Massachusetts Haunted Colleges

Belchertown
This site, like many of the schools here, was not always a school.  Also, like many, it was a hospital or institution.  In this case a mental institution.  There were horrible conditions and people died every week, often daily.  There are still traces of what went on there, including reports of a room covered in blood.  The spirits have been known to assault people there, and often screams are heard coming from it at night.

Cambridge-Harvard University
Thayer Hall is known to be one of the most haunted buildings at the university.  Like most of the buildings at Harvard, it was once used as a business, in this case a mill.  It is hard to trace the hauntings back to an event, but a ghost in Victorian clothing is known to walk halls.
I am preparing more stories of the paranormal at Harvard.

Beverly-Endicott College
Endicott has several dorms known to be active.  Reynolds Hall has a little girl who shows herself in mirrors.  Things are often found moved and shades flying up for no reason.  Like many of the college stories, there is often knocks on the door or voices in the hall that come from no one.  Winthrop hall used to be a mansion.  It is haunted by a young woman in a white gown who may be trapped by her suicide.   She threw herself off the widow's walk while waiting for her husband to return from sea.  She in seen in the dorm and walking the grounds.  Tupper Hall might be haunted by  a maid who committed suicide there.  She mainly has the habit of opening doors ands following students, usually in a helpful way.

Boston- Charlesgate Hall


Haverhill- Bradford College
There are several different areas that appear to have activity at the college, although security is much tighter about the campus letting non-students in. There have been investigations done, but no real information on the origin of the ghosts. Academy Hall, Danforth and Greenleaf Hall have all had sightings. The area around the entrance has had students come and go who would appear out of no where or disappear when they crossed the gate.

Northampton-Smith College
In 1895 Martha Wilson graduated from Smith College and years later the house she was president of become named after her.  This sight is now considered haunted by her ghost.  There have been many reports of things being moved, footsteps being heard, and windows and door opening and closing.  She seems to be a helpful spirit at times, even if she does not fully understand the girls she looks after.  She has been known to find things that are missing or point out passages in books to study.  One student, stressed out over trying to find a paper she had written, took a shower to relax and start over.  When she came out, the paper was sitting on her bed.  When she thanked Martha, the lights in her room flickered.  This type of scene has played out dozens of times.

There is also activity in Session House, which once served as a stop on the Underground Railroad, although the hauntings there seem more like legend, mainly because the facts do not add up.  Some say slaves were killed when a passageway they were in collapsed in the house.   Another story explains the haunting differently, and this one is celebrated by the college.

Norton- Wheaton College
There are several locations at the college that have had activity, the most noticeable is the library where the ghosts of an old librarian there.  She has been known to rearrange things and walk through the stacks, removing books or just looking over student's shoulders.

Boston- Catholic Memorial
There have been brothers that have lived and taught at the school over the years, some have which have died on school grounds.  There is a report of one brother heard talking to someone in the halls.  There is also a report of a priest who killed himself after his superiors found him and a sister having sex.  He is said to walk the halls, usually early in the mornings when he and his "girlfriend" would most often meet and that his classroom smells of marsh on the anniversary of his death.  This sounds like several other stories I've heard and read, and I cannot confirm any of the details about any of them.  I chalk this up to a legend personally.

South Hadley- Mount Holyoke
I don't have much confirmed of back up on this one, so I am going to paraphrase what I read at allaboutghosts.com. The school seems to be haunted by a young girl who is seen walking with a former headmistress of the school, although they do not make it clear whether the headmistress is alive or dead.  There is also an organ that plays itself.  There is also one report of a girl who had someone see a whirling girl in white in her room.  There is also a ghost that haunts Pearson’s Hall on the campus of the college.  Students experience odd temperature changes, have their sheets ripped of, and a few have seen object move by themselves.

Rehoboth- Horbine School
In 1937 they closed the Horbine School after almost a century of use.  Years later the school became a historical landmark in the town and people visited it to get a look at the way classes used to be set up.  According to Charles Robinson, a teacher who lived in the town and taught in Rhode Island went exploring at the sight.  She looked in the mirror and saw a teacher and class all dressed in 19th century clothes.  She went to the front door to see if the class was having a history day, but the front door was locked.  When she went back to the window, the class and the teacher had disappeared.  She went to the back of the school to see if they had gone outside, but only saw the teacher looking at her through the window with an angry expression she believes was because she was disturbing the class.
There has also been a report of a hand bell being heard coming from the area when no one was using the school or in the area.  We investigated this school a few years ago.  It is now boarded up so that you cannot see in and did not appear to be in use, even as a landmark, anymore.  We witnessed nothing, and all of our pictures of the area were lost.

Amherst-UMass
The campus of UMass Amherst is full of ghost stories and legends and even offers a tour of it morbid history.  Some of the stories include a ghostly bell toller, a unsettled librarian and a two fighting chiefs.  Although most feel more like legend than actual hauntings, writer Jamie Loo offers an excellent directory of the hauntings in his article for the Collegian entitled
“UMass Urban Legends.”

Salem-Salem State College
Salem State College has a haunted theatre on its campus.  The story of the haunting there are told to incoming freshman, so the actual facts and the legend surround them are hard to separate.  The following is taken from a young woman who e-mailed us about the haunting.

The theatre on campus is considered a public building and must remain unlocked at all time due to a bazaar blue law.  Some children were playing on one of the catwalks and fell to his death.  The child was said to be about 12 years old and named either Tommy or Timmy.  Since his death he has become a prankster and pulls small practical jokes on the people that work in the there.  He moves tools around or effects radios and CD players.  One freshman working the catwalk during a show was constantly hit with small things and moving her spotlight off its mark.  There is also a darker spirit that is felt more by sensitive people who enter the theatre.  There is little information about the spirit though, mainly because the people who actually feel it never want to talk about it.