Haunted Chapter Houses

GammaZeta · #1 03-28-2006, 06:24 PM

I know I missed Halloween with this thread, but reading a story online about a haunted fraternity house got me thinking.

Being a small chapter in a rather large house, there was ample opportunity to be alone in the chapter house, either daytime or nighttime. During the summer months, Amherst reverts back to it's rural-like existence without the college kids, even if it is just for a few months.

Anyways, I've spent a lot of time alone in our first chapter house, during the summer while getting the rooms ready or fixing something, or just in the afternoon when everyone else is at classes.

I've never had any specific encounters with the paranormal. I've heard footsteps when I'm the only one in the house during the middle of summer, seen shadows that disappeared and heard strange noises, but I never came face to face with anything out of the ordinary.

But there was one place I would always avoid alone, the basement. It was dark and old, but I've lived many places that were creepier, darker and older that didn't freak me out like that basement did. Hell, right now I live in an old house/apartment that belongs in a Edgar Allen Poe story and I don't get freaked out.

It wasn't the atmosphere of the basement, it was the FEELING in it. There was always something in there with you, you could feel something over your back. Many times I would go down there to grab something, only to come running up the stairs as if something was chasing me. There was an energy in those rooms. I guess that is the logical place to have bad energy. Our fraternity wasn't always on the up and up. Over the almost 100 year history, there was some serious hazing back in the day, and I guess the basement was the scene of the crime. Maybe the pain never left.

What's your experiences in you chapter houses with the paranormal? Some of the older guys must have a good story or two. I'll give you guys the story of the 3rd floor shadow later on.

john1082 · #2 03-28-2006, 09:10 PM

Any deaths occur in the house? Perhaps under prior ownership?

GammaZeta · #3 03-28-2006, 09:46 PM

I believe so while Gamma Zeta was there. We were in the house since 1912.

There was one confirmed rape that happened in the 70's.

There was also talk of several suicides in the building.

The most famous one was on the 3rd floor where it was said a brother hung himself on the sprinkler system pipes. It's said that you can see the shadow of him hanging on the 3rd floor wall once in a while. Normally I would have said it was just a prank on the new brothers, but I've heard the same exact story from multiple alumni that have never met.

But yeah, there was some deaths in there.

Funny thing is, I feel fine everywhere else in the building alone, 3rd floor, 2nd floor, 1st floor, roof. But that basement is something else all together. I'm not one that is easily scared. I am well aware of the science that is behind people being scared. Of course if you are in a dark space by yourself, you're going to be freaked out. But the feeling is different down there, something I've never felt before.

lenoxxx · #4 03-29-2006, 07:52 AM

The Mansfield U. of Penn LCA house was supposedly haunted, I looked on a haunted places in PA website and it was indeed listed there, Im including the notes on here.

Of course this is one of the many many defunct chapters of LCA that will get recolonized one of these years, sigh

"Mansfield - Mansfield University - Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity House - For years brothers of the fraternity have heard unexplained noises and footsteps throughout the entire house. The apparition of a man appeared in the attack, then vanished. Some students have reported being held face first in their pillow by invisible forces or have felt something sit at the bottom of their bed. The house use to be part of the underground railroad and has had several individuals die within in its doors. People hanging, children playing, choking feelings at night, and many documented past events of people coming to their untimely death haunt this house. "

http://theshadowlands.net/places/pennsylvania.htm

Cube TX · #5 06-03-2006, 06:05 PM

I don't know if this counts, but in college I was a DJ and Operations Assistant at the campus radio station. The station was inside the Cotton Memorial Building on campus at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). It was said that the building was haunted and that for years people working late at nights (like myself) would hear screams and footsteps. I never heard anything though, and I worked there for four years -- including 2 shifts where I worked alone until 1 a.m.

One day I told my brothers about this and later that week about half the chapter showed up to my shift. They all went patrolling the dark and empty building looking for the ghost. Of course they found nothing -- if I was a ghost I'd avoid a bunch of bored goofballs myself. One of them now posts on this website under the name HONKY660, so beware!

Tom Earp · #6 06-03-2006, 06:39 PM

Oh No, the HONKY Man!

I would love to meet a Friendly Ghost who was a Brother!

Well, more than on G C!

Cube TX · #7 06-05-2006, 07:49 PM

Another time I was with three other brothers driving home from a road trip to Ft. Worth, TX. At the time I had a meeting there the same weekend of the TCU/UTEP football game. We drove back overnight and kept telling stupid ghost stories. One of the guys was a bit jumpy and wound up being scared. Hey... it made the 8 hour drive more fun if nothing else.

HONKY660 · #8 06-08-2006, 01:13 PM

Ceasar I do remember walking down the halls of the Cotton Memorial Building trying to look for the ghost. I think all we found was a buzz. At the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) I dated the ZTA president who lived in their sorority house. Rumor had it that a girl named Susan hung herself in the basement and at night she would walk around the house, or that you could she someone looking out the second floor window. But in all my nights of staying over at the house I never saw any ghosts, just naked sorority girls so I guess it was a win win situation for me.

Cube TX · #9 06-17-2006, 12:35 AM

Honkman!

Hey brother, I was just remembering that my aunt was a ZTA at UTEP in the 60s at UTEP so I'll ask her about the haunting when I see her again. I'm sure there has to be some longstanding urban legend. I'm willing to bet about 1000 other sororities/fraternities have similar rumors about their houses too.