Okawville Illinois

Original Springs Hotel

Some have died here, some killed themselves, another’s guilt about a suicide
may be keeping her here, and others are strongly attached to the hotel.

original-springs-paranormal

DESCRIPTION

The Original Springs Hotel, Bathhouse and Restaurant is a large connected complex. The Hotel is a wood framed two-story structure, with connected room additions to the original hotel. There are suites around the pool and bathhouse area, a recreation area and a spacious restaurant with wooden floors, which has a great reputation for serving great meals. In summary, Original Springs has everything to make your stay a most enjoyable, restful and relaxed one at a reasonable price.

The hotel has also always had owners with dreams and goals to improve and make it better at just the right time.

CONSTRUCTION + DESTRUCTION = RENOVATION

On February 1, 2004, Mary and Don Rennegarbe followed the example of previous Original Springs owners and implemented an ambitious construction + destruction = renovation project they’d been planning for since 1990. They divided the work into three phases.

In Phase 1, a section of small rooms in the original hotel building (which hadn’t been used by the living for 12 years) would be enlarged and transformed into more attractive places to spend the night. These suites would reflect the late 1890s through the turn-of-the-century period. They would be carefully and artistically done, with each suite being uniquely different (with its own individual decorum, period furniture, light fixtures), while being equipped with modern conveniences such as microwaves, refrigerators, and coffee makers.

In Phase 2 – the Geothermal system will be updated so that the hotel can provide more effective mineral baths without having to depend on the whims of the old boiler. Mary shares on the web-page, “I will be happy to relinquish baby sitting the boiler so we can do mineral baths. I’ve just about run out of sweet things to say to encourage the boiler a few more times.”

In the Spa – Finnleo Infrared Rooms will be installed in the Women’s and Men’s sides. They will provide soothing heat directly radiated to the body, cleansing and detoxifying it.

Phase 3 – Restaurant Renovations

HISTORY

The story of Original Springs has many ups and downs, but always manages to land on a foundation of human determination and ingenuity to keep going for over 100 years! While people today enjoy their stays at this lovely piece of Americana, a number of entities also reside here: some because of tragedy, others because of suicide, still others perhaps because they simply love the place and want to keep an eye on the living who continue to run it.

It all started with a bath in mineral spring water. After a rheumatic patient of Dr. James McIlwain was cured by bathing in a tub of the mineral water, Rudolph Plegge, who had discovered the water’s mineral content in the first place, got together with a German farmer who had once worked at the Carlsbad Baths in his home country. The two of them started a small bath house business, in 1867, which would be the beginning of The Original Springs Hotel and Bath.

In 1871, the railroad came to town, bringing visitors, so the bathhouse became a bigger venture. Plegge dreamed of constructing a three-story brick hotel where people could stay and enjoy the healing mineral springs, but he never was able to do so, though the bath house business grew considerably.

In May of 1885, the invalid wife of Reverend J.F. Schierbaum, came to Plegge’s bath house and was completely cured of her chronic pain. She was so elated that she convinced her husband and several other ministers in the German Evangelical Church to buy Plegge’s bath house business and build a hotel on the site, a grand effort which unfortunately ended up being built of wood because the original brick plans were too expensive. Business boomed, and 30 feet were added to the Hotel, as well as a new more luxurious bathhouse when the hotel was closed for the fall and winter. Then tragedy struck.

A man named Meier died from burns suffered when he used a threshing machine engine bought to help heat the water in the bathhouse and it exploded.

In 1890, The Original Springs Hotel and Bath was bought by the Schreiner brothers, who enjoyed a very booming season in 1891. They added more to the building to accommodate more people. During the off season, on November 8th, an arsonist with a grudge against the former owners set a fire and the whole thing burned to the ground.

The Schreiners started immediately to rebuild the place, to make it even better, with a sand and brick foundation. The resulting bathhouse had 40 rooms, and a two story hotel, with an extra large room in the center of the second floor to hold hot and cold water storage tanks.

In 1896, the Schreiners installed electricity. In 1898 they started to bottle their spring water, in response to their main competition, The Washington Hotel, run by the Morgans. Around 1900, it is thought that one of the Schreiner brothers, J.W. , must have died because the hotel was sold back to Reverend Schierbaum, who continued to improve the Hotel, and the community as well.

Though there was a competitiveness between the two hotels, there was plenty of business for all, including the businesses in town. 1902 was a very financially successful year for all concerned!

In 1904, Reverend Schierbaum died… but his family took over running the business. In 1907, a large two story addition to the hotel added 24 rooms. In 1910, a new bigger brick bathhouse was built, which is still in use today.

After another profitable season, Anna Schierbaum died in October of 1911, leaving the hotel to son Ben (who married Alma Schulze, daughter of a store owner across the street).

This proved to be a rocky marriage, and Alma left Ben in November 1916, after the hotel had closed for the season. Ben was heartbroken, and when he couldn’t find her and her parents wouldn’t help him……

Ben Schierbaum killed himself in the passageway leading to the bathhouse.

In 1919-1921, A. Sadden owned the place and continued to upgrade it, extending the porch across the north end of the building. He made the front look better by aligning the front steps with the front doors. He had also dreamed of keeping the hotel open year-round, but only owned it for three years, selling it to his main competitors, The Washington Hotel.

The 1920s were not financially kind to the bathhouse business, but The Original Springs managed to do OK, though changes were inevitable. In 1923, the Saint Louis corporation took over both hotels. A new type of clientele began to meet at the hotel.

