More College Ghost Stories: OSU and Stanford University

Virtually every college has a least one alleged haunt frequented by a known ghost or spirit. There are resident ghosts, suicidal ghosts, lovers’ ghosts, and a few Greek ghosts. They may be found in libraries, residence halls, bell towers, and the remotest corners of any given campus. Some stories are legends, but most are told from personal experience as undergraduates are well known to possess an excess of imagination.

Ohio State University (OSU), Columbus OH

OSU boasts a campus rich in legend, folklore and a few really good ghost stories. Chief among the spirits are a mysterious lady of the lake, the professor whose cremated remains are walled up in a lecture hall, and the bizarre appearance of President Rutherford B. Hayes. But the most frequently-told story involves the first president of Ohio State University, Edward J. Orton, and the hall that bears his name.

One of the oldest buildings on the OSU campus, Orton Hall was constructed in 1893—two years after President Orton suffered a paralyzing stroke. The building appears as a gloomy Romanesque castle laboring under a façade of 40 different kinds of Ohio building stones painstakingly layered as they are found in the layers of the earth. The hall is topped by a bell tower, dedicated nearly 15 years after Orton’s death, containing 25,000 lbs. of bells tolling in the key of D flat. Encircling the tower are 24 columns decorated with monstrous-looking gargoyles which are actually reconstructions of prehistoric animals found in Ohio. The building houses OSU’s Geology Department as well as a Geology Museum which is often overlooked by visitors but which contains 10,000 specimens donated by President Orton.

In his last years, Orton spent considerable time reading by lamp light in the top of the bell tower, and there are obvious scorch marks on the inside ceiling of the tower room left by his lamp. Legend says visitors can see the light of his lamp flickering through the vertical slats surrounding the tower, as his ghost still reads in his favorite spot high above the geological collection he amassed during his lifetime. A guardian of the building, Orton is also reputed to chill the air and make noises in attempts to quiet disrespectful students.

There are a number of other really scary OSU ghost stories. You can find a few in the most recent edition of the Buckeye Loop.

Stanford University, Stanford CA

A seldom-told tale suggests the founding of Stanford University may have been the result of communications from the “other” world. Shortly after the tragic death of their only child, Leland Junior, Jane and Leland Stanford traveled to New York and Paris for a series of séances. According to Maud Lord Drake, who attended one of the séances, the idea for creating a university came directly from Leland Junior in a spirit communication channeled through her to his parents. Responding to published accounts of the event, Leland Stanford vehemently denied that this ever happened and insisted the idea for Stanford University came to him in a dream.

However true either story may be, it’s clear that Jane Stanford suffered her son’s death greatly and continued trying over the years to make contact with him via the “netherworld.” A grieving mother on a mission, Mrs. Stanford threw herself into the construction of the university that was to honor her lost son’s memory and supervised every detail down to designing the stained glass window found in Memorial Church illustrating Leland’s rise to heaven in the arms of angels.

Sometime in 1893, Mrs. Stanford had her son exhumed and moved from his original resting place to a grand marble and granite mausoleum, guarded by four fearsome sphinxes. Both parents would join him there in death. Mrs. Stanford also supervised construction of an ornate university museum, designed in the neoclassical style which she located not far from the mausoleum. The museum (now the Cantor Center for the Arts) housed a vast collection of family artifacts including objects collected by Leland Junior during his world travels. Both museum and mausoleum provided tangible symbols of Mrs. Stanford’s continued mourning, bearing striking resemblance to temples. Both are said to be haunted by her restless spirit, no doubt deeply disturbed by repeated earthquake damage and neglect over the years. Sightings of the great lady have been reported by visitors to the area, lending additional meaning to the poem she engraved on tablets carved from Leland Junior’s original crypt formed into a pyramid shaped marker standing sentry to his first burial place:

MUST I NOT HEAR WHAT
THOU HEAREST NOT,
TROUBLING THE AIR OF
THIS SUNNY SPOT?
IS THERE NOT SOMETHING
TO NONE BUT ME,
TOLD BY THE RUSTLING
OF EVERY TREE?

SONG HAS BEEN HERE WITH
ITS FLOW OF THOUGHT,
LOVE WITH ITS PASSIONATE
VISIONS FRAUGHT,
DEATH BREATHING STILLNESS
AND SADNESS AROUND
AND IS IT NOT, IS IT NOT
HAUNTED GROUND?

YES IT IS HAUNTED, THIS
QUIET SCENE,
FAIR AS IT LOOKS
AND ALL SOFTLY GREEN,
YET FEAR THOU NOT, FOR
THE SPELL IS THROWN
AND THE MIGHT OF THE SHADOWS
ON ME ALONE.

HAVE I NOT UNDER
THESE WHISPERING LEAVES
WOVEN SUCH DREAMS
AS YOUNG HAPPY HEART WEAVES
SHADOWS UNTO WHICH
LIFE SEEMS BOUND
AND IS IT NOT, IS IT NOT
HAUNTED GROUND?

This is the second in a series of campus ghost stories. While on tour, be sure to ask your guide to point out these famous haunts.