Cuba Road
Cuba Road – Lake Zurich, IL
By Michael Kleen
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Cuba Road has received at least some attention from writers of ghostlore. Two of the original and most authoritative writers on Chicagoland ghosts, Richard T. Crowe in Chicago’s Street Guide to the Supernatural (2001) pg. 166-8, and Ursula Bielski in More Chicago Haunts (2000) pg. 157-9, have selections of work on it, but much more could be written.
Cuba Road sits nestled between the towns of Lake Zurich and Barrington, both upper and upper-middle class retreats. The main portion of the road runs between Rt. 12 and Rt. 14. Its legends are numerous. White Cemetery, located on the eastern half of the road, has its spook lights. The avenue itself hosts a phantom car (or cars), a pair of spectral lovers, and a vanishing house. Rainbow Road, a side street, formerly had the distinction of being home to an abandoned mansion that some believed was an old asylum.
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I DO have some possible clarifications on what could be the phantom automobile. Long ago, probably like 2001, me and some friends were around the area near rainbow road and cube road. We were checking some supposed haunted area off of rainbow road. We parked the car off the side of the road and entered some gate and walked down a long pathway. We came across a spooky house. It looked like a farm house that had been abandoned for quite some time. we left the area and walked back to the road, a flashlight shined in our faces. We were pretty spooked. A man told us to come toward his van. He wasn’t wearing a badge or anything, but I suspect he was some sort of undercover security for the neighborhood. He told us not to return. The van WAS black. Later on, while getting a security job and learning about alarms, there are such things as silent MOTION alarms. I’ll be one of those was on the gate or somewhere. Now, there place is wrecked down and new homes are built there, as in 2005/2006 I returned during the day.
I DID do some research on that house. When we were there I was all for trying to get in, I thought it would be cool, but my friends were too spooked. I read a book from the library, and it said there is a family there in the mid 1800′s who locked a retarded child chained in the basement to die. Supposedly, if you were to go into that house you would hear chains rattling down below. Er… I suppose that may be the asylum and I read up on the wrong thing. I’m pretty certain it said off of Rainbow road though.
I was wondering if you could tell me the name of this book that you took out of the library? I was also hoping if there is a direct email that i can contact you at, i would love to ask you some questions about that night, if at all possible. Thanks.
I am going to Cuba Rd this Friday to do my own investigating. I am SUPER stoked to go and see if I can either catch something or put all the stories to rest.
Hello administrators, I just posted the following but forgot to add the picture I have of my old house back in 1999. I went to add it now but can’t seem to find where to do so. Please let me know if I can add a picture and where. Thanks, Amy
My friends and I rented an old farm house at the intersection of Cuba Rd. (Deer Grove,) and Cuba Rd. (going out of Deer Park and into Long Grove) Yes, Cuba and Cuba! We had only a pot bellied stove for heat, 4 barns and our own silo. It was really cool. The year I lived there around 1999 – 2000. My friends continued to live there for nearly 5 years. You wouldn’t believe all the kids driving up and down our driveway (it was 1/4 mile long,) yelling and calling us satan worshipers, etc. ( Afterall, who else would live in this creepy old house but us satan worshipers? I guess was their thought process at the time.) We eventually chained off the driveway close to the road so if anyone drove up we’d hear them getting out of their car to move the chain. They’ve since torn it down and put up townhouses. So, that’s my spooky, spooky tale of Cuba road. Years later on Halloween I drove my nephews up and down Cuba telling them all the stories I knew and it WAS scary but I never got to see anything I would concider “real.” Tonight my daughter went to see Paranormal Activity 3 with some friends from her high school and came home wanting me to take her to Cuba Rd. which is what lead me here. I was looking up the best place to go and came upon so many stories entailing old farm houses. I wonder if anyone on any of these sites meant our farm house in one of their stories about Cuba and old farm houses. Well, tomorrow I take she and her friends to White Cemetary. Wish us luck?