Comment: I lived on Cuba Road for about 25 years. My family moved there from Chicago in 1970. The whole time I lived there, I never heard about a haunted house on Rainbow Road. It was always the haunted house on Cuba Road. The house was located off of Cuba Road, west of Rainbow road. The first and only time I went up there was in the summer of 1980. I was about 17. The house was still standing then and the drive way was still connected to Cuba Road. It was a big house on a small hill. It had the swamp on two sides and field and forest on the other sides. No neighbors lived close to it. The house was set on fire several times and was abandoned. No windows were left in it. I remember cutting across a field to get to it. I didn't want to park my car on Cuba Road and have the cops tow it away. Nor did I want to drive it up the hill and get stuck. If I needed to leave quickly, I planned on running for my life. I didn't want to be fumbling for my car keys.

As I was walking up to the house, I suddenly noticed a man standing out in front of it. Just standing there smiling at me. It scared the crap out me. He was up there checking things out like I was. He just said good bye and took off down the drive way. I gave him a wide berth and checked out the house. There was a small pond in front of the house, where a car had been pushed into it. All you could see was the roof of the car sticking out of the water. The rest of the house was empty. But very creepy.

During the 70's, Cuba Road was not yet developed. Some days you would only see one car drive up or down it. But every Halloween, there would be cars bumper to bumper, filled with high school kids, driving from the Haunted house on one end to the haunted graveyard, White Cemetery, on the other.

I didn't know Cuba Road was haunted till I went to high school. I was sitting in class one day, when someone mentioned how scary Cuba Road was. I asked him what did he mean and he told name all the scary stories he had heard. I told him I lived on Cuba Road and no one believed me, until I showed them my drivers license. That impressed the hell out of them. Then, they wanted me to tell them scary stories.

At first, I told them that they were just stories, but they wouldn't believe me, so then I started repeating the stories my older brothers had told me. About the drug dealing son and his "Mason" like gang he hung out with. The father had passed away and the Mom tried to keep the son in line, but eventually had a nervous breakdown and was taken away to a mental institution. Once the Mom was gone, the son ran wild with his hippie friends and started having black masses in the house. Late at night they would run through the fields and swamps with torches. One party got out of hand and they started the house on fire. The house was totaled, but the son and his friends would sneak back there at times for their secret get-togethers and bon fires. All the druggies and burnouts in Barringtion would flock to the house for parties. Finally, the Village had enough and decided to remove the drive way to the house. It was dug up and removed. A berm was made to stop cars from tryin g to four wheel up to the house. I don't know if they razed the house at the same time, but I bet they did. The Fire and the Police Departments were getting tired of driving out there every Saturday night.

Things seemed to have settled down. People still drove up and down Cuba Road on Halloween. Over time, people wanted to go to the haunted house. So suddenly, the haunted house was now on Rainbow Road. A house where people could still drive up to and get out of there cars and look around. This happened over the last 15 years, because I never heard of a Rainbow Road haunted house till after I left Barrington and started reading books about haunted places. I was confused why they would talk about the haunted house on Cuba Road, they never got the story right. I guess I should call it the original haunted house on Cuba Road. If you ask anyone in Barrington over 40 where the Haunted house is, they would not say Rainbow Road. They would tell you it was off of Cuba Road.

That is all for now. I do have other stories, about the animals getting killed in the Langendorf Park petting zoo.

About the memorial plaque that is located behind the McDonalds Restaurant, in the Langendorf Park parking lot, where Baby Face Nelson had a shoot out with two FBI agents. --Martin

Response from Slim Pictures: Martin, the most exciting part of your eMail is your mention of Baby Face Nelson. Just recently I decided to look into possible hauntings surrounding the infamous gangster, especially considering his violent life and death. PLEASE do tell me everything you've heard!

