From: jordan@cs.tulane.edu (Grizabella)
Subject: Doing my duty-- ghosts at Tulane
Organization: Computer Science Dept., Tulane Univ., New Orleans, LA
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 17:11:18 GMT
Nntp-Posting-Host-[nntpd-15505]: poseidon


Ok, I'm going to do my duty here, and post something (relatively) useful
since I've been reading this group for a while now and enjoying everyone
else's stories...

I am a Junior here at Tulane University, in beautifully scenic and
wonderfully mysterious New Orleans. Our school, which started out in
like the mid-1800's or so, is full of old buildings that have a person-
ality of their own. In fact, there are three separate buildings that
are rumored to have ghosts in them. I myself have never seen or heard
any of them, but I was talking to a friend last weekend who has seen/
heard two of the three. The first is in a building on campus which
houses the theatre. (As someone mentioned, all theatres seem to have a
ghost...) My freshman year, my roommate's boyfriend worked with security
on campus. As part of their duties, they have to close and lock up some
of the buildings. Dixon hall, the theatre building, is one of these.
(As are the other two, but we'll get to those in a minute) The story
is that if you go to the building and lock the door, but stay inside,
you can hear footsteps following you around. You can also hear the
pianos and other instuments playing in the practice rooms, although
the building is completely empty. I haven't heard any kind of story
about some poor lonely student who died while trying to perfect his
art, and noone that I know of has actually ever seen this spirit, so I
don't know the story behind it, but I know MANY people who have heard
it.

The second ghostly apparition that I have heard of is in one of the
oldest builings on campus (Tilton building). There is a stained glass
window in this building. As I said, it is also one of the buildings that
is locked up at midnight or so. There are numerous stories of bumps
and noises coming from the upstairs rooms, but not anything spectacular.
The only reason I mention it is because of the story my friend told me
just the other day. He also worked with security two years ago and was
involved in closing up the buildings, but he usually did not work with
Tilton. For some reason, he had to help on the night in question. As
they were walking through the building, he said that he heard a few
creaks and groans, but blamed them on the building itself just being
old. (He was a freshman, and had not yet heard any of the stories about
there being a ghost). As they finished checking the building to make
sure no one was there, they turned off all the lights and walked out-
side, locking the door behind them. My friend, Karlis, turned to look
back at the building for some reason, and he could see the shadow of a
human-like figure looking down at him from the stained glass window.
They had just checked the entire building, and there was no one there.
He turned to the other security officer and mentioned something about it,
and when they looked back, the figure was gone. It was then that he was
told about the stories of Tilton being haunted.

The third and final haunted building on Tulane's uptown, main campus,
is the building where geology and anthropology are taught. Dinwiddie,
as it is called, is a very frightening building anyway, or so I have
always thought-- and I didn't find out until just a few days ago that
it was rumored to be haunted. Being another building that people are
forced to walk around in at midnight, and being a spooky-looking building
anyway, this is one of the buildings that the security people like to
send rookies to lock-up at the beginning of the year. A couple of
the returning officers will hide in a dark hallway on one of the upper
floors of the building and wait for the rookie to come around. When he
has passed the hallway in question, the older guys will push a chair
down the stairs, scaring the rookie to death. (Because they have obvi-
ously told him all the stories they can think of of the ghost that lives
in Dinwiddie.) There's also a story of an actual spooky event, though.
One of the newer security guards was wandering around the building,
checking to make sure the building was empty, and turned a corner, expect-
ing to see the stairwell. Instead, he found another long hallway. He
came to the end of it, and turned the corner, again expecting to find
the stairs. (He figured he had just gotten disoriented and was one turn
behind what he thought.) Instead, he once again found a long hallway. He
followed this hall to the end, getting really spooked, and when he turned
the corner to discover that there were no stairs there, either, he was
scared shitless. He turned and ran all the way back to the place where
he originally expected the staircase, and found it there alright-- except
everything was reversed. He ran all the way down the stairs, and straight
to the office to report what had just happened. The people in the office
didn't even bat an eye, because it was something they had heard before.
They did, however, tell the officer that Dinwiddie was rumored to be
haunted-- which was the first he had ever heard of it. Just as a side-
note, Dinwiddie has a coffin in the basement. You can see it through the
window... maybe it's actually being haunted by a vampire instead of a
ghost.

Like I said, I myself have no personal experiences with these specters,
and I don't know the story behind any of them, but I can't help but
look at these buildings with a different view now-- and I stay away
from them at night!

Meow...
--
			 ||     "I'm a woman, and can't be taken for granted.
Misti D. Jordan          ||           Life's a bitch... now so am I."
jordan@cs.tulane.edu     ||                         -- CatWoman
   "To love another person is to see the face of God..." -- Les Miserables
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories