The Haunted History of Lewis & Clark Community College By Jenna Shelton jshelton@lc.edu
With a history stretching back 182 years, Lewis & Clark Community College has been the site of many important times, both happy and tragic. We all know that L&C is now 50 years old but before it was known as one of the top 150 community colleges in the country, it was an all-female college called Monticello Female Seminary. For over four decades Monticello was run by Ms. Harriet Haskell, a prominent figure that many believe still roams the halls of L&C to this day. On the day that Monticello became L&C Ms. Haskell’s reputed favorite tree fell over with not a storm or hard wind in sight. A hand on the shoulder only to find no one behind you along with the smell of lilacs or lavender, Harriet’s favorite scent, are some of the calling cards that have been reported when encountering Ms. Haskell’s spirit. Many of these encounters, that have been previously recorded by The Bridge, have occurred in the library with Liz Burns, the Reid Memorial Library’s Assistant Director of Instructional Services. Burns stated in 2014, “I smelled lilac perfume. I paused, recognized the smell and said, ‘Hello, Harriet’, then the smell disappeared.” There was another incident when returning to a room that had previously had cluttered books, only to find them neatly stacked when there was no one else in the library. When Burns had thanked Harriet, she heard soft laughter across the building. According to Alton Hauntings’ website, the elevators at L&C are haunted too. The urban legend goes that in the early 1990s, security was passing the elevator outside of Reid Cafe when they heard a woman’s cries, saying she was stuck in the elevator. Maintenance had
Ghost Stories
difficulty getting the elevators open so they spent four hours talking nonstop to the woman trying to keep her calm. After all of those hours of conversation, maintenance was shocked when they finally got the elevator open only to find it completely empty. The elevators by the bookstore have had eerie occurrences as well, according to a previous bookstore employee who wishes to remain nameless. This employee confirmed that years ago, whenever they would be on shift, they would notice the elevator would ding frequently. Looking out across the Hub, it was noted that there was never anyone there. When inspecting the disturbance they noticed that all of the buttons had been pushed and other times the elevator would stop on floor frequently as if to allow another to get on only no one would be on the other side of the doors when they would open. Cold spots are often claimed to be felt in locations that are haunted. This legend says there is a cold spot in one of the faculty offices on the fifth floor where a suicide occurred. This was unable to be verified but, when questioning staff, another person who works at L&C who wishes to remain anonymous reported
one night when they were on campus late, they were on the fourth floor of the Caldwell building when they noticed a light on under the door of a room. When they reached for the door handle to turn off the light, the door handle went “dong-dong.” They said it was if someone on the other side hit the door handle, they could not only hear the noise it made but could see the door handle moving. When they opened the door, there was no one in the room. As Student Activity President, one of my responsibilities is to make sure the bulletin boards on campus are updated. I have literally walked all over the campus, every building and because of my busy schedule and the fact that my classes are at night, I usually do my SA work late at night. Sometimes after the buildings are locked and even the custodial staff are gone, you could find me in the Student Senate office on the fourth floor of Caldwell. Being there late at night takes some getting used to, especially the main buildings on campus. They are so old and there are so many corners and nooks it’s easy to let your mind run away with all the scary things that go bump in the night. Quickly, I learned to treasure that alone and quiet time, especially as a mom! Since I don’t get a lot of quiet time alone at home, when I am on campus late at night it’s like my mom-radar is still on and my ears are fine-tuned for noise. On more than one occasion I have heard what sounded like a kid laughing and when I would go explore to see who else would still be on campus so late, there would be no one there. Have you or someone you know had a spine-tingling experience at L&C? Let me know and we could do a feature on it this fall! jshelton@lc.edu
13
