I grew up with ghost stories. I live in the mid-south and
they're about as common as corn bread and fried chicken.
That old house on the corner of your street? It was
occupied by enemy forces during the Civil War and used as a
prison. The land where your school is located was built on
an Indian Burial Mound and an Indian shaman haunts the
building. The list goes on and on and after awhile you
become rather skeptical.
So, while I have a healthy
respect for the possibility of ghosts, and have even had a
few "ghostly" experiences myself, I try to maintain my
skepticism when hearing stories about hauntings.
Then I came to college.
I attend this tiny private college in the southeast, with a
healthy reputation and respectful history. The school was
founded in 1819 as a Presbyterian Seminary. Between 1819
and 1871, it had approximately three locations all within
five miles of its current (permanent) location. As you can
imagine, we have our stories. Let me just share some of
those with you.
Our oldest building on campus is home to the humanities
department. It was established in 1871 as the first
building at the school's new (and permanent) location after
the Civil War. No small feat as the first building for
this location was begun sometime around 1860 and then
demolished during the war. Not only do we have one ghost
in this building, but possibly two or three (depending on
who you talk to). The one we all agree on is Whiskers--a
Civil War soldier with (no kidding) a wooden leg. While no
one has actually ever seen him, professors in their offices
late at night claim they can hear him banging around on the
hardwood floors. Then there's the nurse (a recent
addition). She's actually been seen, but is as yet
unnamed. No one knows for certain what is in the basement,
but we all agree that it's evil and we try to stay away
from it.
Our library has a creepy history. The money to build the
library was given to the school from a wealthy businessman
in Philadelphia in the late 1800's, early 1900's. He died,
and his widow continued giving money to the school until
her son shot a man in broad daylight in New York City (I
believe). At any rate, the entire world knew he did it
(there were only about 50 eye-witnesses), but she proceeded
to spend the rest of her fortune on trying to clear her
son's name.
I, as well as many of my fellow students, have
experienced this creepy feeling down in the main stacks
located in the library's basement. It's a well-lit, warm
area that is otherwise quite inviting, but the closer you
get to the walls, the creepier it gets (especially in the
mathematics section).
The Fine Arts Center was constructed in the 1960's and is a
horror of architectural design. It was actually designed
by a protege of Frank Lloyd Wright (for what it's worth) and
was featured on the cover of Time magazine soon after its
construction. If you hang out in the practice rooms (like
I used to, once upon a time), you'll notice a not-so-
pleasant presence that likes to hang around and bang on the
pianos.
Stories come out almost weekly of people who were
practicing in the FAC and hear strange sounds or see people
walking by their rooms then open the door to discover no
one else is in the practice rooms.
Did I mention that my school likes to burn? In the 20th
century, the school had no less than 4 buildings burn. One
of them was actually hit by lightening in August of 1999 on
a perfectly clear, cloudless, non-rainy day. It was hit by
lightening and pretty much exploded. The sad thing is that
the school had just spent millions renovating that building
then had to spend millions more to rebuild it.
I kind of get the feeling sometimes that some weird
supernatural presence has its finger on this school.
There are sooooo many more stories, but I don't have room
for them all here. Lots more haunted buildings, lots more
haunted dorms. And something about the school being a stop
on the Underground Railroad.
By the way, people who have inhabited my room in the past
claim it's haunted too. Don't know what to think about that
exactly.
Contact me here: daenade@hotmail.com
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