Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Penn State Poltergeists

psu
Penn State

As long as we're on a creepy campus crawl, we might as well head to the heartland. Penn State was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania. In 1882 school president George Atherton added engineering to the fledgling school's offerings and Penn State took off. By then, the school had become the Pennsylvania State College. It earned university status in 1953 and now has tens of thousands of students yelling "Here we go Lions, here we go" on its' 24 statewide campuses. It's most famous ghost can be seen haunting the sidelines every Saturday at Beaver Stadium...ooops, my bad. That's not an old apparition, that's Joe Paterno. But rest assured the school boasts of many other spooks roaming the campus.

Atherton Hall:
Named in honor of Frances Atherton, the hall opened in the 1930s as a girl's dorm and now houses scholars and international students. It has a pair of reported spooks roaming its' halls. One of them is "Gumshoes", a former house mother. Students can still hear the distinctive creaking of her shoes as she paces the halls, keeping an eagle eye on her girls. The other is Frances herself, whose spirit has been spotted floating along the halls late at night. She must make a quick run to the hall whenever she takes a break from haunting Old Botany. A reader added another little bit of lore: "I lived in Atherton Hall in 2005...and I used to get a creepy feeling in my room all the time. I heard a rumor about someone dying in the elevator shaft, directly next to my room. Anyways, there is definitely something weird going on there."

Beam Hall:
Built in 1975, the old dorm was converted into business offices, and then converted back to dorms again. Campus legend has it that the dorm was originally shut down because of poltergeist activity coming from a second floor loo. A man supposedly hung himself in there from an overhead pipe and his spook has been raising havoc since. Once it become offices, the ghostie reportedly behaved himself. But the pipe is still there, and it's a dorm again...

Brumbaugh Hall: This is a collegiate urban legend brought about by psychic Jeanne Dixon. She once predicted that there would be a mass murder in the tallest female dorm of an eastern university (she later denied she meant PSU) and since then upperclassmen have delighted in spooking the frosh by telling them of a rumored midnight visit on Halloween by an ax murderer in Brumbaugh. Urban legend or not, it's said many freshmen decide to spend Halloween night anywhere but at Brumbaugh.

Ghost Walk: This tree lined path once led to the doors of the Old Botany Building. It's said that a student was caught on the walk in a sudden blizzard and froze to death in the 1860s, and his spirit since has been reportedly seen there by other warm blooded students. The Ghost Walk is now gone. It's site was used to build the Burrowes Building. His spook hasn't been seen since, now that it's presumably warm and toasty inside the new building.

Ihlseng Cottage:, The cottage, built in 1898, was a residence, a hospital, and now hosts offices of the Institute for Arts and Humanities. One of our readers relates this tale: "I used to work there... on the third floor, and one night I was there after hours to meet a deadline and heard what I thought was my neighbor across the hall working. It was a male voice, clear as day. When I was leaving I checked, no one else was in the building, and my neighbor was actually traveling that week." So maybe we have one more hard-working spirit on campus.

Keller Building: There were reports of activity here in the 1990s, when a student left his room screaming because of a presence in his bed. When he returned with the RA, the door had locked, and the sounds of a poltergeist ransacking the room could be heard through the door. This may be related to a student that committed suicide there.

Old Botany Building: The spook of Frances Atherton, wife of old president George Atherton, is said to keep an eye on him from the attic of Old Botany, built in 1909. She's supposedly been sighted looking out the attic's front window towards Schwab Auditorium where George's grave is located. She's also been reported to be seen swaying in her rocker, tending to her knitting. The lights have been seen spotted going on and off in the locked room, footsteps have been heard, and electrical devices malfunction. Once the staff posed for a picture in front of Old Botany. When it was developed, a stranger was seen looking out the upstairs window of the supposedly empty building. The building was investigated on A&E's Paranormal State series with the Penn State Paranormal Research Society in early 2007.

