Illinois Executive Mansion

The ghost of Catherine Yates, wife of Civil War-era Governor Richard Yates, toys with lights, triggers smoke alarms, and once trapped a State Trooper in the elevator for four hours. Her portrait hangs in the most active upstairs bedroom of this 1855 mansion, the third-oldest governor's residence in the country.

An Illinois State Trooper once spent four hours trapped in the elevator at the Governor's Mansion in Springfield. Nobody could find a mechanical explanation. The staff blamed Catherine Yates.

Catherine was married to Richard Yates, who served as Illinois governor during the Civil War. The couple lived in this mansion at Fifth and Jackson Streets from 1861 to 1865, during the most turbulent years in American history. The house was built in 1855, making it the third-oldest continuously occupied governor's residence in the country, and Catherine apparently decided her time there wasn't finished.

Her portrait hangs in an upstairs bedroom. That room is the most active in the house. Lights flicker with no electrical issue anyone can trace. Smoke alarms go off at random, and maintenance crews have checked and rechecked the systems without finding a fault. The pattern always points back to that bedroom, back to the portrait.

Catherine seems to have a sense of humor about it. The electronics in the mansion misbehave in ways that feel targeted, almost playful. Lights blink during tours. Alarms trigger during quiet nights. And then there was the trooper in the elevator, stuck for four hours in a building where the security detail is supposed to be the one in control.

The mansion has hosted seven U.S. presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, who visited before the building became his road to Washington. Three levels are open to the public: four formal parlors, a state dining room, a ballroom, a library handcrafted from Native American Black Walnut, and four bedrooms, including the Lincoln bedroom. The house has witnessed 170 years of political gatherings, formal dinners, and the private dramas of Illinois first families.

Springfield runs a "Haunted Dead Walk" tour that includes the mansion alongside other supernatural hotspots like the Inn at 835 and Springfield High School. The tour sometimes offers hands-on paranormal investigation equipment for participants. But most of what happens at the Executive Mansion is subtle. No screaming, no objects flying across rooms. Just a Civil War-era governor's wife who keeps the lights interesting and occasionally locks a trooper in a box.

Springfield itself is thick with Lincoln-related ghost stories. His spirit has been reported at his tomb and his former home on Eighth Street. A phantom funeral train is said to travel the rails each April on the anniversary of his death. Catherine Yates doesn't get the same fame, but she's arguably more persistent. Lincoln's ghost wanders between Washington, D.C. and Springfield. Catherine stayed put.