Haunted Alton · Part 4 of 5 The Mineral Springs Hotel has become a familiar name in accounts of haunted Alton. Its appeal lies partly in the contrast between its original purpose and the unsettling stories that later gathered around its rooms, corridors, and pools.
A resort built around mineral springs
The hotel opened in 1913 as a hotel and health spa, reflecting an era when mineral-water treatments and resort stays were marketed as routes to rest and well-being. Over time, the property changed uses and fortunes. Its architectural remains and the memory of its former pools have helped preserve its place in local conversation.
The legends of the hotel
Visitors and paranormal investigators have described unusual sounds, sensations, and apparent activity in parts of the building. Some stories refer to deaths and other tragic events associated with the property. Because these accounts can be repeated in different versions, responsible storytelling checks dates and details wherever possible rather than treating every retelling as established fact.
The Illinois Public Media feature on haunted Alton includes a visit to the Mineral Springs Hotel and interviews with people who investigate its reported activity. It provides a useful window into how local history, personal belief, and ghost-tour culture intersect.
What can a building tell us?
Even without a paranormal explanation, an old hotel can preserve clues about changing ideas of health, tourism, business, and downtown life. Abandoned pools and worn corridors invite the imagination, but they also raise practical questions about preservation and the future of historic buildings.
Watch and listen
Watch: Illinois Public Media: Haunted Illinois — Alton and the Mineral Springs Hotel (opens the video on its original site).
Watch: Ghosts of Illinois: Haunted Alton, McPike Mansion and Mineral Springs Hotel (opens the video on its original site).
The programs present local perspectives and reported encounters. They are best viewed as documentary storytelling about the legend, not as definitive proof of paranormal activity.
Coming next
Our Halloween finale will bring together the river, the mansion, the hotel, and Alton’s wider ghost-story tradition—and ask why some places seem to hold the imagination long after their original lives have passed.
Editorial note: The article distinguishes the hotel’s documented use from later claims about paranormal activity.
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