George Atherton
George Atherton's tomb from Wikipedia

Old Coaly: Old Coaly was one of the pack mules used when Penn State was being built in the 1850s. When he died he was the last of the original mule team, and his skeleton was put on exhibit at Old Main. A fire there caused the university to store him in the cellar of Watts Hall, a dorm. He was later put back on display at the Agricultural Building in the 1960s, and Old Coaly apparently didn't like being moved again. It's said that you could hear his braying coming from the basement, and he was even was spotted standing outside the storage area and on the first floor. Current Watt's RAs and residents haven't heard Old Coaly lately. Now that's he's been in one place for awhile and had a campus eatery named after him, he may be satisfied with his lot. But we all know how stubborn a mule can get...

Patee Library: The basement stacks at Pattee are alleged to be haunted by the ghost of Betsy Aardsma, who was murdered there in 1969. The crime was never solved. People have a sense of presence there, things get moved around, and one student claimed to feel someone grab her neck. Other phenomena have been reported that aren't thought to be of Betsy's doings. Screams have been heard from the subbasement and shadowy female forms & glowing red eyes have been seen in the library. The spooks have reportedly either disappeared into a mist or exited by walking through Pattee's walls.

Pollock Laptop Library:
Tales of a spirit roaming the East Side study area and voices heard when the library was empty have been reported from Pollock Library.

Runkle Hall: The Hall, a dorm built in 1957, has almost as many spooks as residents. The third floor is especially active, with lots of poltergeist activity. One girl had her TV constantly switching to an all Spanish channel among other things like locking and unlocking doors, flickering lights, electronics that turn on and off and objects being thrown off of the walls. They broke out the ouija board, and sure enough - the answers were spelled out in Spanish, and the board told them they shared their room with 11 spirits, the first example of Latino ghosts in the state that we're aware of. The study lounge is called the "ghost room" because of the loud bangs, rearranged furniture, opening, closing, and self-locking doors and other phenomena emanating from it. One student saw an old lady's spook sitting in her rocker at the end of the hall.

Scwab Auditorium: Former president George Atherton is buried just outside the auditorium, and his spook is supposedly inside. He's thought to be a friendly ghost, watching over the collegiate actors and occasionally moving the curtains. Reportedly his spirit has both been seen and heard. Charles Schwab, who donated a large chunk of the money used to build the auditorium in 1903 is said to be the ghost that watches performances from the seats. A seat will go down, as if someone's sitting in it, and later rise when it leaves. The actors are convinced that it's "Schwaboo the Ghost" watching the show. Other apparitions have been reported from the hall. One of them was wearing a Revolutionary War uniform. Another duo, an adult and child, have been reported floating above the stage.

charles schwab
Charles "Schwaboo the Ghost" Schwab
from Gutenberg E Books

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well Runkle couldn't have been built in 1975 because my husband was in the life science interest house on the only boys wing of 1st floor Runkle in the Fall of 1973 and it wasn't a new dorm then! I came in the next year, 1974, and was in supplemental housing in the first floor study lounge of Runkle and the moved later that Fall into 317 runkle!! Tell the truth you liar!!
MARY WEBB FRAZER PSU 1978 Grad Political Science

Ron Ieraci said...

Mary - good eyes; I transposed the year; it wasn't built in 1975, but in 1957. And that's the truth! - Ron

Anonymous said...

Penn State was founded in 1855. This was an interesting post, but facts are critical to your credibility.

Ron Ieraci said...

Anon - you're right; it was granted its charter in 1855. 1863 is when it became Pennsylvania's first land grant school and broadened its offerings; I did mix up the dates. I'll fix that up, and thanks.

Anonymous said...

I lived in Atherton Hall in 2005. I had a converted study lounge on the second floor, and I used to get a creepy feeling in my room all the time. I heard a rumor about someone dying in the elevator shaft, directly next to my room. Anyways, there is definitely something weird going on there.

Ron Ieraci said...

Thanks, anon - I added your observation to the post.

Anonymous said...

Check Ihlseng Cottage out, it was a residence, a hospital, and now offices. I used to work there, my office was on the third floor and one night I was there after hours to meet a deadline and heard what I thought was my neighbor across the hall working. It was a male voice, clear as day. When I was leaving I checked, no one else was in the building, and my neighbor was actually traveling that week.

