Haunted campuses

[withwindowsdown]

Are there any college students on this site who believe their dorms or buildings to be haunted? I'm a huge fan of ghosts and ghostly activity in general, but I've never really had a definitive first-hand experience with the unknown. I've searched high and low in my beloved residence hall for a pair of red eyes in the dark or a fleeting vision of a woman in Victorian era dress (although it's not likely anyone fitting that description would have attended this school), all to no avail. I fear this place may be completely and totally normal.

My heart lept when I heard that there was a campus legend about a girl hanging herself in one of the dorm rooms, but seemingly nobody can provide any evidence for or against, or even reach a general concensus on which hall it was in. And if she ever did exist, she doesn't seem to be hanging around any longer. Maybe she graduated. (sorry, bad joke )

Anyway, has anyone got any good stories? Levitating dorm beds? Possessed roommates (not to be confused with intoxicated ones)? Proof that it's a ghost stealing your socks out of the drier? I heard the University of Nebraska has some pretty great tales and I even had a friend who went there who swore up and down that her room was haunted, but I dunno... she was a bit of a practical joker. So, how about you guys?

PS. First post!

[crouton]

Welcome! Unfortunately, I have no haunted campus tales to tell.

[kiddglock]

I went to school at an NCAA Div. II college during the eighties. Pittsburg State University is in southeast Kansas and offers a wide curriculum including graduate studies. It is neither small nor large. It is not the oldest university in the state, but it's close, founded as the state teaching college in 1909. During the Vietnam era, it was the biggest producer of officers for the armed forces, in the state. During the late seventies, it also made Penthouse's top twenty list of party colleges-quite a distinction to be listed over KU and K State.

The area is at the edge of the Ozarks in the heart of a coal and mineral mining region. The people are mixed between the typical Ozark hillbilly/Kansas hick and people who migrated from northern Italy and the Balkans area (home of Dracula).

The campus itself is a mixture of old and new with Victorian architechture sitting right next to modern. The students are the typical mixture of locals and kids who moved there to go to school.

McCray Hall is a four or five-story Victorian building that houses the music program. It has a large recital hall and the typical offices and classrooms. I was not in it much but passed it daily as it lay between the majority of classes and my dorm room. Generally there was chamber music emanating from within. I don't recall anything about a legend when I was there, but that doesn't mean the legend didn't exist. The eighties weren't a very paranormal time. Supposedly, you have the normal cold spots and poltergeist-type activity in the upper floors. Weird music when nobody is about. Cold spots. People getting spooked. I think some people have been pushed around and run out of there. I'm sure Shadowlands has covered it.

The Hornet Spooklight is one of the most famous "will o' the wisp" type lights around. It lays about thirty miles south. Shadowlands covers it fully and I mention it only because and is a typical road trip destination for students.

Three or four blocks off campus lays a little 4x4 house which has been rented to students for a long time. A female friend of mine rented it along with a couple of other girls, back during this era. I spent quite a bit of time there and never experienced anything out of the ordinary. However, later, when I was kind of out-of-the-loop for spending time there, she told me about some things. Bear in mind that we are a couple of hillbilly kids from fairly close to the Pittsburg area-so we probably thought more about haints and such than many of the city kids that went there. Supposedly the girls would hear things and have their sheets snatched off their feet. There was a large grate over a floor furnace-a rather uncommon heating method in our area. The activities kind of seemed centered around it. At the time, I kinda dismissed this stuff as three girls, two of which were hillbillies, living together and getting spooked. But, at the time, I worked at the old hospital, (a spooky place in and of itself, but not really related to the college) which had been turned into a housing facility for wayward kids. It was the last level before juvie lockup or the nuthouse. One of the other counselors was about ten years older than me and had lived close to campus in the late sixties. She was an Arkansas hillbilly that had actually attended grade and high school on campus in the old experimental schools that were defunct by this time. She recalled the same house and said it had been hainted even back when she was around there. So maybe there was something to it.

My wife also attended this college. Whilst in grad school, she attended quite a few classes in Hughes Hall-the center for Educational studies. This was a modern building which had burned at one point and been re-built. She had one professor that would interupt classes in his usual basement classroom with "did you feel that?" or "did anybody but me see that?". He was very spooked. Some took advantage of it for humor or to get out early. Many times though, this old guy would let classes out early because he was scared-for real. Cold spots are about the only objective (if you can call it that) thing I can remember, but there were other things too. I think that there were students who were genuinely frightened. I know the wifey was spooked for real.

