Lori Miarecki, who owns the storied Cherry Tree Inn B&B in Woodstock, Illinois, owns yet another Woodstock haunt. Many will recognize the Cherry Tree Inn, as the B&B where Phil Connors stays in the 1993 movie Groundhog Day. The Cherry Branch Guest House just around the corner at 220 E. South Street also boasts ghosts and has lesser-known stories to share. We know less about the history of this location, but in the short time Lori has owned it, the house has amassed quite a treasure trove of spooky tales. Built in 1910, the former boarding house, which later became the Bundling Board Inn, will open its doors on July 8th to paranormal investigators wishing to put its supernatural claims to the test. 

The previous inhabitants made themselves known in January 2022 shortly after the Miarecki's took occupancy. Two weeks before they opened, when Lori was the only one working in the house, lights began switching on and off right in front of her. She suspected electrical problems, but when she called in an electrician everything proved to be in order. Then doors began to open and close on their own. Most alarmingly, after Lori installed an eye-latch with a J-hook on a basement door to keep it closed, she heard the door rattling. When she went to check on it she found that the latch had come loose, extricating itself from the wood.



Just this year a shadow figure was also seen in the house. The apparition was spotted by Lori's friend Lincoln one day while he was preparing the Petunia Room on the second floor at the top of the stairs. As he was making the bed, the doorknob turned, and the door to the room suddenly opened a few inches. Lincoln looked up and briefly glimpsed a shadowy figure at the door, which immediately slammed shut and locked.

Lincoln thought that perhaps the silhouette he had seen was his wife, who was also helping clean rooms. However, when he called out, he found she was occupied in the Chrysanthemum Room on the first floor. Lincoln phoned Lori just to make sure no one else was supposed to be in the house, but it turned out they had been alone. Even Lori's daughter Megan who lives in the third floor apartment had left for the day.

Megan has certainly felt a presence, especially in the basement, to which she now refuses to go. The problem down there is that items frequently seem to move around on their own accord. Vases are too often knocked over, candles and decor are found askew, and various furnishings wind up on the floor. According to Lori, just a couple of weeks ago, a small item (the identity of which she does not recall) "flew across the room.” The witness, in this case, was a guest. This marks the first time that someone in the guesthouse has actually seen an inanimate object move in front of their eyes.

It's not unusual for guests to ask about the ghosts. Most recently, guests reported momentarily noticing a male figure seated in the easy chair in the unoccupied Chrysanthemum room. When they turned to get a better look the man had vanished.



"Definitely two or three seeming entities have availed themselves to permanent residency," according to Lori. She senses a grandfatherly presence, a youthful spirit, and something more fear-inducing in the basement. Although none of the otherworldly occupants seem entirely unfriendly, Lori refers to the basement dweller as an annoying busybody who she sometimes hears pounding on the doors or walls.

A new ghost story also comes from the main house, where Lori spied a full-body apparition on June 4th. As she walked out the front door that morning, Lori happened to glance over and noticed pant legs and dress shoes peeking out from underneath the couch. Taking a closer look she saw what appeared to be an elderly gentleman in a brown suit dozing on the loveseat. She assumed this individual was a guest, but then realized that all the guests had checked out moments before. On reentering the house, she found no one there. Lori speculates the old man she saw may have been one of the former occupants of the Robin Hill Convalescent Home, which was housed in the building for the better part of two decades beginning in the 1940s.

For more ghost stories from haunted Chicagoland, please consider our year round bus tour in  Chicago  or our seasonal walking tours in  Woodstock ,  Aurora , and  Naperville.

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