College Ghost Lore If one were to take the beltway to I-270 north, about an hour north of Washington, DC one would arrive at a town called Emmitsburg, Maryland. Is the town haunted? I collected several stories from a senior in college who is from Emmitsburg. This senior is a white female. The stories I collected, many of which have to do with the small Catholic college indicate a rich ghost lore in the town. There are several stories that this woman told me concerning her hometown. The first is one that most people who live in the town know. In the mid 1800s, a man by the name Larry was born. Larry was the son of a famous composer and musician and came to teach music at the college. His father wanted Larry to be a musician like himself; however Larry was not as skilled. Larry became popular with the college students who would come to his grocery store where he would sing songs for the pretty girls. In the late 1800s, his father died, and Larry was quite sad. The following Christmas, Larry took his flute and went to the cemetery at Mount Saint Mary’s College to play one of his father’s most famous pieces, “When the Glory Lit the Midnight Air”. The town folk thought he finally mastered the ability to play the flute to honor his father. So the town folk went up to the gravesite by the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes on the campus. The event became a tradition, and Larry would lead the people up to the gravesite each Christmas to play the flute. In the 1920s Larry died. Older residents say that if you listen very carefully on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning you can still hear the ghostly strains of beautiful flute music coming from the cemetery. A little while later, the music is gone, not to be heard again for another year. Another story the storyteller told me is that about Father Brute. One of the earliest presidents of the school was Reverend Simon Brute. He died in the mid 1800s. Brute still glides about the campus wearing long black robes. People who have seen his ghost describe the same sunken cheeks and other particular features. He usually smiles and nods and moves on. In Brute Hall is the room that Brute once lived in. Room 252 is supposedly still haunted by his ghost.
When one usually thinks of a hearing a ghost story, the setting is dark with flickering light (such as around a campfire or in a basement with bad lighting) and, of course, it is nighttime. Needless to say, when I heard this story during the middle of the day on a Friday, I was a little taken aback. When prompted for any urban legends or ghost stories a white, female friend of mine immediately responded with, “Have you ever heard of de Sales Academy?” With my negative response, the nineteen year old student jumped into her story:
She is seen almost everywhere on the grounds. In what is now part of La Trobe University’s computer rooms, you can see her apparition walking around. Along with on the granite staircase, and former dormitory area. Matron Sharpe was very understanding, and caring, towards her patients. This was quite uncommon in this time. Another ghost people have claimed to see is the ghost of a patient. His name is Tommy Kennedy. Kennedy was quite popular at the hospital, and he was liked by many. He was even given a job to work in the kitchen. Unfortunately, Tommy died in the kitchen as well. Today, where thee kitchen used to be, it is now apart of the Bijou Theatre. Here, people say that they have felt their clothes being pulled at, and someone poking their ribs. In the recreation Hall, which is now part of the Bell Tower, the ghostly figure of an elderly man can be seen. He is usually facing away from the window (Beechworth Lunatic Asylum, Victoria,
I have lived in Baltimore for quite some time now, and it is impossible to live in the area and not know that there is a ghost story associated with the Admiral Fell Inn at Fell Point (a section of Baltimore located right on the harbor). The man who told me this story is a very well educated, 61 year old credit union CEO. He told me the story over dinner, with me trying to shush the rest of the guests because they all wanted to tell their own versions. I have included his version of the Ghost of Admiral Fell below, excluding only names and comments from others:
In April I sat down with a friend at my house and asked about any urban legends or ghost stories he had encountered. After a couple legends he had seen in movies, he mentioned a haunted bridge about ten minutes away from downtown. He is a twenty-one year-old White male; his father owns an appliance store and his mother helps out with the books. He first heard this story in the ninth grade from a couple of friends. Supposedly, they had heard from kids who had actually been to the bridge and heard strange things at night. The bridge is located off of Uniontown road, between a couple old farms. He has not encountered the bridge first hand but still remembers the story surrounding it:
The following ghost story involving a ghost named “Anna” was first told to me by a person who lives near the ghost site. A New Jersey native, this girl was an eighteen-year-old college student. She came from a middle-class, predominantly white, suburban neighborhood. This story about Anna’s ghost was told to a group of other college students and me while eating dinner at the campus diner. The storyteller, I, and our group of friends began to discuss the things we teenagers do to occupy ourselves on weekend nights when we’re bored. Another friend of ours mentioned that she and her friends would trespass into an old, abandoned house in her neighborhood just for thrills. The storyteller then announced that she knew of this road in her hometown of Totowa, New Jersey that is haunted by a teenage ghost named Anna who is dressed in a white gown and was killed by a car while on the road. The storyteller did not know the exact name of this road; she claims that it is now only referred to as Anna’s road. She also did not know when the accident occurred and had not been there herself, but she asserted that a friend of hers had seen the ghost and verified the story for her. She then proceeded to enlighten her audience:
There’s this really small highway town in New Mexico called Cimarron, and it’s small now but in the late 19th century it was a bustling crossroads for all sorts of people – gold speculators, ranchers, oilmen, and especially those vagrant characters, like Billy the Kid, seeking refuge from whatever lawman was on his tail. In Cimarron is this hotel, the Santa Fe Hotel, and they say that this place is the most haunted hotel still in operation, in the west. The lights flicker on and off, and people, visitors just say they encounter really weird things – like if you go in this one room, you might see a woman out of the corner of your eye, sitting on the windowsill and looking out for someone. And when you turn to face her, she disappears, but all of a sudden you smell a subtle waft of strawberry-scented perfume. Weird – yet you still not sure if this is true? Sounds sketchy, I know. Oh – I should say this hotel is haunted because 23 people have been shot to death in the hotel, either from a bar-fight or card-game or something. Well I went to stay at the hotel for a night, before I headed on to a nearby Boy Scout camp. I went with my troop, and we all got our own rooms. Guess what room I got – the strawbe...