Other than that, there were the usual "bad vibes", spooky feelings, etc. I particularly didn't like the campus police building where the aforementioned chick worked. I spent some time there while she was doing her late shift and just talked to her. This was an old former dorm building that I would describe as downright Gothic in architectural style. That and the library are places I always felt jittery.

Anyway, there it is...

[Bird Flu]

I'm currently living in a dorm room that's supposedly haunted. I just wrote a post about it a week ago. It's prolly on the second page or so by now if you haven't read it and care to.

[The0neX]

McCray Hall is a four or five-story Victorian building that houses the music program. It has a large recital hall and the typical offices and classrooms. I was not in it much but passed it daily as it lay between the majority of classes and my dorm room. Generally there was chamber music emanating from within. I don't recall anything about a legend when I was there, but that doesn't mean the legend didn't exist. The eighties weren't a very paranormal time. Supposedly, you have the normal cold spots and poltergeist-type activity in the upper floors. Weird music when nobody is about. Cold spots. People getting spooked. I think some people have been pushed around and run out of there. I'm sure Shadowlands has covered it.

I don't have the details with me right now, but I believe the stories about McCray Hall being haunted stems from a prank done at PSU during the 70's or 80's that involved hanging a dummy in one of the piano rooms in McCray Hall. After that stories began floating around about a music teacher or student who hung herself there.

Myself along with another team of paranormal investigators conducted a lenghty investigation at McCray Hall, in the end we found no evidence to support the claims that McCray Hall is haunted. A few professors that we talked to had been there since the 80's and told us that they never had any experiences in McCray Hall.

I would also like to say that I took offense when you said that people in Pittsburg are mixed between typical Ozard Hillbilly and Kansas hick. I'm not sure what Pittsburg was like during the 80's, but your description of the people of Pittsburg is not an accurate description of the people living in Pittsburg as of today. There are low class citizens here that could learn to shower every day, but you find that everywhere you go.

[sixxx]

Humber college in Toronto down at the Kipling/Lakeshore area is said to be haunted as it was a psychiatric ward at one point.

[glorybebe]

Humber college in Toronto down at the Kipling/Lakeshore area is said to be haunted as it was a psychiatric ward at one point.

any more info on that?

[Rosenrot]

I'm at college right now and wishing that mine has a haunted hot spot. (I attend Virginia Tech, so in a few years there might actually be some paranormal activity because of the shooting last April. And if anything has happened, it hasn't been reported yet because no one is allowed into Norris Hall where the main shootings occurred.)

I would guess that William and Mary would also have its share of ghostly activity because of its age. But here are some other stories from North Carolina (NC and VA ghost stories are my specialty). There are probably more, but these three were the first ones I found.

Lenoir-Rhyne College in North Carolina. Established 1891. Many different types of paranormal experiences have been reported here. In the Mauney Music Building (built in the 1960's), footsteps may be heard in the hall and classes when no one is there. In the same building, phantom orchestras have been heard playing. People are at a loss to explain the happenings in Mauney. The campus's oldest building Highland Hall also has it's share of paranormal. Phantoms footsteps and slamming doors have been reported by the theatrical groups which uses the third floor for makeup and costumes. And motorists driving by Highland late at night have reported an eerie light emanating from one of the rooms on the third floor. Highland was originally a dormitory but now serves as faculty offices. The most frightening experience in Highland happened to a security guard patrolling late a night. While making his rounds on the third floor (storage rooms at the time), the lights went out on him. He tried to switch the lights on, but it didn't work. He cut on his flashlight and began to make his way down the hall. As he was walking he heard the sound of furniture being moved. He shined the beam to reveal furniture, lamps, and desks being moved into the hall. Fearing for his life he ran to the stairway door which he had used moments earlier to gain entry; it was locked. He promptly unlocked it and fled for his life. The next morning, workmen from the maintainence department were called to the third floor of Highland; upon seeing the hallway littered with wrecked furniture, ripped mattresses and broken lamps, the men promptly called the campus police. An investigation followed, but no evidence of earthy vandals was ever found. Another haunted building on campus is the Carl A. Rudisill Library, however, unlike some of the other buildings, this one has a probable cause. The most frequent apparition is that of a small child crying. It is theorized that the young boy died in the fire that burned down the previous library building in 1972.

The auditorium at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is also said to be haunted by a spirit that inhabited the house that was razed to make room for it.