Ron Ieraci said...

Thanks, anon. I couldn't find any existing lore on the cottage, but added your story to the post. Maybe someone else has a tale to add.

Anonymous said...

Beam Hall is now a dorm again. I live there, and I've yet to have any haunting things happen.

Ron Ieraci said...

Anon - thanks for alerting me that it's a dorm again; I'll update the post. And hey, sorry nothing spooky has happened yet. Maybe if you give it time...

Anonymous said...

Yesterday I went to an interview for the paranormal research society... I live in Beaver. I went to the elevators and was about to press the down button when the elevator opened on its own, empty. I left the building in less than a minute and didn't have to wait for a long time for an elevator to arrive. If anything maybe a friendly spirit helped me out. But it has not happened again.

Derrick - Class of 2007 said...

I didn't really tell this story to too many people, b/c I've tried to explain it away logically since the occurrence. I had no idea about any of the happenings in Pattee, and only after I got a good scare did I research the murder of Betsy Aardsma. I've revisited this story since it's almost Halloween again, and it's obviously a memory that stuck with me. I just learned that the murder took place the week of Thanksgiving. My experience happened the Sunday night before Thanksgiving. Because I had been working, I didn't get to the library until it was around 10 o'clock. I was searching the confusing stacks for books on film criticism when I noticed a girl pass by my aisle. I only took real notice b/c from my perspective she had potential of being cute and worth talking to if I was ever brave enough to approach her. Moments later, I heard a giggle, which I assumed was from the girl that had just passed. Honestly, I was more interested in meeting this girl than seeing ghosts. So, I slyly acted as if the book(s) I needed were in the direction the girl went. I took a right and noticed that this section of the library was near the end of the building because their was a wall. This dashed my hopes of just passing by the girl I had just got a glimpse of without appearing to be leering. Oddly enough, when I approached where the girl had gone, there was no one. Nobody was in the stacks, and this girl would have obviously had to go back the way she came to get out of that particular area of the library. This gave me a slight chill, and I became very nervous. I grabbed the actual books I needed. I was moving fast, but still unsure where I was going. Knowing I had come up some stairs at another part of the library, I headed down the small staircase. I wound up in the basement(?) or some lower floor. To this day, I'm still not sure how I got to where I was, and quite honestly I haven't tried to get to where I was that night because I was so scared by it. Anyway, I got to the lower floor (basement?) and realized I was in the wrong place and that I was essentially lost. Now, I was terrified. As I searched the doors for another route out of the library I noticed a light turn on in a room. The door had one of those narrow windows on it so that you could see inside. I approached the door because I kind of felt like I was part of some prank. I turned the handle to the door, but it was locked. As I did so, the light turned back off. This is when I bolted back up the stairs and scurried like some mouse in a maze toward any location where other people were. To be honest, at that point I was on adrenaline, and only remember flashes of me, basically running, two-steps at a time, out of the basement of that library. So, after revisiting the lore surrounding Pattee and the murder this Halloween season, I haven't heard/read any experiences in the library quite like mine. So, I feel the need to share that. The next day, I researched "ghosts of Penn State" and learned of the murder, and others' stories. The girl I saw in the stacks matched Betsy's description perfectly. I remember the dark hair vividly, especially since I'm partial to brunettes, haha. I'm shaking now, typing this up... and to think, this happened to me 8 years ago this November. Anyway, I post it to add to the legend, and maybe I'll hear more stories because of this post. Either way, I know for sure that Pattee Library is haunted. There really shouldn't be any question about it.

Anonymous said...

I happen to live on the third floor of Runkle in a supplemental room. It used to be the study lounge. I have 5 roommates, so alone time doesn't come by very often. But a few times I have come back from class and I think I hear someone breathing or working on homework, so I assume that I am not alone. Maybe half an hour will go by and I'll look in the other parts of the room to see who all is here, and no one else will be in the room. Also, I am closest to the door, and last night I heard knocking around 1AM. Thinking its freshmen trying to pull a prank, I open the door and no one is there. It wasn't until I found this website today that everything is starting to make sense. I'll keep you guys posted if anything else occurs.

