Celebrate Spooky Season with 5 Haunted Universities
Merion Dormitory, Bryn Mawr College- Prianna Pathak 2019
So often in film and television, we see the ivy hallowed halls of some of the oldest universities in the country. While these beautiful schools provide students with amazing educations, some have been known to leave students with ghost stories and sightings. What's better than those ivy hallowed halls? When those halls are haunted by the ghosts of former students and wailing widows.
Nothing quite says “spooky season” than delving into the wicked, and sometimes devastating, ghost stories coming out of the oldest colleges in the United States. So grab some Halloween treats, preferably not candy corn- you monsters, and settle in for some campus lore.
Bryn Mawr College
As one of the oldest institutions to admit women in the United States, Bryn Mawr College is famous for both its notable alumnae like Kathrine Hepburn, as well as modern and Victorian architecture. Given the small size of the student body, most students live in the 200+-year-old dormitories, one of which, Merion Dorm, is well known in the Philadelphia area for its history of ghost sightings. The lore states that in 1901 student Lillian Vickers thought she had contracted Leprosy, and believing an old wives tale, she took a bath in kerosine to stop the contagion in its tracks. What happened next has always been a point of contention on campus. Some say she accidentally knocked over her lantern while others believe that Lillian purposefully lit a match over her bath, thereby lighting herself on fire before jumping out of a window to her death. Possible supernatural occurrences such as the sounds of a woman humming late at night, flickering lights, and doors opening mysteriously have been reported. In fact, as recently as 2017 there have been stories of eerie situations like that of this former student Alexa Chabora who wrote about her Merion Dorm experience in the New York Times.
Boston University
One of the most notable dormitory hauntings of the 20th century is that of Boston University’s Kilachand Hall, which according to lore, is home to not only a few hundred students but the ghost of playwright Eugene O'Neill. The building was originally a high-end “residential hotel” that housed everyone from families to big band musicians on tour. One such famous guest was Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill who stayed there from 1951 to1953. At the age of 65, O'Neill died of a rare brain disease in Room 401, of what was then named The Shelton Hotel. Not long after, in 1954, Boston University, looking to expand its campus, bought the building and converted it to dormitory Shelton Hall. For decades after the 4th floor of the dorm, affectionately named "The Writers Corridor" has been the site of many supernatural events. Students have long complained of how eerily dim the lighting on the floor is compared to the rest of the dorm, the elevator doors have a mind of their own, and scratching or knocking sounds can be heard up and down the hall. Whether these occurrences are due to the old infrastructure or the ghost O’Neill, the playwright’s spirit has left a long legacy of writers at BU.
Kenyon College
Founded in 1824, Kenyon has not only ranked among some of the best liberal arts colleges in the country but also one of the spookiest. In fact, they boast their haunted history with a longstanding “Ghost Tour” of the college. One stop of the tour is the college’s south grounds entrance, colloquially called “The Gates of Hell." Folks claim that this set of ominous-looking pillars is an entrance to the underworld, causing the more superstitious students and visitors to avoid walking directly between them. The tour is quite comprehensive, covering much of the campus from a dance studio, Hill theatre, and Old Kenyon Residence Hall; which houses several ghosts and their stories, such as former student Stuart Pierson. Pierson came to haunt the residence hall in 1905 after what reports have said was a fraternity hazing ritual gone wrong, but just how wrong is still up to debate on campus. Stories say that “Stewie,” as he was dubbed by students, was the culprit behind windows mysteriously opening and "souvenirs from the past" being left in strange crawlspaces. Today, it's tradition for members of the DKE fraternity to mourn the anniversary of Stewie's death by carrying a coffin down the main thoroughfare on campus and reading the corner’s report in monk’s robes.
Gettysburg College
It seems that Gettysburg has long been a destination for ghost hunters due to the town, and the college’s, role in the Civil War. Even beyond the several thousand lives lost during the Battle of Gettysburg, the college itself may have been the final place for departing souls. Records show that during the war Penn Hall housed a makeshift hospital that cared for wounded Confederate and Union soldiers alike. One of the more famous pieces of campus lore, dating back to the 1980s, is of two Penn Hall administrators getting trapped in an elevator and being taken to the basement level of the building- the former morgue of the Civil War Hospital. What awaited them when the elevator doors opened was a ghastly scene of bloodied doctors and soldiers. According to the college newspaper The Gettysburgian, in 2003 there was an additional, more detailed sighting of the gruesome operating room in the basement of the building. It seems that apparitions aren’t just tied to Penn Hall as students have also reported sightings of soldiers' ghosts roaming campus and other apparitions in the dorms.
The University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame’s collegiate gothic architecture and deep Catholic roots provide the perfect backdrop for the school’s ghost stories. The first story comes from former student Bryce Chung who created a Ghost Tour of campus after connecting with other students and staff about their ghost sightings. According to Chung, students had heard eerie sounds in the dining hall basement and seen “mysterious reflections back upstairs in the stainless steel of the dish machine.” One staff member claimed to have seen the ghost of the university’s founder Father Sorin floating wordlessly in the dining room at 4 am. Given that Father Sorin reportedly said, in regards to creating a school focused on “Catholic principles,” “my desire to erect such a building torments me and disturbs my rest.” Could the lack of spirituality in the modern age be what woke the monk from his eternal slumber? Catholicism aside, ND has long been known for its prowess in college basketball, but what sports fans may not know is the spooky history of the university’s football team. Specifically that of former “All-American” football star George “The Gipper” Gipp who, after falling asleep on the front steps of Washington Hall in 1920, contracted pneumonia and died. Sightings of “The Gipper” began as early as 1921, and according to lore he was seen “mounted upon a beautiful white charger galloping up the steps of the hall and through the entrance.”
Whether or not you believe in ghosts, what better way to celebrate your school than learning a little bit about the darker side of campus history. You could say it really brings a college to life- or rather back to life! It seems the prevalence of hauntings at universities are so pervasive that they’ve been covered by the Travel Channel and researchers alike- like Matthew Swayne who even wrote a book about them called “America’s Haunted Universities: Ghosts that Roam Hallowed Halls.” Maybe this Halloween season, coming together over spooky stories is the way to finish out the year strong.
And as someone who went to a pretty haunted college, I can affirm that it is a rite of passage to hand down the scary stories and a bonding moment when seeking out your own. As Swayne once said, “only great schools have ghosts.”