Haunted Schools

The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) is a local institution of higher knowledge that has experienced all the celebrities one can handle. Just the film school portion alone has boasted such notable alumni as Shane Black, David Koepp, Justin Lin, Steve Martin, Tim Robbins, Rob Reiner, Carol Burnett, and Ben Stiller just to name a few. Sporting 337-degree programs across a robust student body of 31,000 that over the years has yielded a staggering 24 Nobel laureates, UCLA is a Southern California powerhouse of monumental epic proportions. So why did it once have a parapsychology lab on campus that was so reaching in its scope that the founder’s work was even nominated for an Emmy award?

UCLA and Parapsychology

It all began in 1968 with Dr. Thelma Moss. She was a campus psychology professor who became fascinated by hypnosis, extrasensory perception (ESP), clairvoyance, and the supernatural. Such topics fell under the umbrella term of parapsychology and she created a makeshift lab on campus to study the phenomenon. One of the earliest contributors to the lab was a young research assistant named Barry Taff, who would one day obtain a doctorate in psychophysiology and a minor in biomedical engineering. Unfunded and even unsanctioned by the university, things began to spike when breakthrough images were taken that involved Kirlian photography.

Kirlian photography or electrophotography is a highly controversial method of visually capturing electrical discharges within a particular electric field. To the purveyor of such methodologies, it is believed that it can capture unobtrusive “auras” in empty spaces and around people. The process is controversial, however, it gained a wide degree of attention when a local area woman named Doris Bither met Taff and a fellow lab partner Kerry Gaynor in a local bookstore near campus. She told them a wild story of her being personally attacked and sexually assaulted by a vicious spirit in her home. The subsequent investigation and evidence collected were parlayed into a 1982 smash hit horror film chronicling the haunting, called The Entity.

The Entity 1982

Is UCLA Haunted?

The local television show, Eye on L.A. had heard about the growing popularity of a parapsychology lab on the UCLA campus that actually studied and received phone calls concerning ghosts, spirits, and other things that go bump in the night. An investigative story was done and it even went so far as to showcase some of the electrophotographic images that had been collected by the group. The images were so powerful and convincing that this particular show was nominated for an Emmy award. The real standout with the group, however, was Dr. Barry Taff.

Another one of the most engaging cases that he spearheaded during his time with the lab was the Holly Mont Drive Case of 1976. Whenever ESP experiments and studies weren’t being conducted at the lab, the group was inundated with calls from all over California and the United States about people concerned with supernatural activity in their homes. Again being unfunded, the group used their own personal vehicles and expenses to get to and from would-be cases. Of all things, an undergraduate student casually walked into the lab in May 1976 to tell about his experience at a house party the evening before. Objects levitating and then flying across the room, including a large charge that pinned another partygoer to the wall. Dr. Taff and his colleagues investigated the home and indeed verified all the paranormal claims that the young man spoke of the evening before thus labeling it as one of the most active hauntings in North America.

The Gardenia Hall Ghost

By 1978, more and more tabloid-style recognition was befalling the lab as Dr. Taff now began using intuitive ESP-style methods in diagnosing medical or psychological ailments. The administration had enough, and the lab was then permanently closed. Not surprisingly after the closing of a lab of this nature, people began speaking of a haunted spot on campus within their own midst. Gardenia Hall is a normal residential complex that’s as bustling and ordinary as any university dormitory, but late one evening a maintenance worker spotted a tall and dark shadowy figure lumbering down the hall with a spectral flow. It wasn’t until another maintenance worker and some students stepped forward to say they had witnessed the same shadow man as well that the legend of the Gardenia Hall Ghost was born. Sidled up to the hall is a breezeway that many people have claimed to hear bizarre noises in the dead of night with nobody around to make them.

The Haunted Sound Stage 3 of UCLA

Not to be outdone, Sound Stage 3 in the film school is said to be haunted as well. Rapid temperature drops, objects, and props moving, lights turned on and off, people being physically pulled or shoved is a common occurrence by an unseen force. Many believe that the spirit belongs to a former theatre director who held a deep passion for film being taught on Sound Stage 3, as all the activity is fairly benevolent.

Dr. Thelma Moss passed away in 1997 and is credited to this day with the strides her former lab made. Dr. Barry Taff has gone on to investigate thousands of paranormal claims all over the country, writing countless articles and books on the subject. He also made a brief appearance in Zak Bagans’s Demon House documentary. The UCLA Parapsychology Lab still remains one of the most controversial campus organizations ever.

Is Yale University Haunted?

Yale University is one of the top-ranked Ivy League universities in the United States. Established all the way back in 1701, it is the third-oldest institution of higher learning in the entire United States. As a matter of fact, Yale stands as one of the original Colonial Colleges that was set up and founded before the American Revolutionary War even begun. With centuries-old history, it should come as no surprise that Yale has some paranormal activity going on.

The Ghosts of Vanderbilt Hall

Vanderbilt Hall at Yale is a building that was formally endowed from the massive finances of Cornelius Vanderbilt. A long-standing dorm, students there have remarked that there are sudden and bizarre temperature drops into the freezing cold with no logical explanation. Other times, descendants of Vanderbilt and other students staying in the dorm are said that Cornelius has even manifested to appear in their dreams. Totally genial in nature, his presence in the hall is quite bizarre.

