Haunted Racine

Book excerpt: Like so many cities bordering Lake Michigan, Racine has a long and storied history. Some of that history is stranger than fiction. The Live Towerview neighborhood, brimming with stories of the city's earliest burial sites, is a hotbed of ghostly activity. Former asylums like the ambitious Taylor Home Orphan Asylum and the infamous Racine County Insane Asylum are filled with chilling tales of the unexplained. The local Masonic Temple houses the restless souls of some of the city's earliest residents. So do Chances Food & Spirits and Ivanhoe, two of the most haunted taverns in southeastern Wisconsin. Historian Rory Graves uncovers some of Racine's most notorious haunts. Historian Rory Graves uncovers some of Racine's most notorious haunts.