Stories have spread on the WT campus about the haunting of Stafford Hall. Though details vary from person to person, the all female dorm has been rumored to be haunted by ghosts that like to disturb and scare the students.
“I haven’t seen a ghost, but you do get the sensation that one is around when no one else is around and something randomly goes wrong or a door shuts, and you know that no one is here,” Jennifer Pickens, senior Equine Business major, said.
According to Pickens, in one story a couple got into a fight at the end of units F and D, and the girlfriend was accidentally pushed down a spiral staircase. The floor is not quite level, and sometimes students get the sensation that they are falling when they walk in that area. It also occasionally smells like freshly popped popcorn because it is a snack the couple had been making on that night.
“My old roommate is scared to go up to H unit,” Pickens said. “She thinks it’s the most haunted unit in Stafford for the rumor that someone hung themselves up there.”
In some versions the student is a boy and in another it is a girl. The believed result is that the person now wanders around haunting the dorm.
“I don’t believe in ghosts or anything but I’ve heard stories,” Amanda Smith, junior Music Education major, said.
In a ghost story told to her, a serial killer was in the basement and attacked and killed a girl going to do her laundry.
“I’ve never felt anything,” Trazi Cooper, junior Math Education major, said.
Cooper has experienced the sensation of ghosts in her own home but never felt a presence when she roomed at Stafford Hall. Cooper has heard the popcorn story as well as a story about a ghost named Charlie. Charlie is considered an active ghost who likes to move things around and open and close doors.
Also, Pickens mentioned that there are many cases of the fire alarm going off for no reason and with no plausible explanation.
Smith was told that an exorcism was executed in Stafford Hall in the past. She can see the crosses and holy oil still placed throughout the building.
“I do think it is very entertaining to say that Stafford is haunted whether it is or isn’t,” Pickens said.
