Ghosts are thought to reside in several old buildings on Hood’s campus. Many stories center around Brodbeck Hall in particular, the oldest building on campus which pre-dates the college. Built in 1840, the building once functioned as a community hall and biergarten for early German settlers. Students who used rooms on the top floor for music practice have reportedly heard boots scraping, ghostly conversation and giggles. Some of the conversations were attributed to drunken men and dance hall girls.
Another popular haunting is the elevator in Memorial Hall, which traveled up and down of its own accord for years. Students didn’t mind the wandering elevator and at one point attributed the ghost to a student who was supposedly murdered by her boyfriend.
The spookiest haunting at Hood is in Shriner Hall, where a ghostly figure roams all parts of the building. The story is that a student was doing laundry in the basement many years ago. She was attacked and stabbed by an intruder but managed to drag herself up two flights of stairs before dying. Some stories say she called her mother and died while on the phone, and others say she made it to her dorm room door to scratch on it for help before dying.
