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Discovering the secrets of Jarrot Mansion in Cahokia Heights

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CAHOKIA HEIGHTS, Ill. — The Jarrot Mansion in Cahokia Heights’ historic district is a beautiful example of a federalist brick home from the early 1800s. There are rumors that the old home is haunted.
Nicolas Jarrot, a wealthy French businessman and landowner, built the home between 1807 and 1810. Nicolas contracted a fever in 1820 while working at one of his mills. On December 8, 1820, Nicolas died.
Winn said that they noticed striping on the door, so clearly that is what Nicholas did. Once the wood was installed, he had it hand painted in tiger striping.
The mansion is now owned by the Jarrot Mansion Project (JMP), an organization that is attempting to restore the mansion to its former state before Nicolas’ death and sale to the Catholic Church.
Brad Winn, superintendent of the Cahokia Courthouse, displays a photograph of Nicolas’ wife, Julia Jarrot. She outlived Nicolas by 50 years or more.
“She’ll eventually go to St. Louis across the river. She dies in 1875, leaving a large family of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on, but she sells the house,” Winn said.
It was sold to a school by Julia. In 1905, it became the area’s first K–5 Holy Family School. The Holy Family Parish Church next door has been in operation for approximately 50 years.
There are different points in the house where the JMP shows what the original interior would look like.
The Jarrot Mansion has two stories. There are four rooms on the bottom floor, two on each side of the foyer. There was a drawing room, a ballroom, and two guest rooms on the second floor.
After Nicolas’ death, a porch was constructed. It was removed by JMP. They demolished not only the porch, but also the rear door fire escape erected as part of the elementary school.
Some of the rooms on the ground level have also been repaired. JMP did so by scraping paint from the walls and doors and matching modern paint as closely as possible to the original.
Is it haunted?
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources designated the Jarrot Mansion as a historic site in 1974. Because the mansion has been present since the 1800s, it has a lengthy history.
According to Winn, this fireplace looks exactly as it did when it was built. Historians use it to tell the tale of the house as well as the story of the family that lived there.
Nicholas had seven children. The rooms across the hall were his children’s bedrooms. This is a fireplace in one of the children’s bedrooms
Stones in the fireplace have witnessed 200 years of history. They unearthed a child’s shoe and a little bottle while restoring the area around the fireplace. The items may have been left behind while the house was being built.
Other intriguing aspects of the house. Horse skulls can be seen if you look above the bulletin board in the foyer.
“Four horse skulls were discovered,” Winn stated.
Two of the horse skulls sat above where the family used to eat their meals. Winn also said that a skull was discovered near the fireplace.
Winn stated that they have no idea why the shoe, bottle, or horse skulls were left beneath the stones and inside the house’s walls.
“Nicholas made a lot of enemies with some of the contractors that worked on the house,” Winn explained. “He appeared to be a difficult boss to work for.”
Winn stated that Nicholas based this house on a memory he had of federalist brick homes and intended to recreate that style of residence.
He’s a pretty picky guy when it comes to the style he wants in the house. For example, when the floating staircase is complete, and he had it demolished and rebuilt. “Because he doesn’t like the way it looks,” Winn explained.
Brad Winn, superintendent of the Cahokia Courthouse, in front of the Jarrot Mansion.
“He’ll wind up with quite a few lawsuits and litigation because of his business tactics here in town,” Winn said.
Is it possible that the skulls were left here as a method of cursing at home?
“We found no sign of flesh on the bones, so if somebody was attempting to curse the house by putting it in there, you’d think they’d want to make a big stink by, you know, leaving flesh on there and letting it rot,” said Winn. “We simply don’t know.”
According to Winn, there is some speculation that they were created to aid with acoustics. The ballroom is directly over the location of the heads.
According to architecture scholar Barry O’Reilly in “Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archeology, Culture, History, Literature.” The large volume of the skull made it an ideal sound-box that added resonance to the sound of dancing feet during céilidhe (a traditional Irish or Scottish social gathering with music and dancing).
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Winn said there are numerous stories about whether the house is haunted. Some of them include stories about the nuns who used to live there. He believes those stories were used to keep people out of the house.
“I’m not sure, but I’m presuming that whenever there are animal skulls in such a place, it might lead to some supernatural ideation, but I don’t know if it’s haunted,” said Winn. “I’ve been here about seven years. I’ve never heard anything,”
Here’s my theory, he continued: Was this the Catholic school, correct? So there were nuns living here. Some children prefer to look around residences that haven’t been adequately secured.
According to Winn, some police officers dislike parking near the property. “They don’t like parking next door because they sometimes peek up and think they see something, but the lights in the building are strange. And the windows have that type of restoration glass, and some of the molding and faulty glass create strange reflections in the glass and light.”
One of the haunts in the house is known as the “snapping ghost.” Winn said he could see a nun simply snapping at the kids as a form of discipline, and maybe they just said if you hear that, you know you’re in trouble.
The ballroom that became a classroom when sold to the church, being restored back to a ballroom.
Though many would like to believe that the Jarrot Mansion is a part of haunted history, Winn doesn’t elaborate on that aspect. He says that the supernatural isn’t important to the JMP project, and they are more concerned about preserving history instead of ghosts.
Winn stated, “I’m not trying to hide anything; I just haven’t seen the snapping ghost that is supposed to be here.”
Visit this link to donate to the Jarrot Mansion Project and help it reach its goals. To schedule a tour of the mansion, call Brad Winn at (618) 332-1782.
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Man attacks Jeff Co. deputy with screwdriver during attempted arrest