Haunted Wrexham Tower

Across campus is the chilling Wrexham Tower. According to campus lore, three different students at one time or another committed suicide in a third-floor suite there. Intermittently, over the years various students have reported paranormal activity in this particular suite to involve freezing temperatures, voices, doors opening, and closing, all associated with classic poltergeist behavior. As a result of the complaints, Yale has had the room completely sealed to prevent any further dark manifestations from happening.

The Haunting of the Pierpont Home

Off in the distance is the Pierpont Home which has been redesigned into a visitor’s center for the campus. The building actually dates to the Revolutionary War era in which it was used as a British command post as well as a battle hospital. Decades later, visitors have claimed to see bloodstains manifest and then disappear on the central staircase. It’s wholly possible that the deceased spirits of British soldiers haunt the building. Outside, beneath the New Haven Green walkways used to be an actual burial ground during the Revolutionary War, but bodies were relocated at some point in the 19th Century to the Grove Street Cemetery. Bodies mismatched with headstones have given further credence to the belief that the spiritual grounds of Yale are quite restless.

Yale’s Skull and Bones Society

Of course, many believe the infamous Skull and Bones society has something to do with all the activity as well. A secret underground student society that’s dark and mysterious, the Skull and Bones are said to actually possess the skulls of Geronimo and former president Martin Van Buren. Bizarre rituals include supposedly being lowered into a coffin and then “reborn” again with another ritual involving drinking a mysterious substance from one of the skulls while chanting in a bizarre language.

Is such a group responsible for any supernatural activity on campus at Yale? All of the members are sworn to a level of secrecy that can never be broken. But for now, only the spirits lurking about on-campus know the whole truth.

On the surface of Athens, Georgia is like any southern town. A simple population in a modest county that is known for southern charm through and through. One of the most dynamic aspects of this town is that it is home to the University of Georgia. Considered one of the oldest public universities in the United States, it should also come as no surprise to paranormal enthusiasts that it is also quite haunted as well.

Is the University of Georgia Haunted?

The University of Georgia was founded back in 1785, just years after the Revolutionary War ended. Lyman Hall was a Yale graduate who in addition to signing the Declaration of Independence, was also the founder of the university. Hall was able to secure a grant that enabled over 40,000 acres of land in Athens to be the breeding ground for the state’s premier university. As each year passed, more and more effort was put into the university to acquire even more and bring in more students.

Naturally, during the Civil War, the school had suspended its academic rigors for three years so as to avoid any potential devastation that the horrors of the war brought about to the area. Over the many decades, the university has positioned itself to bring in over $1.2 billion in endowments for a student population that regularly hovers around 38,000. As charming and accomplished as the school looks on paper, it is also home to an array of ghosts.

The Ghost of Alpha Gamma Delta

The Alpha Gamma Delta sorority house is one of the eeriest haunts in the campus area. Prior to serving as a sorority house, the Alpha Gamma Delta mansion was actually home to a wealthy Athens family. William Winstead Thomas is said to have originally built the mansion back in 1896. According to local oral folklore, the mansion was originally intended as a wedding gift for his young daughter Isabel who was soon to be married. However, on the day of the wedding, Isabel was actually stood up and abandoned by her fiancé on this special day. As a result of this, she went back to what would have been her new home and committed suicide via hanging.

Heartbroken as a father, Thomas sold the home off and it changed hands a bit before becoming a sorority house for the university. As a result of her unfortunate death, Isabel’s spirit is said to haunt the Alpha Gamma Delta house in a variety of ways. The most innocuous is her turning the lights on and off at odd times, along with the occasional door opening or closing to its residents. However the most terrifying of these paranormal acts is that some young women who are getting themselves dressed in front of a mirror have seen the reflection of Isabel in the mirror staring back at them! While most believe her spirit is harmless, some paranormal enthusiasts believe her suicide there no doubt left her spiritual impression on the mansion.

The Haunting of Waddell Hall

Waddell Hall is one of the more interesting buildings on campus. Although it currently houses the campus Office of Special Events, this building actually served in a laboratory and dormitory capacity for many of its years. Built back in 1821, Waddell is considered to be the second oldest building on campus and also completely rife with paranormal activity. One of the more popular spirits there is said to be the ghost of a young World War I soldier.

Sometime after the war had ended, this young soldier was lent a room in Waddell by some dormitory friends so he could spend time with his fiancé. At some point, it is believed she was seeing another man and the soldier killed her and then himself. Today, those who have frequented the hall say that mysterious and somewhat loud noises can be heard overhead in areas of the hall were simply no one is. Others have gone so far as to see a flurry of brightly lit orbs streaming through parts of the hall. The presence of orbs ultimately suggests that there is residual energy left from the murder-suicide that has chosen to manifest.

