Bartonville State Hospital
A site in Peoria, Illinois, Bartonville State Hospital is filed here for what the record attaches to it. The 1902 asylum—where the Kirkbride’s dead remain. The presences in its file go unnamed: the patients, the record says. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 1 legend and 1 documented fact, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is open to visitors.
· in your passport — stamped · open it
Is Bartonville State Hospital haunted?
The record holds 2 claims, 1 legend, 1 named entity — filed as reported, not verified. The heaviest filing is classed documented legend. The archive documents the claim; it takes no position on the ghost.
The record — long form
Bartonville State Hospital opened in 1902 — the Peoria asylum that housed Illinois' insane for decades, the institution's wards holding the patients the state committed and the era's treatments applied.
The file's documented spine is the hospital's register: a state asylum that took the century's mad, its wards being the record of how the era treated the minds it couldn't help — the institution's scale being the era's approach in brick.
The patients
The lore reports the patients seen — the file's haunting being the asylum's population: the people committed to Bartonville reportedly still in the wards where they were kept, the hospital's dead being its most persistent residents.
The patients' presence is the file's signature — an asylum keeping its committed, the wards reportedly still holding the people the state sent there to disappear.
Why this file matters
Bartonville is the archive's asylum file — a 1902 hospital keeping its patients reportedly still inside. The documented institution is the record; the lingering committed are the lore of a place built to hold the unwanted.
An asylum that warehoused patients keeps them — the file's suggestion being that Bartonville's wards still hold everyone the state ever sent away.
Peoria State Hospital Historic District, also known as Bartonville State Hospital or Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane, was a psychiatric hospital operated by the State of Illinois from 1902 to 1973. The hospital is located in Bartonville, Illinois, near the city of Peoria in Peoria County. The hospital grounds and its 63 buildings are listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places.
Peoria State HospitalThe record of claims
The patients are reportedly seen. Bartonville State Hospital in Peoria, Illinois carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. 'Bartonville / Peoria State' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. The name gives the haunting a face, and the sightings give the name a job.
Reported figures in the buildings. Bartonville State Hospital's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. Investigators logged it; whether instruments or interpretation produced it is the open question. 'Bartonville / Peoria State' carries the account. It is the sighting the place is known for, and it hasn't stopped.
The patients are reportedly seen. The reports at Bartonville State Hospital are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. The account appears in 'Bartonville / Peoria State'. The retelling is the record now — the legend metabolized the facts long ago.
Alleged entities
The patients are reportedly seen. The reports at Bartonville State Hospital are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. The named presence is what turns a haunting into a household. It remains the site's standing claim. The file stays open on it. The lore keeps its witness.
Documented history
The 1902 hospital is documented. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The detail is preserved in 'Bartonville / Peoria State'. The record keeps it — history, not lore. The claim holds its place in the ledger.
Sources on file
- 01Bartonville / Peoria StateWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
CHI batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.