I am very fascinated by your accounts of a hunted house on Cuba Rd. If you were to look on google Earth or Google Maps today, do you think you'd be able to locate where this 'original' haunted house was. It seems like some of the tales of this house have migrated to the Krilich house on Rainbow Rd. I have heard plenty of what I consider legitimate stories about a haunted house on Rainbow Road, so I'm inclined to think that both of these locations are haunted though there have definitely been some blurring between the locations over the years.
Are there ghost stories related the the petting zoo? Thanks a million, Scott

Do any readers out there know anything about an abandoned haunted home on Cuba Road (not Rainbow Road) in the '80s and before?

Comment: I found this site on accident when watching videos made on Cuba rd. One of the movies had this address in it. Anyways, my story is about White Cemetery on Cuba. To anyone who's never been there and wants the scoop, here's my story: We went there during summer '07 (I think it was around August). We all live in Chicago and Cuba Rd is about 20-30 min away.

Now to the point. After taking a left turn to Cuba Rd from the main street, everyone got scared. I mean we heard all the stories and stuff so we started freakin out right after I got on the road. So we were driving and driving. We have saw the cemetary all the way down past the busy street and we kept going down this small road and turned around. We were at the cemetary for about 30 min and nothing happened. We took a lot of pictures - nothing special besides orbs. We went home kinda disappointed.

The next day I told my two friends about the palce and that I'd been there. They got so excited and were begging me to take them. So, we went and they were as excited about were cheap cigarettes at the gas station. Driving on Cuba, I was expecting nothing but....we found about five pentagrams on the road and about three 666's marked on the ground. It didn't look like spray paint, but like someone burned it in the road. I'm guessing that some kids were messing around and thats their job. After you pass the cemetery there's a stop sign and house on left, so we turned and got out of the car to find one more pentagram on the stop sign. My buddy was standing next to it and I was taking pictures of him. He started walking and he said, "man I fell like something is pulling me back." I kept taking pictures. What came out on the picture was my friend - he came out with no head and you can see one extra leg coming out of his body and a piar of hands grabbonmg him from behind. We got so scared.

I went again two days after the last trip with my girlfriend and bunch of friends. Of course, we took pictures and got a bunch of orbs. I think we found the invisible house or something like that. They say you can't see it but you take a pic and it shows up. So, originally there's nothing on the pic. It's all black but my buddy used photoshop and made it brighter. Now you can see the small house two windows and bushes. Thats how they describe it. We know that area really good since we scooped it so many times. There's no such thing as that house. I think thats the house that disappears or some thing like that.

A car was following us and dissapeard when we were going down the hill. It just showed up and I said, "Guys look - that's the ghost car." So everyone watched and car just disappeard. Can't really explain it. It sounds stupid, but thats what happened. We kept going down the hill past the busy street and again saw more pentagrams on the ground. I stopped the car when this garbage container was laying on the middle of the road too scary to get out and move it and i didnt want to push it wit the car.

Anyways that container looked like someone bit it - like half of it was missing and it looked like someone never moved the thing out of the middles of the road since forever. So everyone got scared again, so I truned around and started speeding down road.

I'm not including the pictures now. My friend has them, so I need to meet up and get the memory card. I don't know when it's gonna happen but the picture is really interesting. It's nothing like orbs or fog. I'll send them as soon as I get them.

Response from Slim Pictures: I can't wait to see the pictures. Be sure to also send me the original picture of the house. I'd love to see if I can see it on my own without any filtering. I do have questions for you, but I'm going to wait and see the pictures from you first before getting into it.

Comment: Yesterday we went to the location on Rainbow Road. After all the reading on your site I had to see it. We went there - me and my mom. I saw the road on the bend with the little no trespassing sign. It was Sunday afternoon at 3 oclock. My mom said, "if anyone comes, I cough real loud." "Okay mom," I said. I got up onto a pile of dirt on the right of the flag pole and climbed up a little. Its a huge pile of dirt right where the house was most likely. I looked as far as I could see and there was more land behind where the property WOULD HAVE BEEN. A lot of open land, I looked by the flag pole and saw an Old cigar tree (Catalpa), and looked up at the flag pole once more. And then started my way back because I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach. I jumped in and we left. As we left on Rainbow towards Rt 22, a Dodge Charger cop raced towrds where we had just come from and lightly laid on his breaks as he passed. He then made a complete stop at the Bend where the Krilich gates were and sped off down Rainbow towards Cuba. Whheewwww that was close. Yeah there must definitly be some trip wire or it is insanly guarded by the neighboors at all times cuz that cop in the new Charger was meant for us. LOL.