Demosthenian Hall and the Ghost of Robert Toombs

Demosthenian Hall is yet another one of the university’s many haunted buildings. Originally constructed in 1824 this particular hall is one of the absolute oldest on the entire campus. The Demosthenian Debate Society made primary use of the building as it readied itself for upcoming competitions. One of the more ardent debaters was a student named Robert Toombs. Toombs was set to be a speaker at graduation, but was disciplined in a gambling bust on campus and never got the chance. Instead, he gave his speech before one of the university’s largest oak trees. Later he went on to be a Representative as well as Confederate General. However years later, the oak tree was struck by lightning and destroyed and for whatever reason, it was partially moved and reconstructed into a sundial at Demosthenian Hall.

Nowadays, students have long reported seeing the ghostly pale figure of Robert Toombs going up and down the hall in this antiquated building. Loud, plodding footsteps are said to be a warning sign of Toombs drawing nearer to someone in the hall. Other times, students have claimed to be rushed with a certain feeling of dread and unwelcomeness in the hall and feel like it is Toombs ghost telling them to get out and leave him alone! This feeling combined with his ashen and gray spirit being sighted is more than enough to send a Georgia student running for the hills.

Today the University of Georgia is going just as strong as ever, enjoying tremendous academic as well as sports program success. In fact, there are more than one Athens area ghost tours that include many of these stops as well as other hidden paranormal gems on all their tours.

Iowa State University is a classic when it comes to imagining just what a Midwestern university is. The small city of Ames hovers around a population of 65,000 yet nearly half of those numbers are students at the university. Cornfields lay on the outskirts of the Ames, and agriculture is still a huge reason why students attend. But amongst all those far-out rows of the cornfields in the distance, did something sinister sneak onto the campus somehow?

Is The Iowa State University Haunted?

The university was established all the way back in 1858. Ideally, due to all of the vast unused farmlands in Iowa, the school was established with a heavy concentration on agriculture life so as to propagate such lifestyles and careers within the state. In 1861 the very first building on campus, The Farm House was constructed. Serving as the main house to a model farm on campus, it is considered an institution on campus. However, the Farm House is considered to be the most haunted location on campus.

The Haunted Farm House

Farm House is said to be haunted by the ghosts of two different women. One named Edith Curtiss, was the daughter of the dean of agriculture while the other is named Esther Wilson and she was the former wife of the school president. Curtiss was reputed to have many gentleman callers that were snuck through the windows at night. While the Farm House is a museum today, the curtains have been spotted by students and visitors mysteriously swaying. At other times, the curtains have been seen snapping open and then closing in an instant with nobody in the room. Paranormal theorists believe her spirit is responsible for that and the mysterious sound of a female voice that can be heard at different times in the house. Wilson’s spirit has a different slant, quite literally. Being a museum many table place settings have been mysteriously moved or angled after they’ve been laid down by human hands and many believe her spirit is correcting the improper table manners. On more than one occasion her spirit is believed to have been manifested and one frightened woman was said to have approached and greeted the spirit before it disappeared into thin air.

The Ghost of Fisher Theater

Fisher Theater is also said paranormally active by a ghost. The theater is over one hundred and twelve years old, and its longest-tenured theater instructor was a woman named Frieda Shattuck. In fact, her dedication to the Iowa State theater was so dedicated she is rumored to have never missed a single performance in sixty-two years. Her spirit has manifested before theater students on the night of a big performance, and this is taken as a sign of good luck. However, her wheelchair was left behind as a prop to be used by the school’s theater company. There have been reports of the wheelchair not only moving locations around backstage, but some have even claimed to see it move towards them as if someone were in it!

Haunted Friley Hall

Across campus, Friley Hall is another haunted hotspot on campus. The basement area is said to be the most haunted spot in the hall and has earned the campus nickname of “The Devil’s Legion Room.” Over the years, students have reported seeing a shadow man who has partially manifested into an older man with a beard and top hat. His spirit has been seen slinking around this area and brings with it a certain feeling of not only cold air but dread as well. This dread seems to have branched out and hit other parts of the hall as collectively students have complained about having incredibly disturbing and dark dreams.

There also exists a singular room where a student was said to have committed suicide in it years ago. At some point, the room was closed and because it lacked a fire escape and serves no purpose, but the most disturbing claim is that people have seen a blood-like substance seep from underneath the doorway. The room has been opened and no real source was found for why it materialized. Is the shadow man in the basement responsible? The physical manifestation has the knee jerk reaction of someone who died in the vicinity in a violent way and continues to make their spirit known. On the other hand, there are some that speculate the entity is somehow related to the “Hat Man”. The Hat Man is a supernatural entity that has been seen by people the world over. Tall, shadow-like figure that resembles the physical feature of a man, but wears either a top or wide-brimmed had. Along with his presence is that terrible sense of dread as well as a cold sensation that creates almost a paralyzing fear. Still to this day, the origins of the Hat Man phenomena as a whole is a mystery.

Iowa State University is one of the top Midwestern schools in terms of academics and even in its vastly rising sports programs. Paranormal tours have been known to occur on campus that are formed by former students and it’s spirits like that which keep the stories of the real spirits on campus alive.

Long considered to be one of the premier universities in the northeast area, Penn State University has been a cornerstone for academia to all those seeking higher knowledge. With close to 85,000 undergraduates alone enrolled, the amount of students canvassing the campus any given semester is absolutely staggering. With such heavy amounts of academic foot traffic, it should come as no surprise to anyone that this campus is one of the most haunted around, so much so that an actual paranormal research group was founded on campus.

