Do you like Halloween? Do you fancy those caught amidst the dead and the living? Ghosts? Ghouls? Spirits?
Well, you’re in luck, because Sewanee has had 158 years to rack up paranormal activity! These ghosts live amongst us, in most dorms, houses, academic buildings, and obviously, the cemetery. They haunt the students of Sewanee; these are their stories.
In the Hodgson dormitory this specific ghost messes with you. It will slam doors and move items around your dorm. A student recounts a time when, as she was approaching her suite, she heard a door slam. She then heard the distinct voice of her roommate, but when she called her roommate’s name, no one answered, and no one was there.
The Tuckaway dormitory is perhaps the most notorious of Sewanee’s haunted housing. There is even a room shut off to students due to the supposed paranormal activity. One student recounts a time in which he had a run in with the ghost. There was an eerie feeling in the room late one night as he awoke to music playing. It was his roommate’s phone, yet the roommate was fast asleep, and it began to sound. He gets up to turn off this music, thinking nothing of it, but then his roommate wakes up to announce it was not the phone, but the radio that turned on. They tried to conjure explanations as to why both the phone and the radio turned on, but nothing made sense. Another student remembers a time in Tuckaway when she woke up, around midnight, to a large pressure on her chest, like someone was sitting on her, and as she screamed this pressure disappeared, and the door opened and slammed shut. She turned on the light to find whatever had opened her door, but no one was in the hallway.
In Johnson dormitory, one of the oldest on campus, late one night a boy returning from the men’s bathroom, a bathroom located deep in the basement. As he gets to the top stair, he looks back to see an opaque outline of what appears to be a little girl, staring at him from the bottom of the stairs. He loses all color in his face as he sprints upstairs to tell his girlfriend of this encounter. Also in Johnson there was a time that my [Sims Jennings] radio stopped playing music, and there was muttering on the other end of the radio. At first I thought that it was just the radio being weird, but I found out that this happened to all radios playing at the time. And if you listened close enough, you could hear distinct whispering.
Another ghost that torments people is the Cleveland ghost, who aimlessly roams the hall. One night a student locks her door, afraid of drunk college students busting into her room. A couple minutes later, the door swings wide open, and there are noises of movement around her room. Then, two minutes later, the door slams shut. One student has seen this ghost late at night, looming over him. Often, when he sleeps in Cleveland, he will wake up to this girl will be standing over him, watching him sleep. As soon as wakes up a witness, she vanishes.
Do you believe in ghosts now? If not, or if so and are looking to share your own experiences, find more stories or backstories, then make your way to CarnEVIL on Oct. 31th at the CoHo. There will be fellowship, refreshments, and stories of the dead.