Rumors abound claim Stafford Hall, one of WTAMU’s many dorm facilities, is haunted. Most current residents claim to have never experienced anything unnatural or supernatural, but there are a few that do believe a few ghosts call the dorm home.
Stafford Hall was established in 1935 and had additions made in 1954 and 1957 to make the brick building a large quadrangular dorm.
The rumors vary, and some tenants have spoken about two deaths occurring at the dorm. One allegedly involved a young lady falling to her death off a staircase and another alleged a student hung himself in one of the units of the dorm.
Some residents of the past have said to have felt something going down one of the staircases, but did not attribute it to anyone stuck in spiritual limbo.
Lauren Blashill, former WT student and resident of Stafford Hall in 2009-10, said she and some other tenants of the dorm thought it was fun to talk about, but she never felt any unease.
“I remember hearing about all the rumors,” Blashill said, “and they were fun to joke about, but no, I didn’t feel anything was out of the ordinary.”
Ashley Davis, junior Early Childhood Education major and residential assistant at Stafford Hall, said she had heard the rumors before, but she didn’t personally have a story to tell.
“I heard something about some girl and smelling popcorn, but I’ve never experienced anything out of the ordinary,” Davis said.
Shannon McKeown, junior Music Performance/Education major, said she has had multiple run-ins with the supernatural, however, and said the dorm has two or three ghosts that make their presence known.
“One of them is the popcorn chick,” McKeown said. “You’ll smell it up and down the hall when no one has made popcorn. On multiple occasions I have had books fly off the shelf in my room. It wasn’t just them falling to the side, they literally flew outwards across the room.
“Also Charlie, the ghost, has a thing for messing with technology. He will change channels on TVs, send texts on your phone and leave the door to the microwave open.”
In an article written in The Prairie on Oct. 25, 2011, one of the residents was told an exorcism occurred inside Stafford Hall, and crosses and holy oil could still be seen throughout the building.
Another rumor alleges a serial killer murdered a girl going down to the basement to do her laundry.
No matter the story, many tenants of both past and present certainly feel Stafford Hall has quite a ghostly personality.