Is Penn State University Haunted?

Pennsylvania State University (PSU) was founded all the way back in 1855, initially as an agriculture college. Farmers had donated acres of empty land towards the school’s construction up until 1882 when an engineering program was catching on for the school and permanent halls were built. By 1936, many baccalaureate degrees were added as well as enrollment figures hitting over five thousand. Over the next few decades, enrollment would essentially double every year, with recent figures close to 99,000 students enrolled as the school now enjoys multibillion-dollar endowments every year, a successful sports department, and is considered by a recent Wall Street Journal survey as the number one place to receive the best all-around bachelors degree. But with all the success, just what lurks underneath?

The Haunted Penn State Library

One of the chief hauntings of the university begins with the murder of a student. In November 1969, Betsy Aardsma was a graduate student at Penn State who was busy working on a research paper late one fall afternoon in the library. At some point, she was stabbed from behind, with the killing wound severing her pulmonary artery. A mysterious man is said to have descended from the upper-level library floor and alerted the librarian to the dying girl who was found in Row 51 on the floor. However, the killer was never caught and the case is still considered open by University Park Police.

Over the years, the rows in the library have shifted but students have none the less reported hearing manifested screams or gasps, bloodstains on the floor, and even a supposed apparition of what many think is Betsy’s spirit. As eerie as all of it sounds, things got even more bizarre in 2013 when a student claimed to have found a note in the vicinity of Row 51 on the day of Betsy’s death that read, “R.I.P. Betsy Ruth Aardsma July 11th, 1947- November 29th, 1969…….P.S. I’m back!” To this day, nobody knows just exactly who or what the note is referring to, but it definitely earns an A when it comes to the creepy factor!

The Ghost of Atherton Hall

The Atherton Hall at Penn State is one of the oldest on campus, and it should come as no surprise to anyone that it has a ghost. It is said by many students that the spirit of Frances Atherton, late wife of the school’s former president is one of many spirits haunting this hall. As a dormitory, the most common supernatural activity reported by students is the opening and closing of doors at random. In fact, students have claimed that her spirit has been seen looking out of one of the windows on a top floor, forever keeping an eye on the students.

Another spirit haunting this particular hall is that of a former female dormitory house mother who was nicknamed “Gumshoes” by students decades ago. The story is that she was always rooming about the dormitory halls at night in a pair of very noisy sneakers, in hopes of catching students out past curfew. Today, students who call this dormitory home for now still report hearing Gumshoes stepping around late into the night.

Schwab Auditorium Haunting

Nearby at the school’s Schwab Auditorium, another spirit is said to be prowling about the many theater seats. Affectionately called “Schwabo”, this ghost is said to be that of the auditorium’s former janitor. Scratching sounds about the floor, doors opening and closing, heavy footsteps in empty areas, and objects being mysteriously relocated have many paranormal enthusiasts musing that Schwabo is totally genial. Still thinking of the auditorium as his and helping tend to it well into the afterlife his presence is just another notch on Penn State’s paranormal belt.

Paranormal Research Society (PRS) at Penn State

In 2006, former student Ryan Buell founded the Paranormal Research Society (PRS) at Penn State. It was a homegrown club on campus that met up to investigate paranormal cases in the surrounding tri-state area. Based on a terrifying childhood experience that Buell had, the group consisted of PSU students who were committed to investigating the paranormal outside of their regular course of studies. The group became so popular that they were in fact given their own paranormal reality series on the cable channel A&E where it ran for five seasons. Today, the PRS consists of students that over the years have come into the school and naturally left their research and findings to younger students so that the group may never disband. With all the ghost stories and commitment from on-campus students to study the paranormal, Penn State will remain as one of the more haunted universities in the northeast.

Among one of the many secondary battle sites to the Civil War is the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Battle of Chattanooga in November 1863 was a crucial step forward for the Union forces to gain a foothold in the Deep South as the battles raged eastward from Missionary Ridge up to the famous Lookout Mountain. The Union was led by William Tecumseh Sherman, and the Confederates were headed by Braxton Bragg. When the two-day battle finished, over twelve thousand men lay dead. In a supernatural twist, it is not the Civil War battle sites that reputed to be haunted, instead, it is the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga that is said to hold all the ghosts.

Is the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Haunted?

Founded back in 1886, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, or UTC, was initially called Chattanooga University and then University of Chattanooga before being accepted into the University of Tennessee system by 1969. Early heavy enrollments really made the university thrive since its inception, as each year the school branched out further and further into the downtown area to acquire more buildings to meet the high student demand. As with any university, there are always stories about the macabre or supernatural that seem to break through and become legend and UTC is certainly no exception.

Haunted Hooper Hall

Hooper Hall holds more administration offices than it ever did classrooms, except for a lone science lab. Sometime in January of 1924, a grounds manager named John Hocking suffered a personal tragedy as his wife and child died in a house fire. Tormented with grief, Hocking went into the science lab and committed suicide via asphyxiation from the chemicals kept in the lab. Over the years, more administration offices crept up in the building and staff have reported unusual activity. Doors opening or slamming with nobody there, heavy fast footsteps on the antiquated tile floor. Students report feeling watched by an unseen presence that seems to bring a chill with it.

