Category: Barrington


A Haunted House on Cuba Road

Filed Under: 15. More Illinois, 4. Cuba Road, 5. Haunted Homes, Barrington, Cuba Road, Illinois, Rainbow Road — scottlmarkus — 4 Comments
March 4, 2008

Comment: I lived on Cuba Road for about 25 years. My family moved there from Chicago in 1970. The whole time I lived there, I never heard about a haunted house on Rainbow Road. It was always the haunted house on Cuba Road. The house was located off of Cuba Road, west of Rainbow road. The first and only time I went up there was in the summer of 1980. I was about 17. The house was still standing then and the drive way was still connected to Cuba Road. It was a big house on a small hill. It had the swamp on two sides and field and forest on the other sides. No neighbors lived close to it. The house was set on fire several times and was abandoned. No windows were left in it. I remember cutting across a field to get to it. I didn’t want to park my car on Cuba Road and have the cops tow it away. Nor did I want to drive it up the hill and get stuck. If I needed to leave quickly, I planned on running for my life. I didn’t want to be fumbling for my car keys.

As I was walking up to the house, I suddenly noticed a man standing out in front of it. Just standing there smiling at me. It scared the crap out me. He was up there checking things out like I was. He just said good bye and took off down the drive way. I gave him a wide berth and checked out the house. There was a small pond in front of the house, where a car had been pushed into it. All you could see was the roof of the car sticking out of the water. The rest of the house was empty. But very creepy.

During the 70′s, Cuba Road was not yet developed. Some days you would only see one car drive up or down it. But every Halloween, there would be cars bumper to bumper, filled with high school kids, driving from the Haunted house on one end to the haunted graveyard, White Cemetery, on the other.

I didn’t know Cuba Road was haunted till I went to high school. I was sitting in class one day, when someone mentioned how scary Cuba Road was. I asked him what did he mean and he told name all the scary stories he had heard. I told him I lived on Cuba Road and no one believed me, until I showed them my drivers license. That impressed the hell out of them. Then, they wanted me to tell them scary stories.

At first, I told them that they were just stories, but they wouldn’t believe me, so then I started repeating the stories my older brothers had told me. About the drug dealing son and his “Mason” like gang he hung out with. The father had passed away and the Mom tried to keep the son in line, but eventually had a nervous breakdown and was taken away to a mental institution. Once the Mom was gone, the son ran wild with his hippie friends and started having black masses in the house. Late at night they would run through the fields and swamps with torches. One party got out of hand and they started the house on fire. The house was totaled, but the son and his friends would sneak back there at times for their secret get-togethers and bon fires. All the druggies and burnouts in Barringtion would flock to the house for parties. Finally, the Village had enough and decided to remove the drive way to the house. It was dug up and removed. A berm was made to stop cars from trying to four wheel up to the house. I don’t know if they razed the house at the same time, but I bet they did. The Fire and the Police Departments were getting tired of driving out there every Saturday night.

Things seemed to have settled down. People still drove up and down Cuba Road on Halloween. Over time, people wanted to go to the haunted house. So suddenly, the haunted house was now on Rainbow Road. A house where people could still drive up to and get out of there cars and look around. This happened over the last 15 years, because I never heard of a Rainbow Road haunted house till after I left Barrington and started reading books about haunted places. I was confused why they would talk about the haunted house on Rainbow Road Road, they never got the story right. I guess I should call it the original haunted house on Cuba Road. If you ask anyone in Barrington over 40 where the Haunted house is, they would not say Rainbow Road. They would tell you it was off of Cuba Road.

That is all for now. I do have other stories, about the animals getting killed in the Langendorf Park petting zoo.

About the memorial plaque that is located behind the McDonalds Restaurant, in the Langendorf Park parking lot, where Baby Face Nelson had a shoot out with two FBI agents. –Martin

Response from Slim Pictures: Martin, the most exciting part of your eMail is your mention of Baby Face Nelson. Just recently I decided to look into possible hauntings surrounding the infamous gangster, especially considering his violent life and death. PLEASE do tell me everything you’ve heard!

