Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Concord College

Concord College has always been a location that has had a haunted reputation; unfortunately, most of the information available online was a simple copy and paste line about horrible nightmares, apparitions, and noises.  I finally took some time to dig a little further into the legends, and found several personal experiences listed by alumni on different websites.

One thing that really stuck out about these experiences is that they all seemed to concentrate on Wilson Hall.  Wilson Hall is an all-women's dormitory.  It was built between 1960 and 1962, and opened as the Women's Upperclass Hall.  It was re-dedicated in 1977 in honor of Ms. Damaris O. Wilson, Dean of Women from 1952-1972.

According to numerous sources, students staying in the dorms have similar experiences.  The terrible nightmares mentioned do occur and are typically said to involve the students dreaming that they are being murdered, and in some cases, are committing the murder.  It is also said that those who have previously shown no signs of depression or anxiety feel unaccounted for fear and sadness while staying in the dorms.

The third floor of Wilson Hall is one of the building's hot-spots.  Some have seen a young girl wearing white roaming the halls.  It is believed that a former student committed suicide in room 320 by hanging herself from the clothes bar in the closet.  Doors opening, voices, and other noises have been observed coming from the room. 

Other hot-spots seem to be the 4th floor, the basement rec room, and even the first floor, where a student observed the phantom sounds of a group of people running down the hall laughing.

If you have any personal experiences from Concord College, please submit them to Theresa's Haunted History!

UPDATE: July 2013:

I wanted to thank everyone for the overwhelming comments sharing information and personal stories of this location; it truly seems like this location is much more haunted than internet reports let on!  To address a few issues:

1. I am aware that this institution has taken on the status of University.  However, I chose in my personal blog to refer to it by Concord College, the name it was under when the alleged "haunting" events were said to have taken place....and the name that I see emblazoned on everything since my mother went there WAY before the name change took place, lol.  This omission was done intentionally without malice, but I'll consider making changes to reflect current status.

2. Sarvay Hall and Wilson Hall are NOT the same building.  However, from my research, it does appear that Wilson was originally built under the general name of Women's Upperclass Hall before a formal dedication of Wilson.

3. It appears from the comments that Sarvay Hall is way more haunted than Wilson!  It's possible that certain events attributed to one building actually occurred at another, or that some legends are simply just that...legends, but I can see that this might have caused some confusion as to Sarvay and Wilson being the same place.  I promise I will look into the history of the alleged events that are said to have lead to these hauntings, and try to uncover as much as possible.

Again, thanks to everyone who has visited and shared!  Because of people like you, I am able to make this list of haunted locations in WV one of the biggest and most accurate and comprehensive!

-Theresa

26 comments:

  1. i spent two years at c.u. in the "south tower". although it's relatively new, it seemed to be teeming with activity. from objects vanishing only to reappear later in obvious places to loud conversations from empty rooms.

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  2. I lived on the 3rd floor in Sarvay (re-named Wilson) in 1970. There was a period of time during that year when a lot of paranormal activity was happening and those of us who lived on the 3rd floor were so anxious and edgy that the football coach sent some players over to stay on the 4th floor (the attic) to see if they could see what was happening. I think they thought it was "real" people doing the things we were experiencing. I moved to the towers the next year and agree with the comment above. Lot's of activity there. I also had friends who lived in a men's dorm named White Hall. Many stories there too. When I have more time to write about my experiences I'll send to you.

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    1. Wow! Can't wait to hear more! You can send them to my email at theresarhps@yahoo.com or feel free to post them in the comments.

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    2. Sarvay and Wilson are 2 different buildings. I lived in both.

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    3. Correct; Sarvay and Wilson are not the same building, but apparently with all the stories coming from Sarvay, I chose the wrong building to feature! Thank you for your input.

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  3. Concord College is one of the most haunted places on earth Sarvey Hall is home to a female ghost that took me time after time. I miss college.

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    1. Thanks for your comments and for stopping by Theresa's Haunted History!

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  4. I stayed in room 321 (with two roommates)at Wilson in 2009. It was truly the most terrifying summer of my life. The room-like area near the elevator and vending machines made me so uncomfortable I had to avoid it. Period. All of my fellow classmates who stayed on the 3rd floor kept saying they didn't know who the lady in white was, and that she favored the elevator area. We also heard a lot of unexplainable noises coming from room 320. And it was never allowed to be occupied. Nobody would explain why, though. I was so scared I had a pastor come in and bless our room. I always heard whispering anytime I went to the bathroom alone as well. I always had to have someone with me after so much of that. The biggest and most notable occurance was every night we would hear furniture moving upstairs. And I don't mean a bump here and there. I mean full on banging. Like someone would pick up a bed and drop it. Or just drag a desk back and forth. We could never explain anything that happened.