Bizarre enough is that the dean’s office is located in the same building. His office staff have reported that late one night after a meeting, an unusual and loud cuckoo clock sound would go off behind his locked office door. Informing the dean about clock going off in jest one day, he confessed to his staff that his office in fact didn’t have a cuckoo clock or any other such device that would make a sound.

Patten Chapel and the Woman in White

Nearly adjacent to Hooper Hall is a building called Patten Chapel. Naturally, it holds within it a sizable chapel for worship services and has been known to hold weddings and funerals for those who weren’t even students at all, due to its antiquated southern charm. Despite being an on-campus church, the Patten Chapel is haunted by the spirit of a woman dressed in white. She has been seen in both the daytime as well as night time, drifting for an instant by stunned students and agog faculty members. The look of her dress is thought to be that of a nurse and some have speculated her to have been a Civil War nurse tending to the city’s many wounded before suffering death herself. Of course doors slam and voices whisper, but the most disturbing is the eerie organ music in the chapel that has been played in the dead of night with nobody manning the organ at all.

Confederate Cemetery and Brock Hall

Down campus on its edge is an actual graveyard simply called Confederate Cemetery. It was erected during the Civil War era and has the body of soldiers as well as slaves in its ground. Near this edge stands Brock Hall. This four-story campus cornerstone wasn’t always a college landmark building. On the same grounds decades before, the area served as a local jail for Confederate soldiers. Executions were also said to have taken place on the very spot as well until the troops in the area eventually moved out. Decades later when the university was constructed, Brock Hall was erected on the very site in which all this occurred. Incidentally enough, the university’s morgue and medical college were also housed in this building.

Over the years, both students and faculty alike have reported a wide range of paranormal activity. Longtime professor of Spanish, Dr. Roberto Rojas was particularly attuned to what was occurring. He had been known to speak about leaving his office to get a quick coffee across the street at the campus food court, only to return and his papers and books in his office to have been tossed about in a flurry. Rather than straighten things, he also spoke of such piles being mysteriously and meticulously being put back together while he was in a neighboring room without anyone entering or making a sound at all. Extremely cold air has permeated the many floors of the building even during sizzling hot summer semesters before spiking back up without any explanation. Despite the cold hair and activity, some students have even seen shadow figures that have been known to be spotted on the building’s stairwell. Are these figures the disembodied spirits of the executed Civil War soldiers who once stood there long ago?

Today, unlike other universities and places of higher learning, UTC has not tried to ignore or shut down any talk of the paranormal on its campus. In fact, it has rather embraced it during the Halloween season and has even held an overnight ghost hunt watch on occasion to document any paranormal activity.

Choosing and attending a university is one of the most difficult decisions a student can ever make. Family history at an institution, faculty with award-winning accolades, and even die-hard allegiance to the sports programs are just some of the reasons that help decide where someone goes. But what if your choice was a university that is haunted? Marquette University is perhaps the most haunted school in the entire state of Wisconsin.

Is Marquette University Haunted?

Marquette University was founded all the way back in 1881 and stands a private Roman Catholic school that was initially built by the Jesuits under the instruction of the local Bishop of Milwaukee. The university was built in regards to the ever-rowing German population in the Milwaukee area. Growing throughout the decades by adding many academic programs, Marquette emerged as one of the more established private university powerhouses in the Upper Midwest area. But as students have shuffled in and out over the years they have naturally walked away with a degree, but many have also walked away with an unintended education in paranormal encounters as well.

The Haunted Schroeder Hall Dorm

One of the most haunted places on campus is within the Schroeder Hall dormitory. Particularly on the ninth floor is where most activity has taken place. It’s difficult to label whether the spirit is a simple poltergeist or something more sinister. A student confessed to the university’s newspaper about an encounter with the spirit which resulted in a mysterious broken ankle after being spooked to the point he was reaching for his Rosary before he felt his ankle snap. Supernatural tensions were so high that the priest was brought in to bless the room to quiet down any activity. Another student had what some believe to have been actual tinted ectoplasm seep through the dormitory wall! Even with cleanup and inspection, there was never a true source or cause for the mysterious liquid to form.

The Haunted Humphrey Hall

Down campus at Humphrey Hall, the paranormal activity there is just as compelling. Objects have frequently been known to move around mysteriously or even disappear completely before being returned. This part of campus was formerly the children’s hospital decades ago and many think that the departed spirit of a child wanting attention is the likely cause.

The Haunted Johnston and Mashuda Halls

Over in Johnston Hall, a long-standing story had a young Jesuit priest committing suicide there many years ago in 1963. Doors opening, mysterious tapping sounds, and even a low moan sound have been heard by students there. And even at Mashuda Hall, objects that levitated and moved caused such a disturbance that there is a long-standing rumor around campus that an actual exorcism was performed in the hall so as to end the paranormal activity!

Today, Marquette University still enjoys both high academic, and sports success. Activity is few and far between on campus, but as with anything regarding such institutions of record, there are always ghost stories that are here to stay.

