Atchison Kansas’ McInteer Villa Offers Creeps and Haunts Beyond Halloween
- Steve B
- Jun 22
- 5 min read
ATCHISON, Kan. - Steph O’Reilly, the perky real estate agent with the blond hair and bubbly personality, is probably one of the last people you would expect to actively seek out a haunted house. But in 2018 she proudly and knowingly purchased the beautiful McInteer Villa in Atchison, Kansas with a clear mission: to find ghosts.
McInteer Villa has stood in Atchison since its namesake, John McInteer, began construction on it in 1889. The Irish immigrant who made his fortune by selling saddles and harnesses picked the homesite away from downtown after locals there shunned his Irish heritage. In response to the snub, he angled the Victorian estate’s footprint so that the townspeople would always begreeted by the words “McInteer Villa” etched above an entryway.
O’Reilly describes McInteer’s move as an everlasting “F-U” to the rich people in town. That legend is just one of the many reasons why O’Reilly fell in love with the historic home.
“I’ve always joked that I'd love to buy a haunted house because I just thought those people are raking it in,” O’Reilly told me. “To be honest, no, they aren’t. But when I saw this house, there was just something about it. And I tell people all the time, I'm not obsessed with anything, which is sad. But there was something about this house drawing me to it.”
While she does own the Villa, O’Reilly doesn’t live there. She lives an hour away from Atchinson and said she would regularly drive past the McInteer Villa before she purchased it seven years ago. She said she was surprised when her late father agreed to co-sign with her, catapulting her to owner of a historic home with a paranormal reputation.
That reputation was so strong, in fact, that the city of Atchison would feature the house on their Fall billboards promoting Halloween tours and events. It was those ads, O’Reilly said, that intrigued her and encouraged her to inquire about buying the property. She said she took a paranormal tour of the Villa as a guest, but did not experience anything of note.
That didn’t stop her from moving forward with her plans to purchase it and invite others to explore it both in person and virtually.
“Since I opened the house for tours and paranormal investigations, I’ve installed cameras to record almost every room,” O’Reilly said. “Things happen in the house all the time but it’s rare that you capture them in real time. People will watch my cameras on the website and message me and tell me to look at specific time stamp when they see or hear something odd.”
Those tips have helped O’Reilly uncover EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) where a disembodied voice will say something or spot a strange shape or unexpected movement in different areas of the house.
But that’s not to say O’Reilly hasn’t had some real-time experiences with the unexplained. She’s quick to point out, however, that she has never felt threatened.
“Not too long ago I had a group here and I was just standing back when I heard somebody say my name,” O’Reilly said. “I heard it and so did three other people. We turned around and there was no one there.”
Another frightening encounter happened when a guest tried to recreate a disembodied knocking she said she heard on a pocket door.
“She tried to mimic the sound by knocking and we hear a voice say ‘That’s not it,’” O’Reilly said. “Then it got mean and followed up with a ‘not it, idiot.’ It’s kind of uncomfortable because it’s like having a stalker: someone or something that’s just there but you can’t see.”
What could be causing these strange encounters at the 1889 McInteer Villa? O’Reilly admits that she’s not entirely sure who or what is causing them. But she does know that nine of the Villa’s previous owners and residents died in the house.
A Tradition of Death
That, she said, is enough to make you pause for a moment and wonder.
“The first death here was Alice McInteer,” O’Relly said. “She was John McInteer’s first wife and she only lived here for a year. John soon remarried a woman named Anna, and Anna’s mother passed away here in 1898.”
Those first two deaths seemed to have kick off a tradition of loss in the Villa. John McInteer himself was the third death in the home when he died in 1902 and his second wife, Anna, passed away within its walls in 1916.
“Then Anna’s son took his own life in 1922,” O’Reilly adds. “So there seems to be a pattern that I do not intend to follow.”
Eventually the Villa was turned into a boarding house and in 1928 a four-day-old died. When it returned to private ownership, a woman named Goldie died sitting in her chair in 1969.
“Goldie’s death was tragic in that she was found in her rocking chair with her hand on a pistol,” O’Reilly said. “She didn’t take her own life but there were stories of elementary school children breaking her windows and calling her a witch. I think she was protecting herself from the outside world and from whatever goes on inside that house.”
Goldie convinced the Garardis to purchase the house shortly before her death. They each died in the house as well with Mr. Girardi passing in 2006 and his wife passing in 2014.
Footsteps and Flying Pebbles
McInteer Villa is large, even by today’s standards. It stands three stories tall and has a basement that follows the home’s footprint. Each of its floors seems to have strange phenomena that scares and entertains O’Reilly and the paranormal investigators that visit.
“Two of the creepiest rooms in the house are in the basement,” O’Reilly said. “My friend Tori was with me and we heard what sounded like heavy boots walking on the floors above us. We were the only two in the house!”
O’Reilly also said that in that basement room a guest was hit with a small pebble, that appeared to come from a darkened corner of the room. She said she can’t explain it.
“There is a feeling in this house, almost like a little brother or something who always has his finger in your face but he isn’t touching you,” O’Reilly said. “It just feels like you are in their space.”
Are the spirits in McInteer Villa those of its former owners, or are the recordings and experiences reported by so many just figments of their imaginations?
O’Reilly honestly doesn’t know, but she does believe that something inhabits the house that exists beyond our understanding.
“There is a lot of history to this house and a lot of that history is still undocumented,” O’Reilly said. “Part of the fun is uncovering that history in an unconventional way.”
You can watch my full interview with Steph O’Reilly on my podcast YouTube Channel
Learn more about The 1889 McInteer Villa or book your experience at 1889McInteerVilla.com.
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