NIGHT AT THE BEARDSTOWN OPERA HOUSE: 123 State Street -- Beardstown, Illinois March 16, 2013 / 8:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Join us for our Return to this Historic -- and Very Haunted -- 1870s Opera House! Join American Hauntings & Guide Loren Hamilton for an eerie ghost hunt at one of downstate Illinois' most intriguing haunted spots -- the Beardstown Opera House! Discover the history and hauntings of this 1870s opera house and find out if the renovations taking place in the building are really "stirring up the ghosts" as so many claim! Spend the night in search of these restless spirits during a private ghost hunt with American Hauntings and perhaps come face to face with one of the former patrons or owners of the old theater! The evening will include a tour of the opera house, followed by a ghost hunt that lasts in to the early morning hours!  $40 per Person for this PRIVATE American Hauntings Event! Click Here to Make Reservations for this Event! The Beardstown Opera House was constructed in 1872 and was almost totally destroyed by a tornado that same summer. Rebuilt by the owners and volunteers from the community, the first star to play the opera house was General Tom Thumb, a sideshow performer made famous by P.T. Barnum. Other stars followed, including Jenny Lind, the famous opera singer known as the "Swedish Nightingale." Over the years, the opera house has been through a succession of owners. Between 1872 and 1893, it was operated by a General Tom Thumb partnership former by Henry Krohe and George Schneider. In  1893, the building was purchased by a new set of owners, T.K. Condit, J.P. Harris, Merton Harris, William Deppe and August Deppe. They set about remodeling the theater for modern times. In 1899, three of the owners dropped out and were replaced by a new owner, making the partnership of T.K. Condit, J.F. Duvall and J.P. Harris. They continued operating the company until 1904, when they were bought out by the Deppe family, who ran the opera house continuously until 1954. More owners followed and the opera house slipped into a state of decline. Then, in 2004, the property was purchased by the Heritage Preservation Foundation, which has started a massive restoration of the property -- a restoration that seems to have awakened the resident ghosts! Over the course of the last few years, reports have begun to circulate about strange activity at the opera house, from ghostly footsteps to knocking sounds, whispers, voices in the dressing rooms, doors opening and closing, mysterious shadows and even a woman in black. Is the opera house as haunted as the stories seem to imply?? Find out for yourself during our PRIVATE ghost hunting event!