The story
The McPike Mansion crowns Mount Lookout in Alton, Illinois, built in 1869 for horticulturalist and businessman Henry Guest McPike in high Italianate style, its vineyard once famous for the McPike grape; the house later passed through owners and long vacancy into deep disrepair, windows gone and interiors stripped, and its silhouette above haunted-proud Alton made it the town's signature ruin. The current owners have worked for years to stabilise and restore it, funding the effort with tours, campouts and paranormal events. Its reputation is national: featured on television programmes and investigated countless times, with visitors and investigators describing figures at the windows of the empty house, a woman associated in telling with former housekeeper Sarah, mists and orbs in the vaulted wine cellar — the famous focus of events — voices, touches and cold spots. Identifications are folklore rather than record. The house is unsafe to enter outside sanctioned events, and the record must say access is via the owners' tours only. Accounts should be presented as investigator and visitor reports around a beloved ruin being slowly saved.