St. Augustine, Florida is the oldest city in the United States as Spanish Admiral Pedro de Aviles founded the city all the way back in 1565. The city was named for the Catholic saint as Aviles and his men made contact with the shores of the city on the saint’s feast day. Over the centuries of beachside prosperity that came to the city, one of the most lasting is the Ponce De Leon Hotel. Built in 1888 by Standard Oil co-founder Henry Flagler, the Ponce De Leon Hotel was built to be the most luxurious hotel in the area. Poured from a concrete foundation that was revolutionary at the time along with local coquina, the immense hotel was fashioned and styled in Spanish Renaissance architecture. At one point Flagler even commissioned Louis Comfort Tiffany to create and install the beautiful stained glass interiors of the hotel. But just how did this luxury hotel turn into a private liberal arts college that’s haunted?

During WWII the Ponce De Leon was temporarily commandeered by the United States Coast Guard as a training center, and as headquarters for the newly formed Coast Guard Reserves. After the war, the hotel was actually part of a 1964 Civil Rights sit-in that was led by Dr. Martin Luther King which resulted in a number of violent clashes and arrests. By 1967, business at the once-booming luxury hotel had dried up and it was put up for sale as tourism as a whole had declined in the area. Philanthropist Lawrence Lewis Jr, a distant nephew of Henry Flagler himself, purchased the sprawling nineteen-acre property with a vision of creating a small, private liberal arts college to try and bring some prosperity back to the area. In 1968 Flagler College was officially opened with the Ponce De Leon Hotel serving as a preserved historical centerpiece to the newfound college.

Is Flagler College Haunted?

Said to be haunting Flagler College is none other than the spirit of its namesake, Henry Flagler himself. His death was officially recorded in 1913 after a terrible fall at his home, and because he was so attached to the Ponce De Leon Hotel, his body actually was moved there to be laid in state as he was so popular there and in the St. Augustine area in general. There’s a long-standing oral legend that when it came time to remove Flagler’s body from the hotel, all the doors in the area in which he was laid began to open and close furiously without anyone touching them at all!

Janitorial staff have been known to see Flagler’s ghostly image staring back at them from different surface areas all over the hotel. Henry was a bit of a ladies man back in the day and was known to have a wide assortment of mistresses all over the place. His second wife Ida Flagler was said to come from a family with extensive mental health issues, and Henry’s philandering took a toll on her to a point where he had her committed to a sanitarium. However, prior to this Ida was known to regularly hold seances via Ouija Board in the hotel. When Ida passed away, many of those close to her reported seeing her ghostly spirit drifting throughout the halls of the hotel! In particular, her spirit was reported to have always been drawn to an oil painting portrait of Henry on the wall and she is said to have stared at it for an uncomfortable amount of time before fading away.

Building upon Henry’s assortment of mistresses all over the city, he is said to have favored one of them above all, and while her name remains a mystery her presence at the hotel is quite well know. She’s commonly referred to as “The Woman In Black” by many and was said to be given her own personal suite on the 4th floor of the hotel. Whenever Ida came around, Henry was quick to see that the young mistress was locked away in the suite so as to avoid detection by his wife.

Over time, the young woman became frequently depressed and alone in her isolation that she committed suicide in her room. Today, her veiled face and shadowy black dress figure is said to be traipsing around the 4th floor of the hotel, an area which has been boarded off from the public for quite a while. Adjacent to this area of the hotel is the student dormitory where many enrollees claim to hear high pitched screams as well as see objects flying off shelves when nearing this area. Strange light anomalies have been reported to permeate this area of the hotel that reaches into the college grounds. Reportedly a few brave students have breached the closed-off area to the room and a campus rumor claims that some of them entered the room and saw a shadowy figure dangling from the ceiling by their neck.

Today, Flagler College enjoys tremendous academic success and the Ponce De Leon Hotel area of the grounds is one of the most visited and photographed places in all of St. Augustine. But be sure to examine any photographs taken inside the hotel area as many people claim to pick up shadowy figures in the background of their image.

The University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV), is situated just a mile and a half away from all the gambling glitz of the famous Las Vegas Strip. Proximate to both the mysteriously tragic Luxor Hotel, and even Ghost Adventures paranormal frontman Zak Bagans Haunted Museum, UNLV is of all things just a simple university that happens to be situated in the center of Sin City. But not it’s not the bright lights, big-time shows, or high stakes games that students have been known to muse about in their time away from academia. In fact, the whispers across this desert campus are tinged with paranormal frights.

Is the University of Nevada Haunted?

UNLV is relatively new in terms of its age, as it was first established in 1959 as an extension of the University of Nevada. Designed to be a system university, the state legislature put together a paltry $200,000 at the time to construct the first building on campus, Frazier Hall. The location of the university borderline predates the big casino boom that would eventually overtake the area. Over the past fifty years, UNLV has expanded its athletics program and grown to accommodate an over 30,000 student body population offering up a number of top-flight programs including one of the top five creative writing doctoral programs in the entire United States. With such a thriving and albeit normal appearance, just what spirits lurk around this desert campus?

