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Approval sought
for paranormal tour - 20081103
Bowen Building, formerly an asylum, wants to offer events
on Halloween weekend
By CATHARINE SCHAIDLE
OF THE JOURNAL STAR
BARTONVILLE — To capitalize
on its haunted reputation, the former state medical asylum
now called the Bowen Building, plans to host its first paranormal
tour this Halloween weekend beginning Friday.
But it still needs clearance from the Village
of Bartonville.
If it's approved, the two-hour inaugural events
will be from 8 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and an overnight
tour will be from midnight to 6 a.m Friday.
The two-hour tours, which cost $25 per person,
include a walk through the facility and one cemetery and will
focus on some of its reportedly ghostly aspects and history.
Richard Weiss, a Missouri developer who created
the not-for-profit organization Save the Bowen Inc., recently
took ownership of the former Illinois Asylum for the Incurable
Insane. The long-term hope is to restore the administration
building and ultimately market ghost tours, complete with
a haunted bed and breakfast.
The village had informed Weiss that he has
to make improvements, such as installing stair rails, providing
handicapped access. In the past few weeks, with the help of
volunteers, he has been getting the building straightened
out.
"One of the volunteers made the stair
rails to meet the guidelines set by the city," Weiss
said. "He also built numerous barricades for areas that
are unsafe and are not accessible to the public. We're working
with the city to meet all the requirements, and many of our
own standards are even more stringent than what they required."
Weiss said the restoration of the Bowen is
modeled after a similar project, the Waverley Hills Sanatorium
in Louisville, Ky. The Waverley was built in 1926 to provide
a 500-bed facility to accommodate the masses who contracted
tuberculosis, a deadly infectious disease in those days.
Today the Waverley is under private ownership
with ghost tours and paranormal guided trips. The plan is
to convert it into a hotel. The Bowen hopes to follow in its
footsteps.
To register for this weekend's activities,
email tours@ghostasylum.com. For more information, look up
www.savethebowen.com.
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