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    1. That's creepy! Thanks for sharing!

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    2. Im staying in room 306. I know exactly what you're talking about! The bathroom is crazy too. The door opens and slams shut and the toilets flush on their own. Its really crazy.

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    3. Thanks for sharing your experiences, Destinee! Please let us know if anything else happens!

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    4. hey hope this is shawn i was asking you questions about sarvay and wilson when i went an i was just wondering if u had anything new to tell me about your experiences

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  5. I lived in Wilson Hall for one semester in the early 80's. I lived with two other girls in a "triple" on the end facing towers. Once or twice I had to stay during the weekend, alone, and I was always creeped out but I just figured that it was from staying up there on fourth floor by myself. Later I moved to women's towers and lived on 8th floor. My suitemate and I experienced shadowy figures passing the doorway to our rooms and she actually awoke one night to a figure in a flannel shirt sitting on her desk. I laughed it off until I saw the same apparition standing in the corner of my room a few weeks later!

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    1. Sounds like Concord is much more haunted that I originally thought! Thank you for your stories!

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  6. I'm pretty sure Sarvay was never renamed Wilson. Wilson was its own hall, Sarvay another. Sarvay was much older. If I'm not mistaken, Sarvay has since been torn down.

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    1. nope, it's still there

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    2. Thank you both for your additional information. My records also show that Wilson and Sarvay are separate buildings.

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  7. Sarvay Hall was named for Laura Sarvay, an Art Professor. It was originally connected to McComas Hall, which was torn down in 1985. I lived in Sarvay for 3 years in room 304. So much paranormal activity....it was like a sensitive's worst nightmare. We used to have parties in the attic and it was teaming with spirits.

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    1. Thank you for that additional info! Like I said in another comment, I'm beginning to think that Sarvay is probably way more "haunted" than Wilson...which could be why so many people have gotten them confused, since most internet sources just include the activity at Wilson.

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  8. In 1994, I was in Sarvay Halls Attic creating the haunted attic that was being conducted by Pi Kappa Phi. The story of the girl hanging herself in the building was based from truth, but it happened in the attic overtop of the old dumb waiter/ elevator spot. You can still see the rope burns on the beam, and I got more on the story from old alumni as many of my family went to Concord in the 30's-50's. Anyway I spent hours (ALONE) in that attic for 2 weeks, and saw MANY things that were paranormal. While cleaning, mists would form that you could see, if you were at one end of the attic it was at the other......then it if you moved it did. I thought that I was just kinda tired and losing it.....cause most of the work in there was being done late at night when I was wore out. So when it came time for others to help I went back in with 2 of my frat buddies to build the frame work for the Haunted House. We had pretty much finished our work, the black plastic that made up the walls of the rooms was all up and connected to the frame, but we had a few other details to take care of. So my friends went down to the parking lot to get a CD and left me there alone. While alone I felt I was being watched, and I had enough of it so I started to call out what ever was in there. Show your self I told it. I really thought it was my friends goofing on me but they were still down stairs. I called it every name in the book.......yes I was going on like a sailor......then a plastic door at the end of a hallway got opened and then forceably shut. I got spooked flew down the stairs to find my friends coming back up. I was like dudes we gotta go try this again. So we went back up. I thought that maybe it was an air pressure thing that possibly opened and closed the door. So we went walking through the attic, retracing my steps, to see if it would happen again......it did not. So then we turned and started to provke it again. Within seconds the door at the end of the hall opened and closed again in our faces. From that point we KNEW we would not be alone during that haunted house, and still to this day I wonder if she or it is still in there.....Still one of the biggest freak my freak moments in my life.

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    1. Thank you for the information and sharing your experiences!

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  9. What year did the girl hang herself in room 320, and what was her full name?

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  10. I had a experience myself. Twice. One night I heard the lobbys piano play and nobody was playing it at the time. The second night I was held down by someone while I was sleeping but it was so sudden that I woke up.

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  11. I stayed in room 317 in Wilson Hall in the fall of 1993. There was a stairwell directly across from our dorm, and I remember my roommate and I hearing the door open and slam shut one evening. Always wanting to know who was roaming the halls, she immediately opened the door and went to the stairwell. She came back all freaked out swearing that no one was in the stairs. The lady who cleaned our dorm had been there for many years and shared several ghost sightings with us. Very freaky place.

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  12. My sister went to Concord college…in the early 70s and I visited her as a child and she told me the ghost story and that the dorm was called McComas Sarvay…I remember the name because it just sounded creepy and I have never forgotten…the only thing is that I was googling today and could not find any McComas dorm?!? So maybe I’m mistaken???

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