The Ghosts at UNLV

Kitty Rodman Hall for all purposes is a normal, three-story block-shaped dormitory that has a capacity for over one hundred students. There is a long-gestating rumor that a student here had taken her own life sometime early on in the school’s history. This origin aside, the spirit is that of a female with long dark hair who appears to be wearing a white dress that is from the late 19th Century. Her face is often obscured with her hair, but that is not the most terrifying aspect of this ghostly sighting. Some students have woken up to find this glowing white spirit standing in the doorway of their room closet! Silent and foreboding, her spectral visage has been known to just stare in silence before fading completely away.

Not to be outdone, at times some students at the nearby Tonopah Residence Hall have remarked that there has been a tapping sound somewhere in the vicinity of 3 am when they’re trying to sleep. The hallways are lit and what is most disturbing is that there doesn’t appear to be any feet seen underneath the doorway as the knocking is said to have occurred. Other times a frustrated student has opened the door to find nobody standing there at all.

One particular chilling story involved a student sitting in the grassy complex area of the hall on a winter day near the end of the semester studying over last-minute notes for a test when a pale and awkward behaving female student asked him for the time. Turning to his side to fetch his watch, he grabbed it to turn back and tell it to her when she had completely disappeared. Some have even claimed to see darker shadows in the evening time against the campus lights.

Shadow men in outdoor resident complexes? Closet spirits and mysterious 3 am knocks on doors? While none of these occurrences are malicious in nature it still no doubt suggests that the UNLV campus has some paranormal activity. Class dismissed.

Situated on the outskirts of the Manhattan city skyline, are the surprisingly Gothic-styled school buildings of Fordham University. Considered one of the “Hidden Ivies” (a cousin to the Ivy League), Fordham has turned out such a wide and famous array of alumni to include Denzel Washington, Andrew Cuomo, William J. Clark, Lana Del Ray, Alan Alda, Cardinal Francis Spellman, and even former student transfer President Donald Trump. With such a wildly successful academic program that boasts a graduation rate of above 80%, just what exactly is the real story behind the paranormal activity on the third-oldest campus in the entire state of New York?

Is Fordham University Haunted?

Fordham University was founded in 1841 under the name of St. John’s College. Jesuits ran the college at first with a heavy emphasis in turning out would-be priests, however, in 1904 both a law school and medical school were opened on campus and the school was renamed Fordham University in honor of the diminutive nearby Bronx village. Boasting an attendance around 15,000 students across nine different academic disciplines, Fordham is everything a prospective student wants….even when it comes to ghosts.

Haunted Keating Hall

Examining the paranormal activity at Fordham, it appears that the activity itself is not confined to a single area. Keating Hall (as seen in 1973’s legendary horror film The Exorcist) had a campus security officer doing a routine safety check for the building late one evening. A strange banging sound emanated from the basement area and upon inspection, to his great horror, chairs were mysteriously sliding across the room and crashing into the wall. The security guard was in fact so scared, that he tripped out of his shoes running in terror and never bothered to get them and quit the job!

The Little Girl of Martyr’s Court

Martyr’s Court is a cross section area of campus that holds two antiquated residence halls. Students in the dormitory there have for decades seen the spirit of a little girl with blonde hair who peeps from around corners in the bathrooms only to disappear when approached. At other times, preceding her presence, doors in the room will mysteriously open or close shut causing more than one student to put in a transfer to a non-haunted room across campus.

The Ghosts of Finlay Hall

Finlay Hall is exclusive to Fordham’s upperclassmen as well as ghostly spirits. Serving as the former medical school location where cadavers were routinely opened up and examined, it has its share of spiritual encounters. Cold spots, mysterious whispers are among some of the gentler haunts here. Other times, students have awoken to the feeling of having a spirit tug at their feet or at other times even shaking them awake!

Queen’s Court Exorcism

Across campus at Queen’s Court, things were so active one night that a resident Jesuit priest who stayed on campus actually had to perform a ritual blessing to ward off the spirits that caused him and the students in the hall not to get any sleep!

Today, Fordham University continues to enjoy tremendous academic success and is one of the few universities that has acknowledged its paranormal activity.

Just the name of Gettysburg alone brings forth a procession of somber thoughts such as the Civil War, Lincoln’s famous speech with its maxims largely unfollowed, the spate of graves and battlefields serving as grim reminders that the specter of death is forever looming on humanity. While Gettysburg has such haunted places as the Farnsworth House Inn and the Gettysburg Hotel, there is one more such place that paranormal enthusiasts can add to that haunted column…..Gettysburg College.

Is Gettysburg College Haunted?

Gettysburg College was originally founded in back 1832. Sitting atop a sprawling 225 plus acres of lush Pennsylvania countryside, the college was first meant to be a sister campus for the Lutheran Theological Seminary. The early success was fleeting as many of the faculty left for the brighter medical schools in Philadelphia, leaving Gettysburg College to founder. Before anything further could be done with the college, the Civil War erupted and before long the many soldiers were paving their battle marches right through the small city.

Due to its optimal location, the college was used as a soldier headquarters as well as an impromptu field hospital that was surprisingly shared by Confederate and Union soldiers alike. After the war, the school slowly accepted students again with mediocre success until former President Dwight Eisenhower became involved with the school and its popularity exploded. However, with a spike in attendance, it wasn’t before long that students and alumni both walked away with greater knowledge of the paranormal activity.