I am very fascinated by your accounts of a hunted house on Cuba Rd. If you were to look on google Earth or Google Maps today, do you think you’d be able to locate where this ‘original’ haunted house was. It seems like some of the tales of this house have migrated to the Krilich house on Rainbow Rd. I have heard plenty of what I consider legitimate stories about a haunted house on Rainbow Road, so I’m inclined to think that both of these locations are haunted though there have definitely been some blurring between the locations over the years.  It’s a very astute observation to presume that when the ‘original’ haunted house of the area went away, they needed a new base to call home.  I love hearing how the original stories morph into urban legends over time and I thank you for informing all of us Cuba Road ‘newbies’ about where some of these tales might have started.

Are there ghost stories related the the petting zoo? Thanks a million, Scott

Do any readers out there know anything about an abandoned haunted home on Cuba Road (not Rainbow Road) in the ’80s and before?

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House(s) on Rainbow Road

Filed Under: 15. More Illinois, 4. Cuba Road, Barrington, Illinois, Rainbow Road, White Cemetery — scottlmarkus — Comments Off
December 15, 2005

Question: Hey, I was surfing the web and I came across the whole Rainbow Road hauntings. My father and I have driven down there and spotted an entrance blocked by a gate leading to nothing…at least from what I can see. Do you know what is exactly behind that gate. Also, I heard that big glass house has a story behind it. I am interested in your book, where can I buy it? Thank you for your time — Aly Pecka

Response from Slim Pictures: Aly – Yes, by finding that area blocked off by a gate, you did find the place known as the House on Rainbow Road. There are plenty of pictures on this site to see what’s beyond the gate you found. My book contains links to hundreds of pictures as well as video clips of haunted sites, including the Rainbow Road location. I have heard recently that a numberer of the buildings back there have since been bulldozed in order to construct new homes on the land, but I have not been able to stop by and verify that. What was back there was a three story abandoned mansion that, by many accounts, was incredibly haunted. You can purchase the book at this web site, at Amazon.com and throughout Borders and Barnes & Nobles bookstores throughout Northern Illinois.

As for the ‘big glass house’ you speak of, I admit I have no information about it, but I hope that someone speaks up with anything they may have heard.

Response from w00t!! (a fellow reader): I have been there once before last year – about July, maybe August. I saw what looks like more of a barn, and silo, of which also had a doghouse next to it. Laying next to those buildings I saw a foundation for something. it seemed to me to be a foundation for a greenhouse of some sort. I say greenhouse because in the foundation there was broken pots for plants, remains of soil in crevases, nails that looked to have been burned and rusted, and a lot of glass. Now this isn’t for certain, but I think the glass house Aly speaks of was a greenhouse at one time or another, as for the story behind it….I know nothing of a story behind it. I’d love to hear something about that myself.

I would like to add that when me and my friends went there we decided to look around the backside of the barn and there was a 6 maybe 7 ft tall sliding door (no longer able to slide…the poles and brackets that it had been on rusted together making it impossible to open. The door led into the basement of the barn. When we approached the door written on it was “do not open,” “dead bodies inside” scattered across it, my friend who’s built like the hulk decided to pull on the handled a couple times till he managed to break the back door off, looking inside of it layed, rolled-up carpets, which were the most prominant items noticeable in there along with other junk, we decided against venturing in because the barn was dilapidated and that was just freaky knowing that it was a a mafia house at one time. Also when we looked in the ground-level area there was some phone line in there and other misc. junk like a lawn mower and stuff….maybe people dumped stuff there. Also as for the third level of the barn which, I would not go onto any further than the stairs, if you looked up there you could see with just the tiniest bit of sunlight beaming in that there was a single sewing machine upstairs.

I heard there was an asylum on the property (which I’m lead to believe is a lie) but, in search of that, we went through the thick forest behind the barn…a path which branches off into 2 directions will lead you to the forest. There wasn’t much to see…there’s a small creek, some phone lines and markers for whatever. We went all the way through that forest till we hit some upscale houses. There was no asylum to be found.

On our trip, as mentioned previously by other people we did see a camera box hidden in the tree with wires yanked out of it and smashed up pretty dang good to the right of the gates. Also I didn’t see a thing written in the road as one person had stated seeing “Dr. Tibol” in it. The road was pretty badly beaten up so, who knows, maybe it’s there but I highly doubt it. I was watching the driveway pretty closely because of it being so badly ripped up, I was on bike…if I didn’t I would’ve been eating asphalt. Biking is a pretty good way of getting in and out real fast if we needed, if you can, I’d recommend that to people if they wanted to look around for themselves.

