7 Of The Most Haunted College Campuses In America
What is Halloween without a good old fashioned ghost story? We thought we would round up some of the most haunted college campuses in America because midterms are not scary enough!
1. Smith College- Northampton, MA
Smith is one of oldest and most prestigious women’s colleges in the country and with alumnae like Gloria Steinem, Sylvia Plath, and Bett Friedan they have plenty to boast about on top of all the supernatural activity. One of the most famous ghost stories dates back to the Revolutionary War when British General John Burgoyne fell in love with an American lieutenant’s daughter. Since the romance frowned upon the star-crossed lovers would meet in a secret stairwell in Sessions House where they were living at the time which is now a residential building on Smith’s campus. It is said that the lovers’ ghosts still wonder the building looking for each other. There are plenty more ghosts where that came from including that of a student who accidentally died from asphyxiation when she didn’t realize she had turned on a gas stove and a mother who tragically murdered her own baby and then herself. Sleep well freshmen!
2. Gettysburg College- Gettysburg, PA
If there is any college that’s allowed to be haunted it’s Gettysburg as the campus sits beside the Gettysburg Battlefield where as many as 8,000 men were killed in the most brutal battle of the Civil War. To make matters worse for Gettysburg students, Pennsylvania Hall which is currently one of the main administrative buildings on campus was used as a hospital and communications post during the battle and is now teeming with ghosts of Civil War soldiers. In one particularly creepy story, some college staff claim that the elevator malfunctioned as they were trying to leave the building and instead brought them to the basement where the doors opened to reveal a ghostly hospital scene with bloody doctors operating on wounded soldiers.
3. Ohio University- Athens, OH
Ohio University was dealt an unfortunate hand when it comes to haunting potential; it is the former site of an insane asylum, built on top of a Native American burial ground, and located directly in the middle of 5 different cemeteries. Featured on the show Scariest Places on Earth, the campus is teeming with ghosts, most notably a woman who lived in room 428 of Wilson Hall who dropped dead after acting strangely and yelling in a different language. She apparently haunted the campus so intensely that the room is still sealed off to this day.
4. St Louis University- St Louis, MI
The real-life exorcism that was the inspiration for The Exorcist actually partially took place in the campus’ rectory before the whole ordeal became too intense and was moved to a hospital nearby. The Jesuit priest who performed the exorcism was so disturbed by the events that he kept the whole thing a secret for 20 years when he finally shared his detailed diary of the events with a colleague. It is said that demonic laughs are still heard in the Jesuit residence halls on campus.
5. Fordham University- New York, NY
There is a cemetery on campus, but it’s not the origin on the hauntings on the Rose Hill campus as it turns out that the gravestones are actually fake and were erected by university officials as a way to get out of selling the land to New York City who wanted to build a subway stop in the middle of campus. The real creepiness takes place in Finlay Hall one of the residential buildings that used to be the site of Fordham’s medical school with a morgue in the basement. Students living in the building reported feeling like someone was tugging on their toes at night as if trying to attach a medical identification tag as they did to corpses. Keating Hall, the oldest academic building on campus, was actually used as a filming location for The Exorcist which may explain reports of stalls slamming and loud voices in empty bathrooms and chairs flying across the basement.
6. University of Georgia- Athens, GA
Many of the fraternity and sorority houses on campus have been known to be haunted as they are actually some of the oldest buildings on campus. The original owner of the Alpha Gamma Delta house Susie Carithers was left at the altar and subsequently hung herself in the house and today residents say they sometimes see her ghost staring out the attic window. Another story takes place at the Phi Mu house where Anna Hamilton’s husband was murdered and buried on the front lawn so her ghost still watches over his grave to this day.
7. Penn State University- State College, PA
Some have called Penn State the country’s most haunted campus which is debatable, but regardless it definitely has its fair share of creepy happenings. One of the most notable is the ghost of Frances Atherton, wife of former university president George Atherton, who is said to be seen peering out the window of the Old Botany Building. Another story is that of graduate student Betsy Aardsma who was stabbed in the Pattee Library in 1969 and to this day her killer’s identity remains a mystery. People tend to avoid visits to the stacks where the murder took place as there are frequent reports of random drops in temperature, objects moved from their place, ghostly apparitions, and one student said she felt hands grip her neck.
Looking to take a trip to any of these campuses or a ghost tour near your own campus? Skedaddle has you covered! Book a charter bus for your next spooky adventure.