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JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. – Two people are behind bars after a man reportedly attacked a Jefferson County deputy with a screwdriver during an attempted arrest over the weekend.
Prosecutors have charged Nicholas Davis, 47, and Amanda Davis, 45, of Dittmer, Missouri, with felonies in the investigation.
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The alleged attack followed a traffic stop of a driver in the 9500 block of Jones Creek Road on July 7, though the driver was not Nicholas or Amanda.
According to court documents obtained by FOX 2, Nicholas reportedly came out of his nearby home, yelled at a deputy and started approaching him while holding a screwdriver. The deputy initially ordered Nicholas to back away, then used pepper spray.
Per court documents, the deputy attempted to arrest Nicholas, who then struck him in the chest with the screwdriver. Amanda reportedly approached the deputy and pulled him away from Nicholas before both ran inside their home.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office says the situation prompted an hours-long standoff involving negotiators, a SWAT team and a K-9 deputy. The situation led to Nicholas refusing warnings and being bitten by a K-9.
Nicholas and Amanda are both jailed in the Jefferson County Jail without bond. Nicholas is charged with first-degree assault on a special victim and armed criminal action. Amanda is charged with resisting/interfering with arrest.
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St. Louis Public Schools superintendent to be sworn in

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ST. LOUIS — The new St. Louis schools superintendent will be officially sworn into office today. Dr. Keisha Scarlett took over the job in July after the retirement of Dr. Kelvin Adams. She was assistant superintendent in the Seattle Public School District. The installation ceremony is at 6:15 p.m. before the regular school board meeting.
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Gas tanker crashes into St. Louis Metro transit center

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ST. LOUIS — A gasoline tanker truck crashed into a Metro transit center near Riverview and Hall Streets early Tuesday morning and knocked over a power pole. The pole is leaning on other power lines. Police have the area blocked off here because there is a downed power line. Ameren and Metro crews are also on the scene.
The incident happened around 12:30 a.m. It’s still unclear exactly what caused the crash, but we do that there was a second vehicle somehow involved. The airbags on that second vehicle did deploy.
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Police at the scene have not been able to give us a lot of details. Metro officials tell FOX 2 that the transit center here is operating this morning for passengers and buses. Access to certain areas will be limited here as clean up unfolds.
A Metro spokesperson says half of the station isn’t being used right now because of safety issues. It isn’t impacting overall bus operations, everything is just happening on the other side of transit center.
The extent of the damage to the actual transit center is still unclear, but I’m told it does not appear to be extreme. A Metro spokesperson tells me there were no injuries to any metro workers or passengers. The tanker driver also was not injured.
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