The Oh, Welcome to the latest episode of American Hauntings, the podcast dedicated to the history,

hauntings, legends, and lore of America's past.

Hosted by Cody Beck and Troy Taylor, our first season explores the hauntings of Alton, Illinois,

one of the most haunted small towns in America. The city of Alton has more than its share of ghosts, haunted houses, hotels, hotels, businesses, and even roads. Some of them are open to everyone who come seeking spirits, but many are private and close to the public. Others have been lost over the years to time, fires, and what some might call progress, while others still

remain in all of their terrifying glory.

While the first season of this podcast has been dedicated to the Ghosts and Hauntings of Alton,

there is no way we could feature every ghost or every haunted house in the of forget and some of them were ongoing hauntings of an especially eerie nature

while others were isolated incidents and even one-time occurrences of other worldly

activity. Many of them remain unexplained to this day, but even so a large number of Erie

Tales cannot sustain an entire episode of a podcast. So this time around, we put

together a special episode that I'll just call my favorite Alton ghosts.

Alton's reputation as a booming river town created a need for a great number of hotels to be established in the city during the 19th century.

According to records, one of the best known hotels in the riverboat days was the Alton House,

located in front in Alby streets.

It burned down the first time in 1837 and was replaced by a brick building that lasted until

1870.

During its days of operation, perhaps the most famous guest at the Alden House was Stephen Douglas, who stayed there during his famous Senate

debate with his political and romantic rival, Abraham Lincoln.

Now Lincoln stayed elsewhere in Alton during the debates at a hotel that would later bear his name.

At the time though, it was known as the Franklin House,

which had originally opened as the first national bank in 1836.

Located on State Street near the River Landing,

...