1000 Third Street
(#73 East Side Tour)
The Snyder House, 1000 Third St, is said to be haunted, as documented in Daryl Watson's book, " Ghosts of Galena".
Courtesy of the Galena-Jo Daviess County Historical Society; Ghosts of Galena Book available at the Museum gift shop.
In 1990, Bonnie and her husband Don purchased a beautiful historic home for a bed & breakfast establishment. Initially, Bonnie's husband was only in Galena on weekends but she was able to be there full time. About two months after she had moved in, Bonnie, her daughter and three small children were alone in the house. It was late in the evening and the kids were upstairs sleeping
Suddenly, Bonnie and her daughter heard footsteps upstairs in the hallway. They naturally assumed that one of the kids was up, but when they went up to check, all three were sound asleep in their beds They returned downstairs, only to hear the footsteps again. Another hurried trip upstairs revealed nothing--all the kids were fast asleep.
They thought it curious, but were new to the house and realized that it takes a while to get used to the various sounds that an older house can make. It was with some surprise, then, when later that night they heard voices. It was a man and a woman talking--they couldn't make out the words but the sound was otherwise quite distinct. They looked upstairs to see if someone was up there. No one. They looked downstairs. No one. They then turned on all the lights on the outside of the house thinking perhaps someone was outside the house talking. Nothing. The voices continued, however, for at least thirty minutes!
The n, last year in March, another episode came to pass. Shortly before this, Bonnie and her husband had reopened the original basement stairway immediately below the main stairway leading to the second floor. This had been sealed off and enclosed many years previously and the space used as a closet.
It was late, her husband was already upstairs sleeping and Bonnie was going around turning off lights and locking up for the night. The only lights still on were little electric candle lights in the window that were left on all the time. As Bonnie walked past the " new" basement stairway she suddenly froze. There was a woman walking up from the basement!
It was a woman who appeared to be 40-50 years of age. Bonnie could clearly make her out from the window lights still on. The sight was all the more startling because the woman was dressed in 19th century period clothing She wore a brown and white gingham check dress. Her hair--in fact everything about her--was definitely 19th century. At this point Bonnie caught herself, blinked, and looked twice, but the woman was gone! She had disappeared into thin air!
That was not the end of strange visitations. Recently, Bonnie was up late one evening reading. Her husband had already retired to the upstairs. Suddenly, she became aware of voices. She could not tell exactly where they came from, but got up and wandered through the house listening. With no luck downstairs, she went upstairs and walked into the back hall of the house. The voices had ceased by this time, but she was startled to smell the unmistakable odor of pipe smoke. Now, both Bonnie and her husband are cigarette smokers, but pipe smokers--never! Again, there was absolutely no one else in the house.
Exactly one week later, Bonnie was again reading late, as she likes to do, but this time she heard a door slam. Being the only one around, she again searched the house to see what door was closed that shouldn't have been. And once again, when she reached the back hall upstairs, she was confronted by the same aromatic pipe smoke. And again, not a pipe-smoking soul was to be found.
The "hidden stairway" where Bonnie saw the woman in 19th century clothing and hair.