Davidson College in North Carolina. Established 1837. The most magnificent of all the campus buildings is the Chambers Building which was built on the ruins of Old Chambers Building, destroyed by fire in 1921. Tradition has it that Old Chambers periodically returns to check up on its predicesor. When periods of dry weather strike the North Carolina Piedmont, a mammoth, ghost-like floor plan of Old Chambers complete with 45 foot columns materializes on the sprawling lawn in front of the replacement building. Not until several drenchings of rain have fallen does the apparitional structure vanish. Another legend that surrounds Davidson stems from a time when cadavers were not as readily available and robbing cemeteries of newly buried corpses wasn't unheard of. A group of medical students from Davidson left to head to Charlotte in a carriage with the intent to find a fresh corpse. They found a freshly dug unmarked grave and promptly removed the body. In their haste, they forgot to cover up their deed. In the morning, workers at the cemetery noticed the empty grave. As it turned out, the corpse was that of a prominent Charlotte lady, and knowing that the Medical School at Davidson was in constant need of bodies, an investigation was sent to Davidson to retrieve the body. The students heard of this and promptly decided to dispose of the corpse. As luck would have it, the investigation was delayed a few days giving the students time to bury the body beneath one of the pillars of Old Chambers. Whether the corpse was removed before the columns were taken down in 1929 in unknown.

The three above stories come from Daniel W. Barefoot's North Carolina's Haunted Hundred volumes.

[The_Spartan]

Are there any college students on this site who believe their dorms or buildings to be haunted? I'm a huge fan of ghosts and ghostly activity in general, but I've never really had a definitive first-hand experience with the unknown. I've searched high and low in my beloved residence hall for a pair of red eyes in the dark or a fleeting vision of a woman in Victorian era dress (although it's not likely anyone fitting that description would have attended this school), all to no avail. I fear this place may be completely and totally normal.

My heart lept when I heard that there was a campus legend about a girl hanging herself in one of the dorm rooms, but seemingly nobody can provide any evidence for or against, or even reach a general concensus on which hall it was in. And if she ever did exist, she doesn't seem to be hanging around any longer. Maybe she graduated. (sorry, bad joke )

Anyway, has anyone got any good stories? Levitating dorm beds? Possessed roommates (not to be confused with intoxicated ones)? Proof that it's a ghost stealing your socks out of the drier? I heard the University of Nebraska has some pretty great tales and I even had a friend who went there who swore up and down that her room was haunted, but I dunno... she was a bit of a practical joker. So, how about you guys?

PS. First post!

You want stories about haunted campuses?? well here are they....

one site leading to links to other haunted campuses

haunted campuses

college wise haunting details

Edited September 15, 2007 by coredrill

[shaunalynn]

ummm there's been some deaths on my campus..... but nothing that seems to have caused a haunting.... there are some buildings though in which it's pretty creepy to be in at night or any time of the day for that matter

i have a friend at flagler college and says she experiences a lot of hauntings

[dancin'hamster]

I wouldn't really believe any 'haunted campus' claims. Think about it: Bunch of young people living away from home. Imagination and hormones running riot.....

I lived in an old Halls Of Residence whilst at college. One of our cleaners, Nina, refused to work on the first floor because she said it was 'evil'. Nina was a very superstitious Brazilian lady, with many slightly odd beliefs...so no one really believed her.

There are also a lot of Urban Legends centred on campus's or in Halls, which again harks back to the idea that young people are away from home and very vulnerable.

[Elfstone810]

During the spring semester of my senior year at the University of Missouri - Columbia, mumblemumble years ago, I followed a girl in a blue bathrobe into an enclosed shower room only to find the room empty. It was about ten o'clock on a bright, sunny day. I had been up for several hours studying and was wide awake. There was nothing insubstantial about the girl. I heard her footsteps on the tile floor as she came in from the hall and crossed the outer room. I followed her expecting the water to start running. I thought, actually, that it was a girl who lived a couple doors down from me and I was annoyed, because that girl always tossed her stuff all over the shower room when she was using it. I never saw the girl again, though there were two or three occasions when I'd be in one of the toilet stalls and see a flash of blue go past and hear footsteps and then the distinctive clang of the heavier door into the shower room, but with no running water after it. As far as I know no one else ever saw her and I never heard of any stories regarding her existence. This was on the second floor of Gillette Hall on the left hand wing as you leave the elevators.

I did my first two years at a women's college in Nevada, Missouri (pronounced with the first "a" long) called Cottey College. Cottey, actually, is not too far from Pittsburgh State, which is mentioned in earlier posts. Cottey has one very old ghost story, though the main building that was said to be haunted is gone now. In 1919 a high school student (at that time some high school students attended the school and lived on campus) named Vera died in a tragic accident. She was making fudge using a gas chafing dish. The window was open and the wind blew the curtain into the flame and then into her. Her nightgown caught fire and she died the next day across the street, in a sanitorium that stood where the college library is now. Vera's room was on the second floor of Main Hall, in the area that is now (or at least, was when I was there) music practice rooms. At the time of her death Main Hall was connected to another hall, Rosemary, a magnificent building with an auditorium on the first floor and student living quarters (dorms at Cottey were and still are arranged in suites, with several bedrooms around a central living room), on the second and third floors.

