Manteno State Hospital
Manteno State Hospital – Manteno, IL
By Michael Kleen
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Manteno State Hospital, one of two such facilities in Kankakee County, opened its doors in the early 1930s. It took several years after the purchase of the property in 1927 for the sprawling mental hospital to be completed. Like Peoria (Bartonville) State Hospital, Manteno was laid out in a “cottage plan,” which meant that the patients were housed in a series of separate buildings, rather than in one single institution. When it first opened, Manteno accommodated 5,500 patients and 760 staff.
It didn’t take long for tragedy to strike the hospital. In an incident that Time magazine referred to as the “Manteno Madness,” 384 patients and staff came down with typhoid fever (47 died) in 1939. At first, Ralph Hinton, the director of Manteno State, believed the affliction to be nothing more than a common case of diarrhea, but state welfare agents stepped in as the number of ill dramatically increased. Panic gripped the hospital.
“Patients lay moaning in bed,” Time reported. “Others, whipped by mad fear, beat against the screened windows, grappled with attendants… Every night kitchen boys and orderlies disappeared. Over 45 ran away in all.” (“Manteno Madness,” Time, 23 October 1939)
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Legends and Lore of Illinois Vol. 3 – on Kindle!
Or, order all 12 issues of the Legends and Lore of Illinois from 2009 for only $5.00 in a special Kindle edition. Places covered in Vol. 3 include Lebanon Road’s 7 Gates to Hell, Ramsey Cemetery, Elmwood Cemetery’s Violin Annie, Manteno State Hospital, the Hatchet Lady of Moon Point Cemetery, Chanute Air Force Base, Ashmore Estates, Aux Sable Cemetery, Ax Man’s Bridge, and more. Plus, read letters from our readers, adventurer’s logs, Paranormal 101, and put your knowledge of these locations to the test with challenging trivia questions.
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do you have any infor on had to set up any tours
i am commenting on this post. I have been in that facility and we had some strange happenings. We tried to take pictures in the mirror and the camera would die right before the pictures were taken. Later when we came home we saw orbs in the pictures of us, not in the mirror. I will never go back there again.
When they closed the place down around 1980, we ‘explored’ the place before the VA came in. Some strange stuff…i will enlighten you, if you want, once I know you better.
Becky, I might be interested in checking things out…if you are still out there please post