I have been exploring sites like these for a while now. Although I've stepped into only a couple properties. Is the most fascinating feeling I have ever had. To see the badly peeled Forest Green and White paint peeling off the old porch and broken steps of an old farm house that was built literaly in the 1890s. And see an old bomb shelter built on the grounds of a farmhouse or mansion meant for protection in WW2, the site of a skeleton key door lock on an abandoned house really makes me happy. I imagine the life and time of a place at least 60 yrs before Jewel and Walmart came around.

So here is my question: Where I can get a hell of a lot of info just for this house alone. The Rainbow Road House. I'd like to study and research it.

Have you received any pictures of the Rainbow Road Mansion. I have been dying just to see what it looked like. I dont know. Could you help me see more. I love this. There just isnt enuff info on this place it's like someone has covered it all up.

How much do you cover about "The House on Rainbow Road" and is there a photo of the old mansion around anywhere? ~ Sammy Marsala

Response from Slim Pictures: I love, love, LOVE your passion for days gone by! It's a great thing about living up here in the Chicago suburbs - are are still some decaying relics of the past littering the landscape. Sadly, they are disappearing quickly. I like to think I cover the whole Cuba Road area better than any other book. We gave it a full chapter with a large segment of it set aside for the House on Rainbow Road. I've accumulated a lot of first-hand accounts from people that visited the house while it was still standing. On the downside, historical info (as you mentioned) is pretty hard to get a hold of. Some of the best historical info anywhere on the web is found on this page. I wouldn't at all consider it a 'cover-up,' just simply 'lost to time.' I have been looking for ages of pictures or drawings of the House on Rainbow Road when it was still standing. Strangely, nothing has come up. The closest I've come is photography students who went there and took several pictures in the mid '90s, but none of the pictures came out - a sign of a paranormal location. Beyond that, you can try local village halls. It's my guess that you've accumulated some pretty nice pictures of your own of old buildings & houses. If so, let me know and I'll post the link. Here's a picture from my book of the place in ruins (Click the images to see full-size):

Comment: I live 15 minutes away from Rainbow Road in Wauconda just North of Barrington. I just heard about this Rainbow Road mansion last night as me and some friends met up to go to White Cemetery on Cuba Road. Turns out I've driven past the cemetery a million times. Anyhoo, I heard about this old asylum and was really eager to go check it out, after exploring a 140 yr old farm house in Streamwood at Irving Park and Bartlet Rd. I found out that it was ripped down a few years ago. I was disappointed. Actualy?? It freakin bothers me, Hahaha. Especialy after finding what little I know right now eventhough this old Rainbow Road House was only 15 Mins away. The whole reason why I got into this conversation with the kid was because I was looking for an old abondoned factory/ university-looking building. It's a place I saw with a friend while driving to Lake Zurich on Halloween. It was so coool. I saw an old barbed wire gate, had to be on 15 acres... and behind that barbed wire gate was the place. Hundreds of little windows and lots of brick. Definitely abandonded and really really big, but eerily distant and secluded away from the fence. maybe a quarter mile. I am STILL looking for it.

I know a guy my age (24) who knows ALL about this spooky old Rainbow Road house. And we are talking about a Barrington citizen who had witnessed ALL of the stroies and walked through the so called "Corrridor" and the "Sick Feeling" that overcame him when he was in the middle of "The Corridor."

I Am seeking more info about the Rainbow Road House. I'm really interested in seeing some pictures of the old mansion myself to be honest. ~Sammy Marsala

Response from Slim Pictures: I'll post this on the web site and see if anyone responds. Tell me about the Rainbow Road "corridor" you speak of. This is new to me. What's the story on the 140-year old house?