Vera was a music student and her ghost was mainly known for playing the piano on the second floor of Rosemary Hall. I had friends who were in theater and they told stories of strange sounds coming from the big, empty building (in my time Rosemary was used only for the auditorium), of footsteps following them on the stairs and the sense of a presence. The drama teacher at that time claimed that he often saw her lonely spirit sitting in the back row of the auditorium. I also had a friend who heard the piano playing in a room at Main Hall. The room with the piano opened off the room where she was studying and before she left she decided to go see who was practicing and say hello. When she opened the door the music stopped and the room was empty.

My freshman year at Cottey one of the older students was telling me about Rosemary Hall and suggested I go see the old suites on the second floor. A few days later one of my classes let out early so I decided to use the time to explore the old building. It was a cloudy autumn day, late in the afternoon. I went in the side door, as the main auditorium was being used for rehearsals by the Missouri Reperatory Theater. Going up the stairs was eerie, with the smell of old wood and dust motes dancing in the milky light coming through the windows. Just as I set my foot on the second floor landing I heard, from within the dim recesses of the Hall, the sound of a piano playing. I hesitated there, one foot on the landing and the other on the stairs, debating whether to go forward or run like Hell. All my life I'd wanted to see a ghost and now I had my chance but . . . what if she got me???? I took a deep breath, steeling my nerves, poised to flee, and then . . .

the rest of the orchestra joined in. It was the Missouri Rep Theater down on the stage!

[veledran]

University of West Georgia

Antonio J. Waring, Jr. Archaeological Laboratory - houses several hundred Native American remains along with a few bones from Civil War soldiers. Whispers and conversations are heard, a little girl has been seen, a horse has been seen, shadow people, and the sounds of doors slamming shut and something heavy being slammed against the metal shelves. (worked here for 2 years)

Mandeville Hall - built on a slave burial ground (confirmed). Reports sketchy.

Bonner House - Man was shot. He was nursed for several weeks by his fiance before he died here. Reports of apparitions.

<dorm, forgot the name) - An apparition is seen wandering the halls. No one knows why.

[jonas16]

Nope, i haven't heard about anything like this. Exept now with the posts in this thread.

[SillySilla]

My college, Santa Fe University of Art and design (formally the College of Santa Fe), pretty much the whole student body accepts that it's haunted.

There have been experiences in pretty much all the dorms (One dorm (Alexis Hall) is closed down due to the 5 suicides that have occurred in it).

besides that..The school USE to be in what we call "The barracks". The cafe in the barracks use to be a morgue...and well, You get the idea. students aren't allowed there. But we go there anyway and you can pretty much talk to any student on campus and they can tell you a story about that place (but never ask one of the Brothers (priest guys who live on campus), they've actually lied to us on what that place is, but we did our research, It was a Military hospital call Burns Army Hospital created for the scientists who were working on the Manhattan project).

Other than that...at my work study in the Garson's studio "the cage" (tech office), I've seen this guy around, but when I turn back to face him, he's gone. So I started to ask questions and vola! A former student of the college told me that tons of students who have worked at the cage and stage b (right next to it) said that something's in those rooms. He said they've experienced hearing voices (and finding voices that don't belong in their footage when they edit their footage later), have had lights (really heavy movie lights) fall after whoever rented them have returned equipment to the cage in bad condition/mistreated; and the stories when on...Kinda worries me tho, b/c he said I'm the first person he knows of who's not only seen him, but has repeatedly seen him (saw him leaning against the lights in the cage last week, and before that upstairs when the boss guy's office is and where the audio cables are stored).

I've been dieing to vent about mystery ghost man since I found out I wasn't imagining him (i don't want my friends thinking I'm nuts, so I haven't said much to them about it), so sorry if I'm rambling!!

But yeah.... Santa Fe university of Art and design. Haunted school campus.

[MattB]

I went to college at University of North Texas and also Hardin-Simmons in Texas and both had haunted dorm buildings as well as a haunted stage and auditorium at Hardin-Simmons.

[ScarletRibbon]

I was sleeping over in a friends room in a really, really old halls of residence here in England last night. It's over 100 years old and when we did a ouiji board that night, we had no problem talking to spirits, one of which claimed to live in the halls about 20 years ago.

