Editor’s note: This is the first in a five-part series exploring the ghost stories and urban legends of Athens.
For the residents of Washington Hall, spirits and ghostly trickery are anything but abnormal. Built in 1954, Washington Hall is known to Ohio University as one of the “haunted halls” — and it has already seen more supernatural action than desired from its unwelcome residents.
According to forgottenoh.com, a website that explains and investigates Ohio’s haunted history, the legend stands that Washington housed a high school girls basketball team for a summer camp at the university. The girls enjoyed their time goofing around, laughing and practicing throughout the halls. While driving home, the girls’ bus crashed, and no one made it out alive.
A Post investigation was unable to find evidence the bus crash ever happened.
The now-ghostly team decided to take shelter in its new home away from home: Washington Hall.
Complaints of odd noises in the night and flickering lights have happened for years in Washington, and this year is no different.
Washington Hall resident Emily Ackerman, a freshman studying early childhood education, and her roommate live on the fourth floor and arrived at OU a week before classes started in order to try out for the Marching 110. During times when the residential assistant was not present, they were all alone in the building and noticed something that didn’t quite make sense.
“We would walk around the halls and see lights on in some of the dorms and then literally 30 seconds later we would walk back and the lights would be off,” Ackerman said.
Another version of the tale says that before being converted into co-ed dorms, Washington’s top floor was a rec room. In that version, the ghostly team comprises men. This tale could account for the more frequent reports of unexplained activity coming from the fourth floor.
“Before I knew about the story, I was asleep on a Sunday night when I woke up and heard something hit the ground multiple times, like something bouncing,” said Courtney Montanye, a freshman studying business management and pre-law.
Montanye lives on the fourth floor with her two roommates. In their closet, they have a small door that leads to the closed-off attic in Washington. She claims to have heard that door jiggle spontaneously on multiple occasions.
During its stay in Washington, the basketball team supposedly stayed in rooms over the archway that connects the building to Read Hall. It’s this area that is believed to have the most supernatural activity.
Resident assistants are not permitted to speak about the ghosts or ghost stories of the residence halls.
Jennifer Wood, a freshman studying early childhood education, never believed in ghosts — but she might change her tune after two months in Washington.
Wood and her roommate had heard the ghost stories and wondered why they had yet to notice anything out of the ordinary.
But after asking former residents of the room if they had noticed anything odd, the noise started.
“We woke up to what sounded like someone moving a bed on the ground above us,” Wood said.
Wood and her roommate live on the third floor of Washington above the archway. The only things above that room are roof shingles.
The same strange noise occurred two nights later, Wood said.
“I do not believe in ghosts,” Wood said, “but I have no other explanation for this.”
hd550512@ohiou.edu
@han_nahdebs
