenever the lights were turned back on, this was captured on Daniels Gopro and happened twice before they returned to the hallway, but coming back, the door they entered was locked from the other side and they were forced to exit through the front doors of the daycare, whatever was there didnt want them to leave.
However, our most compelling evidence was during an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) session on the second floor. We placed a REM pod on the landing at the back stairs near where Anna saw a shadowy figure, and Jack turned on his Ghost Box which immediately gave verbal responses. As I asked the questions, ‘who are you, what is your name’ and ‘can you show yourself’ it responded with the name David and the word Weak, which we interpreted to mean the entity's name was David and that the surrounding energy was too weak for it to manifest, an intelligent response from an unseen entity.
In conclusion, the answer to the question is the Beverly Castle haunted, yes! In the basement there is an unnamed yet playful entity who enjoyed our company.
On the main floor, the spirit of a young lady named Sarah seems to be attached to the piano, and on the second floor an entity who calls himself David likes to stay near the stairwell. All seemed to be responsive and intelligent which yielded much video and audio evidence, The only question remaining is who are Sarah and David? No records exist of those names connected with the Castle. So if you are ever in Beverly, stop by the Beverly Unitarian Church you may just catch a glimpse of its eternal habitants.