October 27, 2000
Wesleyan Hauntings: Truth, Myth, or elaborate stories...
Fog Looms over Wesleyan; a crisp chill wind blows over campus. Sounds like the setting for a scary movie.... Nope, just another fall night.
Fact or Fiction
By VICTORIA SCAVO
Over the years, many spooky tales have evolved about our campus. From the library to the residence halls, many parts of campus have a story to tell. Whether you believe them or not is up to you.
The Hofheimer Library
A lot of unexplained noises have been heard in the library during the dark hours of the night. Security guard Paul Kohlhoff used to work the night shift. Sometimes he would sit in the library to warm up when it was cold. As he would get up to leave, he would push the chair in. On his next round, he would find the chair pulled back out, as if someone had been sitting in it. Footsteps also have been heard, along with books falling off the shelves. One night, security officer Butler, who had a bad knee, came running out of the library because he said that someone was in there. The elevator was running up and down on its own. Students have also left the library because they feared someone unknown was in there. Jenny Hechtkopf recalls what her brother experienced: "After closing, they were walking around. Books started falling off the shelf, and later, when they went back, they heard tapping."
Rose Lawn
It is said that Rose lawn was an ancient Indian Burial ground. Students who lived in Rose believed that these spirits would haunt them. Before the school was built, some said the lawn was an overgrown graveyard. Indian spirits may still haunt the lawn and the residents closest to it. "Me and my roommate Jen were convinced we lived with a ghost," said Amber Olterzewski. Olterzewski was a resident of Rose Hall her freshman year. "Around 2:30 or 3 in the morning the answering machine went off. I never even heard the phone ring. I picked up the phone and no one was there -- just a dial tone. At the same time the computer came on, and my computer was totally shut off. A few nights later, the same thing again happened." Olterzewski named her ghost Gilda, and she learned to live with the weird disturbances in her room.
Downstairs Rose
Seth Brady recalls a story that was told to him by Drew Eisig his freshman year. Eisig said he had witnessed this himself first-hand. In downstairs Rose an Indian walked through the long hall, turned the corner and then continued down the bathroom hall. He then walked through the wall to leave.
The Little Boy in Rose
The story of a man and a woman who used to own a telegram service circulates among students . Legend has it they had a son that sometimes helped deliver the telegrams. The man and the woman did not have a happy marriage, and they filed for a divorce. The divorce was messy and there was a fight for custody of the business and the son. The mother won both. The father was so upset that he shot the boy and then himself. Now it is said that the boy still wanders around delivering telegrams. He has been spotted on Rose Hall. No one ever hears anyone key into the hall, but the little boy walks from door to door. He carries three balloons -- one yellow, one red and one green -- and asks for "Kristie."
Pentagram in Rose and an Angel in Old
Security guards and some residents have witnessed different symbols in the residence halls. At night, when the moonlight is right, a pentagram shines on the wall next to the bulletin bord. Old shares the same type of phenomenon, except it is the shape of an angel that appears at the end of the long hall.
Painting in Eggleston
According to a security guard who has been with the college for seven years,a portrait of a man was once painted at the end of one of the halls in Eggleston. It was covered with many different coats of paint, but it kept seeping back through and reappearing. This occurred a couple of times, but the painting is no longer there.
Downstairs Pruden
Late at night, another presence can be felt when walking through Pruden. It is the sensation of chills all over the body and hair standing up on the back of the neck. A senior at Wesleyan had a first-hand encounter with this presence. He was in the bathroom in Pruden. A feeling that someone was there alarmed the student. He jokingly said, "Stop messing with me," and his bag was thrown to the floor.Residence Life
Brady also vividly remembers a story graduate Christian Morris told him. Late at night, when Morris was doing work in Residence Life, he would feel cold breezes drift through the office, even when all the windows and doors were shut. Things would also turn on and off by themselves.The Woods
Students have heard stories that a man shot himself in the woods that surround campus. Late at night, the quickness of footsteps can be heard running around the woods along with laughter.
Whether these stories are true or mere figments of the imaginations of the people who told them remains uncertain.
Digging up the real truth of campus mysteries
By KELLY RUST
For most, there is a scientific explanation for everything. Here are some things that did in fact take place on campus that might have some to believe the VWCcampus is haunted.