Side note: January 15th, 2005 after seeing the a bad movie “White Noise,” we decided to go and see the graveyard on Cuba Road so we went down Rainbow Road and drove past where the gates stood when I went to the house in July. The gates aren’t standing any longer and the tree that had the camera in it was cut down. I’m not sure about this part but I could’ve sworn seeing a bull dozer sitting next to where the tree stump was where the camera had been hiden in the tree. None of my friends I was with had knowledge of the house on Rainbow Road so they didn’t want to stop to check it out…they didn’t believe that there was anything there from that deceivingly long driveway..they were also scared and it was freezing .

We went to the cemetery on Cuba Road…It was quite boring actually…the driver and my other friend didn’t wanna go so me and a fourth person went in, jumped the fence to avoid having the huge light pole turn on next to the gates. Then we got a little too close to the pole after just looking around so it went off and we took off before the cops came….looked for orbs but no such luck :(

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The Cuba Road Phantom Cars Are Real

Filed Under: 4. Cuba Road, Barrington, Cuba Road, Illinois — scottlmarkus — Comments Off
June 16, 2005

Story: Hey guys, I just got into going down to Cuba Road and Rainbow Road recently, because I wasn’t old enough to drive out there until now. So, I’ve been going every weekend now for the past two months, and it’s really creepy. The first night, we had some weird guy in a red Taurus following us everywhere, even into deserted roads nobody would ever go into, but after about 20 minutes we lost him. Then, we kept going back for the pure feeling it gave us knowing we were in such a haunted part of Illinois. Finally, one of our other friends and I did more research about found out that on Ela Road, right off of Cuba going south there is a haunted swing set that is dedicated to the girl that died there. Also, we heard about the asylum and we heard about the flesh eating monks. Last night we went down Lake Zurich Road off of Cuba and we stopped in the woods and ran through them. When we got deeper in, we could hear something, like a beast that was hungry and growling, so we all ran back into the car. Also, by White Cemetery, we saw these two hearses come out of the cemetery, yet the gates were never opened, and they still had the locks on them. They went past us, and all of us saw them, so we don’t know if it was real, or just our imagination.

Another really weird thing that has happened is we keep seeing this barn with a white horse, which has only been there the last two times, and to us, white horses symbolize death, right? So both nights there were either a 3 car pile up or a 5 car pile up, and people had died right in front of us. I have never been so creeped out in my life. I even keep a knife under my pillow at night to feel safe. So, with all of you people who see these things too, and others think we are crazy, they should all go out and see how it really is. ~Jenny

Response from Scott Markus: Jenny, please see the video response posted on 10/28/05 for your response.  Also, for the love of God, stop sleeping with a knife under your pillow.  If you think there are evil spirits out there, do you really think you’d be able to stab them?  Thanks for writing in.

Response from Aggie [a reader]: I was just recently introduced to your page, and started reading about people’s experiences on Cuba Rd, but one thing that striked me was, how real those stories are. On 06/16/2005 Jenny has posted something saying that there were 3 or 5 car pile up accidents and people died in them… I still can’t find any proof that there was accident of this nature during summer of 2005. Can you please explain or back up her story with facts? Thank you –Aggie

Response from Scott Markus: I really hope for my wonderful and educated readers to back up their own stories, but I decided to look in on this myself.  I can say that there were 4 fatal car crashes in the area in 2005, however none of them were actually on Cuba Road and none of them were 3 or 5 car pile-ups.  Barrington Hills fatal car crash data can be found here.

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Remembering a strange abandoned house

Filed Under: 15. More Illinois, Barrington, Illinois — scottlmarkus — Comments Off
March 23, 2005

Story: I am not sure where this house was, but when I was 16 years old, and now I am 47, we found this deserted mansion, in the Cuba road area.

It was the strangest thing, and it haunts me to this day. This beautiful home was deserted. Being teenagers, naturally we were drinking beer and exploring the house. It was so huge to us, and we could not believe that someone could just close the door and leave a place like this.

I don’t remember much in the main house, but I do remember a smaller house, or guest house, that was on the property across from the main house, and we found all sorts of pictures of the of the house when it was in it’s glory, I think I remember being in an attic or upper floor. People were standing in front of the mansion, like a family, and we also found receipts from funerals and very personal stuff. There were lots of law books like the person was a lawyer or something.

It had been ransacked previously, but I vividly remember the pictures of the family in front of the mansion.

