Do you believe in ghosts?
Whether you do or not, tales abound of ghosts living among us here at Northwestern.
Late-night studiers in the Technological Institute say they sometimes hear flasks and glasses clinking against each other and think nothing of the scattered noise. But when the rattling starts, if they listen hard enough, they often hear whispers of an ancient voice drifting through the rooms.
According to University Archivist Patrick Quinn, the myth goes like this:
A spirit has floated around Tech since the 1950s when a group of professors rejected the doctoral dissertation of a doctoral candidate in chemistry. The student had spent years in Tech working toward his doctorate and was devastated when it was turned down.
Overcome with grief, the young man swallowed a tube of deadly cyanide and his ghost has haunted the building ever since. During the day, Quinn says, the ghost hides in the building’s sub-basement, but at night he roams the halls, disturbing students with his mumbling complaints. People who listen often have heard him pleading with professors to change their minds and accept his work.
At least that’s the legend.
Quinn has worked for 31 years at University Archives in Deering Library, where literally tons of NU documents, photos and publications are stored. Surrounded by the school’s history, Quinn knows more about NU’s past than anyone else. He even knows all the ghost stories.
The archivist says the oldest legend on campus is one of a student who was spurned by his fiancee and consequently hung himself in the bell tower of University Hall, NU’s first building. Now, 135 years later, his spirit still floats around the building, especially around Halloween, this year on Sunday.
Ghost stories mostly center around men, Quinn says. But there is one exception. In 1874 the Music Administration Building was built as the Women’s College when women first were admitted to the university.
Around that time two women students killed themselves after their fiancees left them. One jumped out the window in despair and the other ran down to the lake and drowned herself. But the two women have been keeping each other company in the building in the years since then. People in MAB’s practice rooms late at night can still hear them when they come down from the attic talking to each other or crying in the halls over their lost loves.
Quinn says the most popular legends on campus focus on NU’s underground tunnels. There are, in fact, many pipes connecting the school’s buildings — including the most famous between Tech and Willard — and every year students try to break into them to travel underground. Quinn calls them “tunnel geeks.”
The only tunnel built for student transportation connects Deering and Leverone Halls. The school originally built it for students to walk through on cold days, but the administration decided it was too expensive to keep security below ground and promptly closed it.
There are no ghosts there, at least not to Quinn’s knowledge. But a poster of “Dungeons and Dragons” creator Gary Gygax guards the opening, warding off intruders.
Even if they can’t enter the tunnels, ghosts will be prominent on campus in the next few days, according to Quinn. He says most ghosts vacation in the summer and come out in full force in the winter. But of course, any ghoul’s favorite day is Oct. 31.
“Ghosts and spirits most certainly do come out around Halloween just like anywhere else,” Quinn says. “It’s their favorite day. There’s no question about that.”
Reach Sarah Bailey at [email protected].