History of the Campus
The campus dates back to the first half of the 19th century when the property was owned by the Bakers, according to historian Stephen Mansfield, Dean of the College. In the early days after the Civil War, the Baker farm was one of the sites operated by the federal government to assist former slaves in their transition to freedom. William E. Smith and a Mr. Mckown purchased the 197-acre Baker farm at a auction in 1899. During World War II, a portion of the acreage was leased to the government for temporary barracks, housing pilots in training at what is now Norfolk International Airport. In 1962, John Wesley Smith, son of William Smith, sold the former Baker farm to the trustees of Virginia Wesleyan College. That land,along with three acres purchased from the City of Norfolk, combined to form the 300-acre campus.
Muskrats
In the Student Handbook there used to be a rule that you could not clean animals in the dorm sinks. Mansfield recalls how students would trap muskrats and then gut the animals in the sinks. Many of the students were not tidy about cleaning up the mess. Animal remains were left behind. Students would then leave the skins on their windows to dry out before selling them. Where the bones were tossed is unknown.
The Library
Many stories surround the library and the suspicion that it may be haunted. This could all stem from the fact that Librarian Roland Nicholson’s funeral took place there. Sandy Brooks remembers: "He was a laid-back gentleman, full beard, and he enjoyed books." Nicholson died of a massive heart attack, but not in the library. For the funeral, part of the door frame had to be removed to get the casket in. The casket remained in the library for some time. "He wasn’t connected with any [religious] affiliation," said Brooks. "Everyone just assumed it would be in the library. That place was so much a part of him and who he was. No one could imagine having it anywhere else." So is Mr. Nicholson still there? "I don’t think that he haunts the library," Brooks said. "I mean, I’ve never had a hair stand up on my back or a weird feeling. I wouldn’t consider it haunted. His books are here They’re all over the place, with his name plates in them." As for whether or not books fly off the shelf, Brooks laughed and said, "Afraid not." Whether Nicholson is still with the library or not, everyone who knew him is sure he would not harm a soul.
Student living in Library
Vice President for Business Affairs Bill Joseph recalls a time when a student lived under the library. According to Joseph, a student would climb under the raised study area in the library. In the center where people sit to study there is a dirt crawl space. A student found a hole through which he slid and got under the floor. He had a sleeping bag, clothes and toiletries. At night, when security guards would do rounds in the library, they might hear a bump or noise; knowing that they were the only people around would alarm them. "In the morning the librarians would come into work," said Joseph, "and there would be dirt footprints on the carpet. This scared them, but it didn’t take long to figure out what was happening." Eventually the student was evicted from his "home" and forced to live somewhere else.
The Student Who Lived in the Woods
In the ‘70s a student decided to live in the woods. According to Mansfield, the student pitched a tent and lived there for about three weeks. He left stuff that he didn’t want to get wet next to the library. Mansfield remembers him as harmless, but for safety reasons he had to leave the woods.
The Burial Grounds
Before the Boyd Dining Center, Village II or Village III were built, there was a path that went around campus. "When you took tours around campus you could see these dirt mounds," said Mansfield. "People would say that they were Indian graves. But actually they were probably just dead livestock that the Smiths had buried." He added: "In 1993, when the college was going to build Village III, we had to provide records that there were no traces of Indians. So Dr. Hultgren’s wife surveyed the land." "I just walked through the surface to see if there was anything that might have had some kind of human impact," said Mary Lou Hultgren. As far as she could see there was no sign of any kind of prehistoric American Indians. There is only one flaw to this analysis: the Smith and Baker families had been farming the land long before the college decided to build Village III in 1993. "There was a lot of disturbance before I looked at the land because it was farmed for a number of years," Mrs. Hultgren said. "We would have to do some excavating to find out whether or not Indians really inhabited this area."
Deaths
Lina Cottingham knows of only one death of a student who lived in Smithdeal. "It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 1989," said Cottingham. "He appeared to be having a seizure. But he had taken a bottle of Tylenol, which affects the liver." The student was then taken to Bayside Hospital, where he died days later. The only other death was that of someone unaffiliated with the college. "A man committed suicide in the woods between the Dining Hall and Village III," explained Security Officer William Allen. "We noticed vultures flying around the woods, and students had been complaining about an odor, so we investigated. The man had shot himself in the woods."
Whether or not you believe in ghosts, goblins, or in the supernatural, it is to be expected that human beings have embroidered the truth or flat made up things to explain the unexplainable. Could some of these stories be just an exaggeration of an event that actually happened? Is the library really haunted? Or did students think it was because a funeral took place there? Could the noises that security heard have been the student sleeping under the floor? Or is librarian Nicholson’s sprit still there? Could some of these stories be the result of paranoia? A figment of the imagination? Or the recall of a student under the influence one night? You have to decide for yourself. As Cottingham pointed out, "Every campus has a story of a campus murder or haunting."