Capital Area Paranormal Society

This historic brick structure, located in the heart of the village of Rossville, was built in 1904 for the Mason’s organization. While they utilized the top portion for their meetings, the lower section was operated as an Opera House until the last aria was performed in 1929. The Mason’s continued their occupation of the building until 1947. It has since been used as a car dealership, a welding shop, an auction house, poultry store just to name a few. Over time and many modifications later, the 2nd floor was redesigned into apartments. The strikingly prominent building had declined over the years, but now that David Triska has taken ownership, he has been taking great measures to breathe some life back into her.

We booked hotel rooms in the nearby town of Danville Illinois, planning to arrive in Rossville around 8pm. That was the intent; however, our GPS led us astray taking us down country roads that became smaller, gravellier and creepier. Somehow we ended up in a minuscule Indiana hamlet that was eerily quiet and dark for so early in the evening. After taking us in another circle, the GPS claimed we had “Arrived at our Destination”; it was the middle of nowhere! We certainly didn’t want to stop in an area that looked like Bigfoot or UFO headquarters. No, no, no... .we wanted to look for ghosts.

At this point the rest of our gang, decided to put their smartphones to the test; they all seemed confused in this zone of electronic stupefaction. One kept insisting we turn in a spot where there wasn’t even a road! Eventually we gave up and called David Triska to get directions. To our great relief, he successfully navigated us out of the “Vermilion County Triangle”

We were met by Mr. Triska in his antique shop at the front of the building. He took us to the back of the building which boasts a most unique feature, an open platform elevator. That was an adventurous ride to the 2nd floor with our equipment in tow. He immediately took us into a small heated area, referred to as “the warming room”; the perfect place to drop off our gear before proceeding with a tour.

During our 3rd floor walk-through Mr. Triska was recounting a previous investigation involving a ball rolling across the floor on its own; we suddenly heard a noise like something that was thrown. That was first of many things to come.

Trish and I heard a tremendously loud noise while sitting in that same area later during the investigation. We went into the hallway to locate the cause and could not readily find one. That is when Trish saw a full silhouette figure standing on the third floor stairwell. Wouldn’t you know it; my camera’s battery drained. Extraordinarily it came back just a few seconds later, but by then the figure had dissipated.

Shortly after that, I was on the second floor with Jamie and Jean. As Jamie was talking to me, I witnessed a shadow figure walking through the kitchen doorway and across the room. Jamie noticed that I was focused on something behind her and as she turned, saw it from the corner of her eye. Jean, sitting in a nearby chair, also confirmed the sighting as well.

I was sitting alone again in the 3rd floor Mason area; I saw a light anomaly in the middle of the room. It was just after that it felt like a hand was covering my mouth, which I thought more comical than creepy since I wasn’t speaking at the time.

Trish and I experienced something very peculiar while on the second floor kitchen area. While we were standing next to each other, I told Trish I was feeling unsteady, like I was standing on a boat, swaying back and forth involuntarily. To be honest, I was reluctant to say it out loud, thought Trish would think me crazy, but to my surprise she said she was having that same issue. As she quite aptly described it as being like one of those “Weeble-wobble little people”. Indeed, it did feel as if something was toying with us! Suddenly our legs were very shaky; Trish felt like ice cubes were on her back and I had a deep cold chill run down my arm. When we decided to leave we experienced a strong fragrant floral perfume that gradually wafted from our senses.

Towards the end of the night, Dave, Trish and I were once again in the Mason meeting chamber. Dave began having issues breathing; he sat across the massive room from us with his mel meter. At first the temperature read 46.7 degrees, but after he asked if there were entities with us to please make it go up to 50, it immediately rose 3 degrees. He continued by asking for it to go to 52 degrees, it rose again, suddenly there was a loud bang causing us all jump out of our skins. This was immediately followed by a drop in temperature.

Our final curtain call ended around four in the morning as we decided it was time to wrap up the investigation. It was certainly a most eventful evening as we all experienced strange lights of various colors; everyone but Dave had seen the shadow roaming the second and third floor. Our host explained if we simply took the road straight south the trip back would be less dramatic. I look forward to an encore visit to this distinguished site, but perhaps next time we should stick to the more traveled roads.