Bringing ghost tours back for the living

With a history dating back to 1891, Lenoir-Rhyne has accumulated interesting tales and legends ranging from spooky to bone-chilling. 在10月, the Office of 本科全球赌博十大网站 will share some of those tales on a limited series of haunted campus tours.

由24岁的迭戈·桑胡安主持, a biochemistry major and history buff with a nose for LR lore, the 90-minute tour switches from the typical daytime campus tour to an evening filled with hauntings.

在黑暗中讲述的恐怖故事

 “When I started giving campus tours, I thought it would be cool to have a little more information about my university’s history,三娟分享道. “Once I started reading, I found multiple stories about almost every building on campus.”

These stories include a fire that took down the Rhyne Building’s predecessor, mysterious lights in P.E. 梦露礼堂, sounds of a rocking chair in Schaeffer Hall — where there is no rocking chair — and a spectral tea party on the main quad.

Sanjuan’s favorite story, however, happened in a building that no longer exists.

“The Highland Building dated back to 1906 and was next to Fritz-Conrad Hall, 但它在2007年被拆除了. You can see the foundation stones still present. At the time, it was the second main academic building on campus and the most haunted.”

A few versions of the Highland Hall incident circulate online, each one with small variations on the details and time frame. In some versions, it happened in the 1970s. Sanjuan says the version he heard places the events a few years before Highland’s demolition.

“A security officer got a complaint about a ruckus up in the attic, 哪个是用来储存的,桑娟开始说. “He went up there and found nothing, except the power was shut off. He went to the other end of the attic where the breakers were, and all of a sudden — allegedly — furniture started flying from one end of the room to the other. It’s the only recorded story on our campus where the paranormal activity got violent.”

自从高地大厅被夷为平地, there have been no reports of unusual activity in the space the building once occupied — now a parking lot.

“You still get that eeriness, though,” said Sanjuan. “Especially after reading all these stories, I see the buildings and spaces on campus in a whole different light.”

萦绕在心头的历史和爱情

For many years LR was among the many colleges and universities in the U.S. offering ghost tours and storytelling. Then the university put the tradition on hold to deter 学生 from conducting their own investigations in campus buildings after hours.

仍然, plenty of 学生 and 校友 have their own stories of study hours interrupted by unexplained bumps or footsteps, lights on where they shouldn’t be, or random items found in old library books.

亚历克斯的交易, campus experience coordinator for the Office of 本科全球赌博十大网站, described the positive responses to Sanjuan adding some of the legends to his tours last year, paving the way for the return of formal tours.

“LR is an entity in Hickory that a lot of people feel very connected with, and this is a way to make new connections,她分享道。. “It’s a cool way to get to the history of how the college got started, 建筑所在的地方, 该地区是如何发展的.”

Sanjuan also sees the tours as a way to share more stories and keep them going.

“People have a fascination with trying to explain the unexplained. I really hope to see not just our 学生 and prospective 学生, but 校友 and community members. The stories aren’t just part of LR history, they’re our history.”

学生, 工作人员, 教师, 校友 and the general public have three chances to explore the spooky side of LR history on Oct. 13 20 28. The tour will depart from Lohr Hall at 5:30 p.m., although prospective 学生 should plan to attend an information session at 5:00. The tours are free, but space is limited, so reserve a spot today.