Jacoby Arts Center

A historic building in Alton that now serves as an arts center. The basement previously housed a mortuary, adding to the building's haunted reputation in America's most haunted small town.

The Jacoby Arts Center in Alton was first opened in 1883 as the Jacoby Brothers Furniture Store and Funeral Home. The second floor served as a funeral chapel, while the basement was used as a mortuary—a history that has left the building permanently haunted.

The basement, where bodies were once prepared for burial, experiences the most intense paranormal activity in the building. When visiting, the Jacoby Arts Center appears to be just an ordinary art gallery, but the building's mortuary past explains why it is considered one of Alton's most actively haunted locations.

Visitors on haunted tours report dramatic experiences in the basement. K2 meters—electromagnetic field detectors used by paranormal investigators—go crazy throughout the space. One visitor reported standing alone in the basement when something physically bumped into them.

The Jacoby Arts Center is a regular stop on Alton ghost tours, part of a constellation of haunted locations that have earned Alton the reputation as one of America's most haunted towns. The building sits alongside the Confederate Cemetery & Memorial, Confederate Prison site, First Unitarian Church, McPike Mansion, Milton School House, and Mineral Springs Mall as key haunted attractions.

Alton's unique concentration of paranormal activity has been attributed to its location on top of a limestone foundation and the convergence of three major rivers: the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois. Both limestone and water are believed by paranormal researchers to be conduits that keep spiritual energy tied to a location, possibly explaining why Alton has accumulated such an extraordinary number of haunted sites.

The Jacoby Arts Center continues to operate as a gallery and cultural venue while serving as a portal to Alton's supernatural past. Visitors viewing artwork in the first-floor galleries walk above the very basement where the dead once awaited their final journey.