Only four years after the building's construction in 1851, the entire student body withdrew to fight in the American Civil War. Phi Gamma was used during the battle of Atlanta as a Confederate hospital and the dead were buried nearby. However, after the war was over and the student body returned, the cemetery was relocated and Pierce Hall was built on the land where the graves once stood. Students continue to claim that Phi Gamma is haunted by one of the spirits of the Confederate dead. According to Michael Silverio, Oxford class of 1998, the lights in Phi Gamma would turn themselves on and off when no electricity was running through the wires.
Floors creak as if a person is walking across, windows buckle, and doors rock.
While these things can be attributed to faulty wiring or the expansion of the wood caused by an increase in temperature, there remains one unexplained occurrence. Jared Van Aalten, Oxford class of 2000, reported working late one night in Phi Gamma plastering a wall. As the plaster dried, one small area began to drip, clearly leaving behind the image of a skull in the wall. Situated in downtown Oxford, it is the oldest house in the city. Orna Villa's fame is not derived from the majestic four columns or the heavy door locks of the 1790s which bear proof of its age, but rather from the persisting legend that the home is haunted.