With Halloween approaching, the Class Gift Campaign and Office of Residence Life sponsored the annual Saint Mary’s Ghost Stories event Wednesday night.
Students gathered at the Riedinger House, a house on campus originally designed for home economics courses that are no longer offered. The scarcely used Riedinger House is rarely made available to students. As a result, this event was heavily attended as students took advantage of the chance to see inside the house.
Attendees came to drink apple cider and listen to resident assistants (RAs) read ghost stories from former Saint Mary’s students and employees. The RAs were reading excerpts from “Quiet Hours,” a collection of alleged supernatural encounters which occurred on campus written by Shelly Houser, Veronica Kessenich and Kristen Matha.
For two hours, ghost stories were read every thirty minutes throughout four different rooms of the house. Students gathered around on couches, wooden chairs, the floor and even beds in the second-floor guest bedrooms to hear Halloween-themed tales ahead of the weekend.
Tess Hayes, a McCandless Hall RA, read an excerpt about an older man who has been spotted several times in LeMans Hall after parietals.
“It is believed to be the maintenance man who worked here during the 1920s,” Hayes said. “He appears sporadically on the first and second floors to keep an eye on the women of LeMans.”
The decades-old stories sparked conversations around experiences students have had in recent years.
Katelyn Sizemore, a sophomore RA in McCandless Hall, said she encountered what she believes to be a Saint Mary’s ghost during RA training over the summer.
“I was going to bed and my window was open,” she said. “I heard someone saying my name over and over.”
Sizemore added that she asked several of her friends who were on campus at the time and they all denied calling out her name.
Junior RA Lizzie Conklin told the group about an occurrence last year in LeMans Hall. A priest came to bless the Queen’s Court hallway which is located directly beneath the third-floor chapel.
“All the girls were complaining about hearing activity in the chapel at night. They heard stomping and running and even heard their names being called out,” she said.
For some students, attending the event was a way to get involved on campus. Lupita Delgado, a sophomore student said she attended Ghost Stories to get more involved with campus life.
“I have a couple friends who are RAs and they encouraged me to come,” Delgado said. “This is my first year coming to this even though I’m a second year, so I’m trying to branch out to more events.”
Contact Cathy Doherty at cdoherty01@saintmarys.edu.