Southern Illinois gangsters Charlie Birger and the Shelton brothers, Carl, Earl and Bernie, had discovered the hotel as a great meeting spot to discuss “business.” They took over the bathhouse, posting armed associates in the hallway outside.

From 1929 – 1933: needed changes were coming. Conrad Paeben was hired by the Saint Louis Corp. to come and run Original Springs. He ordered the installation of steam heating for the rooms, which meant the place could be opened year-round. The Hotel was changed into a membership country club for people who mainly lived in Saint Louis. Paeben, gifted in advertising, came up with the slogan, “Where Rheumatism Meets Its Waterloo” which worked! Business boomed at first, despite the depression, but over time the depression began to hit hard. Original Springs Health Resort became the name, opening up once again to the public. By 1933, things were looking very bleak indeed, and Conrad Paeben committed suicide by poisoning himself.

However, never underestimate human ingenuity! In the nick of time, two enterprising employees of the Original Springs Hotel, entrepreneur Tom Rogers and Louis Elardin, with the help of banker W.G. Frank, head of the corporation who still owned both hotels, came up with ideas to bring in the much needed business to keep it up and running. Dances!! Every Saturday night from 6 pm to 1 am, with rooms open for people who wanted to stay. They opened Pleasureland, a place for family fun in the hotel’s park, which lasted two seasons.

From 1939-62 little was done to promote business due to war and to the fact that Tom Rogers had gone into the dairy and cheese business, though Original Springs still did a fair amount of business on weekends. By the late 1950s, his dairy enterprise dwindled down to a trickle, and Tom Rogers became more and more strange. Tom Rogers was found dead in one of Original Springs’ upstairs rooms.

From ’62-’90 Albert and Doris Krohne were the next owners of the now fix-upper Original Springs Hotel and Bath House. With funds available, they went to work renovating the rooms, which really needed it, and added modern conveniences: better lighting, sinks and/or toilets or tubs. Albert was nearly killed in an auto crash in ’63, but recovered the use of his knee because of the healing spring water.

On the Krohnes’ watch, in early 1965, the Boiler Room Lounge and Restaurant was opened for the first time to the public, not just hotel guests. Dances and live music had the place jumping on weekends. In the 1980s, the pool was enclosed so it could be used year-round. A recreation room was built as well, which for the first time completely connected the bathhouse with the hotel. In 1985, ten more rooms were added to the hotel, and three club rooms to the bathhouse.

In 1988, a big fire once again damaged the Hotel. But the Krohnes made lemons out of lemonade and enlarged their fire-damaged rooms, removing walls, improving what was there.

In 1990, Don and Mary Rennegarbe bought the hotel and have been working hard to restore it to its former glory!

HISTORY OF MANIFESTATIONS

There are so many candidates as to who may be haunting this grand old hotel and bathhouse, no one has found out just who yet. Some have died here, some have killed themselves, another’s guilt about a suicide may be keeping her here, and others are really attached to the hotel as a place of refuge, relaxation and good times or they died suddenly when more work was to be done!

MANIFESTATIONS

The Second Floor Entity who wanted to play

In 1992 – after the Rennegarbe family had moved into the large apartment on the second floor (perhaps where the water storage facilities had once been, or an apartment long used in the past by the previous owners as a living space) a friendly entity in the form of a figure had appeared in front of the young daughter, perhaps wanting to play, or perhaps trying to welcome the Rennegarbe family.

General Paranormal Experiences

Staff members often feel a presence, an unseen supervisor watching them as they carry on their duties.

At night, they hear strange noises and footsteps pacing the hallways when no one is in that part of the hotel.

The sound of music from long ago sometimes drifts through the corridors.

Doors sometimes open and shut by themselves. Mists and apparitions are sometimes briefly seen out of the corner of the eye.

Laundry Room Hauntings

It is thought that perhaps the area in the laundry room may have been the hotel casino, probably in the 1920s, because I doubt that Reverend J.F. Schierbaum’s family would have allowed it when they were alive. Early 20th century music is heard in this area.

Employees in this area have the uneasy feeling of being closely watched by a stern presence.

Second Floor of the older wing – Many of the staff won’t go up there at night

The staff brave enough to go there, have heard unexplained strange sounds coming from some of the unused, locked guest rooms. In empty hallways, the sound of footsteps are heard making their way down the halls. A male guest and his wife asked to be moved to another room, because their room belonged to someone else!

First, they heard the sound of whispering voices (probably entities trying to be polite and not wake them up). The last straw was when several cold spots tried to join them in bed!

The Lady in White

This entity is a woman with a willowy form dressed in a turn-of-the-century or early 1900s white dress with a high waist, wearing a large hat which hides part of her face.

When Mary the owner had her office on the second floor of the building near the pool, this Lady in White was seen standing or sitting in a chair on the balcony in front of it. When Mary moved her office to a room near the lobby, the Lady in White moved with her.

A male guest who had a room right next to Mary’s office woke up and saw the Lady in White standing at the foot of his bed, looking at him and his wife. She then turned around and walked right through the door!

The Lady in White continues to be seen in this room and floating down the hall as well! A delivery man saw her looking at him from the second floor of the men’s side of the Bath House, from a locked storage room.

STILL HAUNTED?

Yes Indeed.

Some entities continue about their business, others do their part to monitor employees and “help” the owners.

LOCATION

506 North Hanover
Okawville, Illinois 62271
(618) 243-5458

The Original Springs Hotel and Bathhouse and its marvelous restaurant can be found 41 Miles East of Street Louis, in an Illinois town, Okawville, long known for its healing mineral springs which run underneath the town. This made it the perfect place for this grand hotel and another like it to be built, complete with a bathhouse, hotel and a restaurant.

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