I don't know if this counts but there are definitely ghosts floating around that place.

[slowfade]

I went to a college in the south of England which was founded in the mid 19th century, and there were loads of stories of ghosts - particularly in one of the halls of residence (now demolished), which was alleged to be suicide central and haunted by the spirits of generations of students. Most of these tales were made up to scare gullible freshers though!

In the grounds of the main building is a statue of Queen Victoria, and it is still said that every New Year's Eve the statue comes to life and wanders round the campus. Lovely story, but I never met anyone who claimed to have seen her....

[Indiogene]

Not only college campuses, how about my story about a Jr. High school campus is where a ghost sighting happened before the school was built. It happened 30 years ago from one of Mom's friends (her husband died 7 yrs. ago of a heart attack). I called in the Art Bell radio show to report this too.

In the middle of the night, they are driving on a rural road (now the area has lots of homes and a school) when out of a date palm grove came a faint apparition of what looked like a young male ran fast across the road. The car put on its breaks and pulled over, but they turn around and the man "vanished" into thin air.

They called the police dept. to file a report, where my Mom worked at the time and she learned a similar incident took place in the 1960s, but a young male was fatally injured. The neighbors saw the same ghostly figure (his description) over & over, and she came to believe this is his ghost trapped in suspension.

Today, the date palm grove is gone and became a school facility as of 18 years ago. His ghost sightings didn't happen again, like he decided to ''run'' somewhere else.

[Reelybored]

I actually live on a college campus (University at New Paltz) here in NY. I'm not a student as I completed my undergrad studies about 8 years ago, but my wife is employed by the University and all living expenses are accommodated (Woot!) Sure, living here makes me feel old, but not having to pay for rent... priceless!

Anyway, as anyone who has attended a university knows that for the holidays everyone goes home and the campus is almost completely isolated. My place of residence is no exception. It's like living in a 3-story apartment building by yourself. Of course, we just happened to be snowed in. Having nothing to do, I pretty much "forced" my wife into making a short film (no, not that kind) as I was really bored. After constantly nagging her, she caved and agreed to be the "star" of this short film. The premise of the film was simple: A young co-ed is stranded and isolated on a college campus after a heavy snow storm snow storm and strange things start to happen.

Little did we know at the time that "strange things" will actually be happening for real. Shortly after shooting we started to hear some noises from upstairs that sounded like heavy footsteps and furniture moving. We immediately stopped what we were doing and looked up towards the ceiling (we live on first floor). I looked at my wife and she had a look of both worry and anger as she well knew that no one else is supposed to be in the building. We stood in silence for a brief moment, listening and waiting for the noise again. Nothing happened.

We went back to filming and again, we herd what sounded like heavy footsteps and the sound of heavy furniture being dragged across the floor. Again, we looked up to the ceiling. At this point, my wife started to get a little creeped out. We halted "production" and went outside to walk the perimeter of the building to see if there any lights on. All windows were closed and all lights off as was standard protocol when vacating the building. As we approached the front of the building where our windows to the apartment is located, we noticed a pair of footprints that lead from our window and into the path we now stood on. Ok, weird. It was a little creepy although I did not attribute it to being anything paranormal. It could have been there before and we just never noticed it. Still, my wife was starting to freak out a bit.

We went back inside the building and despite of wife's refusal to do so, did a thorough search of the interior. Nothing was amiss. We returned to out apartment and well, I had a film to finish! Unfortunately for my wife, some of the shots I required involved being in the hallway. I got her to do it, quickly at that and usually in one take. After we finished, we returned to our apartment and locked the door behind us. My wife was at the brink of calling campus police but told her to leave it off until we heard something again. Needless to say, we did not.

I have to admit that I was a little creeped out but had to be macho for my wife's sake. I asked if there are any stories or anything linked to the building. She didnt know of any but did point out that there may been a suicide or two over the years. At this, my imagination took over and told that it may have been the spirit of a depressed co-ed dragging furniture across the room so that he/she may position him/herself to hang herself! She was not amused. What was it? I have no idea but I won't be jumping to any conclusions. Still, pretty cool story to tell friends when they come over and the campus is isolated

Jona

[showe]

<b>Humber college in Toronto down at the Kipling/Lakeshore area is said to be haunted as it was a psychiatric ward at one point.</b>

any more info on that?

My Sister in law was in residence there. She had a number of experiences mostly hearing sounds and what not. They have tunnels underneath to get from the dorms to the classes and she would refuse going in them at night as she continually heard things, chatter, footsteps etc. when there was no one else around.

The campus was a psychiatric asylum built sometime in the 1880's and I believe converted in the 70's.