Haunted Penn Hall

Penn Hall is not only the most haunted building on campus, but it is also the oldest as it was built in 1832. Being one of the more established at the time, it served as the field hospital during the Battle of Gettysburg. Reports of the paranormal activity here start innocent enough with lights mysteriously flickering on and off without any provocation or explanation. There are sudden thudding sounds and whispering voices that can be heard in the halls from time to time. However, it is the basement area of Penn Hall that is the most frightening.

Reports of students and administrators using the elevators between floors are nothing new, however in the experiences, the elevators seem to malfunction and instead of going to the desired floor, they’re taken straight to the basement. Once elevator doors have opened, the reports are rather gruesome. People have seen several Civil War soldiers standing around in near full physical manifestation. Their appearance has been deemed frightening as along with this manifestation, their ghastly and bloody battle wounds are fully exposed and manifested as well. Witnesses to this incredible supernatural scene have said that the soldiers seem totally unaware that anyone from the living is standing there in their presence. Some people have even likened this to a powerfully dramatic scene from a war film as even bloodstained surgeons are seen committing to performing impromptu amputations on soldiers.

Haunted Stevens Hall

Across campus is another paranormal hotspot in Stevens Hall. A dormitory that was actually constructed in the early 20th Century as a college prep school that housed only female students, the dormitory is actually haunted by the spirit of a young boy. According to oral legend, an orphaned boy was found by some of the young girl students during a fierce winter storm. His face was a bluish hue from the cold, and they tried to warm him. At some point, a house mother found the boy and some sort of struggle ensued and the boy tried to escape out the window but instead fell and disappeared into the night.

Over the years, residents at this particular hall have claimed to hear a knocking sound outside the room windows as if someone were trying to get in from the outside, even a towering three stories up with no ledges. Alongside the tapping, students have claimed to see the disembodied face of the young orphan boy turned quite blue, pressed up against the glass outside their window. To this day the “Blue Boy” still makes his presence known at Stevens Hall.

Haunted Huber Hall

Not far from Stevens Hall is the reputedly haunted Huber Hall that houses mostly first-year students. Opening in 1917, the hall has accommodations for up to one hundred students, but limitless space for ghosts. Objects that mysteriously move around as well as a host of malfunctioning electronics are little more than enough evidence to convince even the most skeptical that there is life after death. If that’s not enough to convince someone there have also been reports of ghostly Civil War soldiers walking right through the walls!

Today, Gettysburg College enjoys tremendous academic success and remains one of the most historical colleges in the northeastern United States.

Athens is a sleepy small city located in the lower southeastern region of Ohio. With a population just barely above 28,000, this area of the state, at one point in its history, had a fairly large Native American tribal presence from the Shawnee. Whether some are buried in the land of Athens remains up for debate, as does the location of bodies from the former Athens Lunatic Asylum. But what do these final resting places have to do with paranormal activity at Ohio University?

Ohio University was founded in 1804 and was actually started years earlier and was recognized as the first chartered university in the state of Ohio under the former Congress of the Confederation. The first three students enrolled at the university in 1809, while the first-ever bachelor’s degrees were granted in 1815. As the years rolled by, more degrees and programs were added to this public research university which has an endowment somewhere in the $570 million dollar range as well as a student population hovering near 20,000. With so much mild-mannered academic success, what truly lurks in the shadows at Ohio University?

Is Ohio University Haunted?

The most haunted place on campus is said to be Wilson Hall. This dormitory residence was actually built in 1964 and named after former alumni Hiram Wilson. Standing at a simple four stories, this all brick co-ed building has been anything but quiet. Students have claimed that Room 428 has given off the most supernatural activity. The door has opened and closed without anyone there to do it. Disembodied voices are said to be heard emanating from not only the room but down the hallway, as well along with on and off again pockets of freezing cold air. The activity has been surprisingly active as objects have been seen both levitating and being thrown across the room by an unseen force. In fact, students have claimed to see very demonic-looking faces in the door and threshold of the room!

Origins for the paranormal activity here have been lent themselves to a blend of fact and oral folklore. Sometime in the early 1970s, a female student lived in the room who was a heavy practitioner of astral projection. Astral projection is the meditative practice of spiritually leaving one’s physical body to discover the different vibrational conscious planes of existence. It is incredibly dangerous because not only is returning the spirit back into the body nearly impossible, but the physical body can also be temporarily inhabited by a malevolent entity. Eventually, the young woman committed suicide in a bizarre ritual and the room has been sealed shut. Did her own astral projection experiences cause her suicide? Or was it perhaps demon driven? Bizarrely enough, Wilson Hall is situated midpoint in an actual pentagram of cemeteries!

There are surrounding cemeteries that if you look at the campus geographically, Wilson Hall sits dead center of them all including the remains of Shawnee members as well as those from the Athens Lunatic Asylum. Paranormal theorists speculate that the pentagram itself is used in conjurations of very powerful magic and the fact that Wilson Hall is central to them has some wondering if this were the epicenter of some bizarre ritual, given Room 428’s history. Is the power from the mystical practices of the Shawnee? Or the negative energy associated with the asylum? Today Room 428 is still sealed and these questions remain largely unanswered, but if one is in Wilson Hall please steer clear of Room 428. Or not.