Anonymous said...

I lived on the 3rd floor of Runkle for a year, my bed was against the wall shared with a neighboring single room. I'd hear all kinds of noises in there, the TV on, furniture moving, doors or drawers opening and shutting.
Every time the girl came home, the noises would stop - I'd always assumed it was her boyfriend or someone else there, but always found it odd how quiet it got when she returned, no talking etc. More than once I saw her leave again alone, and thought it odd since I'd been sure someone else was in there, given all the noise.
Never thought much about it until years later when I read about the stories, and now I've always wondered what exactly I was hearing. Glad I didn't know about it at the time, I would have been freaked out!

Pattee was always very creepy, especially in the stacks.

Anonymous said...

I have worked in Chambers Bldg for several years and whenever you are there at night you can hear furniture being moved, loud scraping noises, coming from the second floor. When you go upstairs there is never anyone there. Wondering if anyone else has experienced anything similar in Chambers.

Anonymous said...

My experience came while I lived in an off campus apartment. The Penn Stater to be exact. Back in 1992-1993, I was the first to move into my 2nd floor apartment. At the time, I was cat-sitting for a friend. The weirdness began while a friend was over visiting and suddenly we heard a loud scratching noise in the walls around the living room area which caused the cat to hiss and go into attack mode. Nervous about spending the first night alone in the apartment, I asked my friend to stay overnight. His only request was that I keep the cat in the bedroom with me, which I agreed to. Twice that night I woke up, which is nothing out of the ordinary for me, however, my locked bedroom door was now unlocked and wide open. Both times I got up and closed/locked the door again. Both times, the cat lay beside me in the bed, eyes wide open. The next morning, my friend asked why I'd alowed the cat out of the room because he felt it tapping on his forehead the entire night. Weird!!! As far a I knew/know, the cat had not left my side. There was always a feeling of being watched, especially while in the shower. My roommates and I enjoyed entertaining and guests would often see a shadow pass between my room and the hallway leading to the front door. Another friend decided he'd spend the night on the sofa. Well about an hour later, he knocked on my door and said that he had to leave because something kept pushing on his pillow telling him to go home. I guess over time, I learned to block out anything else that went on but on one particular evening, I was sound asleep but awakened to a really cold chill in the air. I got up realizing that my covers were at the foot of the bed so I reached down and pulled them up. A few moments later, I was half sleep, half awake, I look down and my covers are slowly creeping down my body. Once again I reached for my covers but this time, something was on the other end playing tug of war with me. At this point I was terribly afraid but also annoyed so I yelled out "leave me alone...I don't want to play with you.!!! The next morning my roommate emerges from his bedroom, completely flustered, and proceeds to tell me about waking up freezing and trying to pull up his covers up but not being able to as something was pulling them from the other end. I hadn't even had the opportunity to tell him about what had happened to me that night. That was the last activity that I'd experienced in that apartment. Spooky yet true!!! I've often wondered if anyone else had any paranormal activity in that building but never did any research.

Anonymous said...

Correction...it was the Penn State Apartments off of Gill street. Not the Penn Stater....

Anonymous said...

SO TODAY! AN ALARM WENT OFF FIVE DIFFERENT TIMES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. MY ROOMMATE WAS GONE FOR THE WEEKEND AND TOOK ALL OF HER ELECTRONICS HOME WITH HER. FACT. NONE OF MY STUFF WENT OFF. FACT. IT WAS A GHOST!! I THINK I MAY DIE. THIS WAS REPORTED FROM PORTER HALL.

Anonymous said...

This year I was sleeping when I felt something weird touching my leg. I woke up but was too scared to move and the thing slowly crept up my inner thigh. MY door was locked and my roommate was gone for the weekend. I realized that whatever was touching me was dripping wet....and so was I. I woke up without any underwear on and it was hanging off the fire detector. My computer then began playing "My Girl" by The Temptations. I did some research and saw that some girl had been raped in this building back in the 1990s. I am scared so I haven't been back in my dorm room since the incident. If anyone knows any information about why this may have occurred please call 8142514971. I am spooked out of my mind.