I have often wondered what caused this abandonment and where did the family end up. Can you shed any light on this? — Lisa

Response from Slim Pictures: That’s a pretty tall order considering we don’t know for sure the exact property. I would have thought that around 1958 the place we all know as “The House on Rainbow Road” would still be occupied, however the descriptions do match. I had a similar incident when looking around an old barn. I ended up finding property deeds, wills and even a death certificate. As crazy as it seems, apparently people didn’t take care of personal information of the deceased back then like they do now.

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Strange Picture from Cuba Road

Filed Under: 15. More Illinois, 4. Cuba Road, Barrington, Illinois, Rainbow Road, White Cemetery — scottlmarkus — Comments Off
February 11, 2005

PhotobucketStory / Question: Can you tell me if these photos look like anything unsual. A few friends and I were up at Cuba road one night. It was in early Jan. 2005. We were parked directly on a side street which is directly in front of the cemetery across Cuba Rd. My friend has digital camera and she took a few pictures. In one picture in particular, there is a dense area of what seems to be fog all around us. Also in that same picture, you can kind of make out like a leg type object in the left hand corner. What is this? Another picture, after development, started turning colors it was the weirdest thing. However, I think the oddest thing about this experience at Cuba Rd. was when we first arrived, my friend’s digital camera just came off the charger and had a full battery. But after the first initial foggy picture, the camera died. Then all of a sudden, about 10 minutes later, it came back on. Then she tried to take another picture but nothing came up on the camera, she took about 5 pictures like this. Her camera was brand new too. Kind of odd. Have you ever heard of cameras not working after an initial photograph? I attached the pictures to see what you make of them. Thank you so much.  Kate

P.S. We also hear a lot of rumors about Rainbow Rd., what is the truth behind Rainbow Rd. Also last time we went to Rainbow Rd. the house or whatever it is was for sale and they were demolishing what was on that piece of property.

Response from Scott Markus: Kate, First off, thanks for your submission and you made a lot of very good observations. In your eMail it sounded like you meant to send several pictures, however I only got one. In the one I got, there’s definitely a lot of fog, there also appears to be two small orbs toward the right of the picture. There may be a few more smaller ones further off in the distance, but it’s hard to tell if they are orbs or reflections of distant objects. Some questions I would ask are: What were the weather conditions that night? Was it foggy? In addition to explaining the fog, it would also explain the orbs, which tends to be how larger droplets of moisture appear on a digital image. Was that van engine still running? Was anyone in the area smoking and was it cold enough that people could see their breath? Pictures like this can be tough because one that can be explained often looks exactly like one that can’t be explained.

Please do feel free to send the additional images and I’ll take a look at those as well.

In terms of having a paranormal experience, I believe you definitely did have one. The reason I say this is your story with the malfunctioning camera. Equipment failure of every kind is common at haunted locations, from cell phones to cars to everything in between. You mention the camera hadn’t had these problems before. Has it since?

As for the House on Rainbow Road, yes, it’s well known as a haunted location.  From what I’ve heard, I believe it.  However, I have not experienced anything there myself.  From what I’ve heard the entire property is being leveled and sold off as, I believe, five different lots for new homes.  Time will tell if the new homes become haunted as well. Thanks for writing & I look forward to hearing more.

Response from Katie: I just got your first email about the picture and camera. There was no fog whatsoever that night. The cars were turned off and it was not cold enough to see breath. Also no one in our group smokes. As for the camera, it works fine right now, there is nothing wrong with the camera, it is in perfect condition. My friend has taken many pictures since then and the camera worked on all of them. Also thank you for the email about Rainbow Rd. I do have another question for you. Have you ever heard of Flint Creek Road? It is located in Barrington too. Supposedly there was a car with 3 people and they were playing chicken and ran off road because the car that they were playing chicken with didn’t stop. Out of the 3 people, 2 died. The third person said that the other car didn’t stop and he blacked out. I was just wondering if you had heard anything about this. Also a group of us went down to Flint Creek Road and my one friends had his voice recorder on from his cell and he caught all of this weird almost talking noise on this recording. We were all quiet so we don’t know what it was. Do you have any idea what it could have been? Can cell voice recorders pick up supernatural noises? Thank you so very much for your input and help.

Response from Scott Markus:I do believe that any type of recorder can capture EVPs, some better than others though.  I would love to hear what was captured and post it on the site.  I have never heard any Flint Creek Road hauntings, but will post your tale on the site and maybe someone else will chime in!

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