Ashmore Estates

History: 

The Coles County Poor Farm (later known as Ashmore Estates) was originally built in 1870 and housed homeless people, the mentally ill, as well as people with disabilities and significant developmental delays. Referred to as “inmates”, residents endured hazardous conditions including lack of plumbing, poor ventilation, rough floors and “vermin-infected walls”. It was in this space, however, that one of the legends of Ashmore Estates was established. 

On February 15, 1880, Elva Lowduskey Skinner, just two weeks before her fifth birthday, woke up and began getting dressed for the day as her family began breakfast downstairs in the dining hall. Unfortunately, she was dressing too close to the fireplace and her dress caught fire. She unfortunately succumbed to her wounds. 

By 1915, the housing inspector described the building as a “brick shell, lined with rotting, vile-smelling wood and crumbling, vermin-infested plaster. It was reported that furnishings were nearly nonexistent, and there were no bathtubs on the property. A number of inmates were said to soil their beds regularly without being cleaned. Many of the rooms were rotting into holes.” The building was soon condemned and torn down and a new building was constructed on the property in 1916. 

It was in this current building that another famous story comes to light. Joseph Oliver Bloxom, a resident of the building, was described as having a mental handicap, though he was well loved on the grounds and was eventually promoted to the “handyman” and was able to reside in the room just off the boiler room. In the summer of 1921, when “Joe” was just 68 years old, he took a walk down the railroad tracks just off the property to visit a family member, as he did every Sunday. Unfortunately, as he was returning, he was sideswiped by a passing train and later died of his injuries. 

The Coles County Poorhouse was officially closed in 1959 as the modern welfare system was put into use. In 1961, the property was sold again and became known as Ashmore Estates and was opened as a private psychiatric hospital. It changed hands a few times until 1977-1980, when they built an addition onto the building to include an additional 12 rooms. Unfortunately, just a few short years later in 1987, Ashmore Estates officially closed it’s doors due to financial debts. After changing ownership several times, in 2014 it was purchased by it’s current owners, Robbin and Norma Terry. 

Claims:

•Disembodied Voices and Whispers: Investigators frequently report hearing unexplained voices, disembodied cries, and eerie whispers echoing through the abandoned hallways. During media and ghost-box sessions, distinct audio anomalies—including electronic voice phenomena (EVPs)—have allegedly been captured.

•Phantom Footsteps: Visitors and paranormal teams often report the sound of heavy footsteps walking through empty wards and corridors where no living person is present.

•Residual Apparitions: Sightings of shadowy figures and full-bodied apparitions are commonly shared by guests. According to the book “Welcome to Ashmore Estates”, visitors have claimed to see a little girl playing in the yard or throughout the halls. 

•Violent Poltergeist Activity: Some overnight visitors claim to have experienced aggressive physical phenomena, such as objects moving on their own or sudden cold spots in specific rooms. The boiler room is supposedly a very active area, as this was once the room of Joe Bloxom, a former caretaker of the building. 

Experiences:

•During our initial tour, Tony stated that he felt that we were being followed throughout the property and up onto the second floor. 

•During the tour and later, Freddy experienced a sharp pain in her inner left upper arm, along with numbness in her arm and hand.

•During setup on the 3rd floor, Freddy was taking photographs when she felt a presence in the doorway of the room with the hospital bed that felt like running into a person. 

•In the boiler room, Freddy and Amanda observed a lot of activity with the trip wire, cat ball, and REM pod, which responded to questions, particularly during conversations involving hobbies such as art and talking about the food there.

•Tony heard a crash at the end of the hall on the 1st floor, but upon investigation, we could not find anything out of place. There was also a second crashing noise when Tony and Bryan were upstairs checking the location to make sure no one was in the building. The noise seemed to come from the floor below us. 

•In the 3rd floor room with the hospital bed, the team observed activity with the trip wire, while Bryan smelled a burnt body. When trying to communicate with Elva, a former resident of the property, Freddy, Jen, and Caitlin all were individually picturing the same girl in their head, completed with a blue dress and sandy blonde hair with loose curls. There were a lot of relevant responses with the trip wire and interesting interactions with the Estes Method, which later turned sinister and told us to get out.

•Upstairs on the 3rd floor, Tony and Freddy felt a strong presence near the Ashmore Estates painting that slowly built and dissipated within a matter of a few minutes. 

•Tony saw an older woman with white, matted hair and a dress sitting in a wheelchair near the windows on the 3rd floor. 

•In the 2nd floor conference area, there was cat ball activity and some trip wire activity, although the trip wire activity was probably due to an electrical anomaly rather than something paranormal.

•Tony and Bryan heard children's voices in the boiler room. Shortly afterward, another investigator had a very distinct feeling that another living person was in the building with us unbeknownst to us. They radioed to Bryan and Tony to come and sweep the building, and as they were coming upstairs, Bryan saw the silhouette of a head in the window of the women's dining hall. No one was found to be in the building.