The Jasmine Lady Our creepiness rating 💀💀💀💀💀
Visitors near one staircase report jasmine perfume. Troy Taylor's older Prairie Ghosts telling made her a guest who fell or was pushed down the stairs (Prairie Ghosts). In a 2025 First Alert 4 segment, Taylor instead names her as Pearl Sons, who took a deliberate overdose in her room in 1965, and says her nephew told him she wore jasmine. Source: First Alert 4, 2025.
Facts below are drawn from the linked sources.
Real history
Meatpackers August and Herman Luer struck a spring while digging for an ice-storage plant and built a spa hotel instead; construction began in October 1913 and it opened in 1914 (Troy Taylor, Prairie Ghosts). First Alert 4 credits manager August Ratz with the idea (First Alert 4, 2025). It declined from the 1950s and closed for good in 1971; Roger Schubert reopened it as a shopping mall in 1978 (Prairie Ghosts; Great Rivers & Routes). Ghost author Troy Taylor now runs a museum inside, and WILL has covered its ghost lore (WILL).
Ghost stories
These are reported legends, not verified events. The creepiness score (1–5) is Spook Atlas's own editorial rating, not a measurement.
The pool Our creepiness rating 💀💀💀💀💀
Taylor tells of Clarence Blair, a sheet-metal worker from Granite City who drowned during swimming lessons in the hotel pool and has been reported seen since. Sources differ on his age: the 2025 First Alert 4 segment says 18, while Taylor in a 2023 WILL interview says he had lived 21 years. Sources: First Alert 4, 2025; WILL, 2023.
Taylor tells of Clarence Blair, a sheet-metal worker from Granite City who drowned during swimming lessons in the hotel pool and has been reported seen since. Sources differ on his age: the 2025 First Alert 4 segment says 18, while Taylor in a 2023 WILL interview says he had lived 21 years. Sources: First Alert 4, 2025; WILL, 2023.
Then and now
No openly licensed photo found yet.
Public access
Partly open The building holds shops listed as open Tuesday–Saturday, 10 AM–5 PM (Great Rivers & Routes); the old pools are seen on Taylor's tours. The building's own site could not be reached this check. Last checked: Nov 1, 2026.
Explore more
- More places in Alton and Illinois
- More haunted & abandoned hotels
- More haunted & abandoned malls
- Nearby: Alton Military Prison (Alton, IL), McPike Mansion (Alton, IL), Lemp Mansion (St. Louis, MO), Zombie Road (Rock Hollow Trail) (Wildwood, MO)
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