Come with me as I take you inside one of the most haunted locations in the United States today. It is a journey down dark hallways and into rooms painted by both shadow and light where spirits talk and phantoms walk. St. Albans Sanatorium is a destination known by serious paranormal investigators as a place where they can seek answers to the mysteries of what lies beyond death. Some of these investigators were able to find resolutions for themselves to a number of these age old riddles through their experiences at the sanatorium. The frightening and true stories found within the pages of this book are about these inquisitive investigators’ encounters with The Ghosts of St. Albans Sanatorium.
“When my daddy died seem like all her life went into that piano. She used to have me playing on it…say when I played it she could hear my daddy talking to her. I used to think them pictures came alive and walked through the house. Sometime late at night I could hear my mama talking to them. I said that wasn’t gonna happen to me. I don’t play that piano cause I don’t want to wake them spirits. They never be walking around this house,” (1242).
Although she had just recently moved to Jamesport, she lived most of her life on Long Island and was surprised she had never heard of the restaurant. She began asking her waiter some questions about how new the restaurant was and about the owner and such. She was told that the mansion was built in the 1800s and was obviously somewhat restored. It was recently purchased by a local townsperson and had somewhat recently opened up. The waiter began teasing that the mansion was supposedly haunted because it was so old and there were generations of families who lived and died in the house. He was new to the restaurant but the chefs and other staff at the restaurant claimed they could hear people walking around and opening and closing doors. He told her that the staff generally liked to leave at the same time of night to avoid being alone in the mansion, being that it was haunted. The waiter made a point of claiming that everyone else says it’s true as well. He had never heard the ghosts, but he was sure they existed in the mansion.
The particular story I collected takes place in Philadelphia, where ghost stories are plentiful. Philadelphia is an old city with a rich cultural heritage, and our founding fathers made history in the place that was once our nation’s capital (Eidmann). Many believe that their spirits and spirits of those from colonial times still lurk around. It is easy to feel like spirits are around when in a place where many people have lived and died before, and in a place that is filled with old buildings and landmarks. All of these factors make this city a perfect place for a ghost story.
One night, around 1:00 a.m., my roommates and I were sitting in the common room, and I asked the group if they knew of a compelling ghost story. My one roommate, a 20 year old from Pennsylvania, said she had heard a ghost story at the summer sleep-away camp she had attended when she was younger. She heard the story around a campfire in the woods of Camp Tonikanee, which is in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. She described her story as one that the counselors would tell the campers to convince them the camp was haunted.
The Nelly Butler hauntings is referred to as the first recorded ghost story in American history (LiBrizzi 5), and possibly the most exciting hauntings to date as there are still many unsolved mysteries. The apparition appeared on more than 30 separate occasions to over 100 witnesses in Sullivan, Maine, just over fifteen years after the American Revolution (5-6). Although the Nelly Butler apparition is one of the most convincing ghosts of all time, it was subject to suspicions of fraud. These claims turn out to be groundless as the evidence reveals the ghost to be genuine.
Hauntings are sometimes believed to be a contributing factor of people acting insane. The spirits could control what the person's mind thinks and hear and make them appear to be crazy. Haunting may make people appear to be crazy but this presence is actually there. It is real and could interact with you. Physical evidence, and others who believe could help prove a ghost is there. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, Jane, the narrator, becomes infatuated with her yellow wallpaper. Jane is being haunted because of the things she saw in the wallpaper, like the dark figure, which becomes a woman and the fact that her husband John and Jennie, the housemade are well aware of the mysterious factors of
a dull grey colour as if it had lost the will to live and stopped
“A Haunted House” by Virginia Woolf is a short story about a ghostly couple that are wandering around the home they lived in before they died, searching for something they lost. They move round the house as quietly as they can without waking the new owners. The owner does not awaken, but subconsciously begins to wander and get confused along with the ghost. they enter the drawing room the word “safe” is chanted multiple times, allowing the couple to feel at ease and know that their search was not in vain and what they yearn for is safe. The story ends with the ghost being described about how they were before their deaths. The wife passed away first and her death leads her husband to travel and he eventually returned to their home. the story