Colleges and their dorm rooms have been around for many, many years, which in turn leads to many different people stopping in for a quick visit or staying for four years of their lives. However, some of these people never make it out of their college days and stay stuck in college forever.
According to Online Schools Center, there are many Illinois colleges that have spooky pasts.
Near building 207, now used for agricultural classes, of Southern Illinois University Carbondale students claim to hear groaning noises, see lights flicker, and shackles clank. The area around building 207 used to be a mental health institution and nursing home and was known as Sunset Haven. The building is no longer around, as it was demolished in October of 2013. Some say there are around 87 burials around Sunset Haven.
At Illinois State University in Normal a woman named Angeline Milner was a librarian at the school. She was so dedicated that in 1928 she passed away while sorting through scientific literature. Students state that they see an apparition hushing visitors of the library. Some notice that the books move on their own. The library has been moved a few times since the passing of Milner, so Illinois State University students and staff believe that “Aunt Angie” does not haunt the location of the library, but instead the books themselves.
At Loyola University Chicago legend has it that a priest and a nun were in a secret relationship, and the nun became pregnant. When she asked the priest to quit his job, as she would also quit hers, he denied. So distraught by his answer, she went up to the 14th floor of the now Mundelein Center for Fine and Performing Arts and hanged herself. The priest, now depressed and full of sadness, jumped to his death. Students claim to see a glow coming from the window and a human form hanging. They also believe they hear the sound of a man weeping, scream, and then an eerie silence.
In an English building, which used to be a women’s dorm from 1905-1937 at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, there is the ghost of a young woman who drowned in the pool that was once there, now turned into an atrium. Some believe that she was actually murdered, however. Students passing by the building see a young woman from the third floor window walking the halls. Across the way, in the Lincoln Hall, there is a mysterious face in the window seen on occasion.
History & Hauntings of Illinois talks all about the hauntings of Pemberton Hall at Eastern Illinois University. Pemberton Hall was the first building to provide housing for women on campus. The story goes that there was a student who used to go up to the fourth floor to play the piano. In January of 1917 she went up to play the piano one night because she could not sleep. While up there playing, a janitor had also made his way up to the fourth floor. While up there, he sexually assaulted her and beat her brutally. As strong as she was, she attempted to crawl her way to safety, scratching on doors to wake people up. She made it to the counselor’s room, Mary Hawkins, and woke her up. Unfortunately, when Hawkins got to the door and opened it up, the young girl was no longer living and had died from blood loss. This incident affected Hawkins, who was not much older than the other girls, very deeply. Consumed by the guilt of not being able to help a student in her dorm out, she ended her life.
The fourth floor is now abandoned and no longer in use, but the piano still sits up there- unused. Girls staying in the dorm proclaim that they see bloody footprints that quickly vanish, whom they assume is Hawkins roaming the halls, checking up on the current tenants of the dorm; even her apparition appears entering their rooms. Girls find their doors locked when the didn’t lock them, or sometimes they are even unlocked. Students think it’s because Hawkins couldn’t help the one girl, so she stays to try and help as many girls as she can. Girls hear the piano being played and scratching noises on the walls coming from the fourth floor.
In 1952, the girls in the dorm were awakened throughout the night to banging that sounded like it was coming from inside the walls. In 1976, an RA walked into the lounge to see the furniture all rearranged. She quickly left to get someone to help her move it all back, and when they returned, it was if the furniture were never moved in the first place. This happened a few times and the RA just let it be each time. Even though the floor is abandoned, people passing by the building see the windows change from open to closed. One time, a group of girls had walked out of the bathroom after showering, knowing they left all the curtains closed. When the door shut behind them, they all heard a loud noise coming from behind them. They walked back into the bathroom, where no one was, to find the curtains all opened and a wooden chair in front of the door.
As we grow up and leave high school, some of us sooner than others, make sure you’re not the last one in a spooky bathroom or in the room with a librarian who never left her job caring for the books.
