On June 27, 2015 TIP investigators Christine, Stew, Amara, Paul, and junior Tipster Paige investigated Conover Square Mall in Ogden, Illinois. The building known today as Conover Square originally housed a piano factory. Construction began in the early 1890's, and additions continued for almost twenty years. It is believed that the Schaeffer Piano Company built the original factory (the current South wing), and they were later bought by Schiller. Pianos were manufactured here under a number of brand names, including Schiller, Conover, and Cable. By the early 1970's, demand for pianos dropped to the point where the factory closed and moved operations out of state. Later in the 70's, much of the 120,000 square foot building was converted into a shopping village.
The current owner has allowed people to store things in the space and it's now a giant building full of stuff. No one knows why the building is haunted as no one died there. This is not uncommon in many places we go. The most persistant claim is the sighting of a little girl mostly around the first floor women's bathroom. While we brought our cameras we decided the building was just too big and we did not have enough time or people to do a full set up. We decided instead to treat this investigation as a planning session for a future investigation. We began in the basement in what is called the "zombie room". We also went further down into the sub-basement (thinking Stephan King here). We dd not experience anything down there. We moved up and investigated the other floors. One interesting thing is we heard things during the investigation that did not show up on our recorders. Paul obtained an evp in the museum area and again on the third floor. The most interesting is we were up sitting on some couches and there's a child's laughter which our junior Tipster apparently heard, Those evps are in the evidence area. TIP wants to revisit Conover to further investigate.