It’s the `things’ that go bump in the night’ that scare people in the buildings of ETSU.
There are unexplainable footsteps that can be heard when no one else is around. Is it the building creaking and settling with the setting of the sun and the cooling night air?
Or is it the apparitions of the troubled spirits who have never made it to the other side – those that have been cursed to roam this Earth after they have left the mortal realm.
For those of you who go searching for those apparitions instead of tricking or treating, then the campus is a great place for you to investigate.
Several haunted buildings on campus have stories that could make one’s hair stand on end.
For example, in Lucille Clement Hall, the women’s dormitory on the west end of campus, it is rumored that voices speak, marbles bounce and doors are knocked on even though no one’s on the other side.
“There was one Saturday night at about 5 in the morning when I was taking a shower that I heard breathing outside the shower,” says sophomore Stephanie Lively. “I looked out of the shower and there was no one there. I turned back to wash my hair and then I heard it again. I still couldn’t see anyone.
“Then when I finished I discovered that my clothes were lying in the hallway outside the showers. They weren’t on the line hung up like I left them . it was a horrifying experience.”
There are other stories about Lucille Clement that boggle the mind. The sound of marbles hitting the ceiling or floor cannot be discredited.
“It’s scary when you wake up in the middle of the night and you hear knocking and bouncing of marbles, especially when you know that there is no one that it there above you,” one student says.
Legend has many explanations for the bouncing marbles. One story says that when the building was being built and before the foundation was laid, a child was trapped on the site. He began throwing marbles at things to make noise, but to no avail. Apparently he was never found and is suspected to be buried under the cement that would later serve as the foundation and basement of the building.
A similar tale about the same child has been told. He was playing on a beam of the building and dropped one of his marbles. He went after it and fell to his death.
Still, legend reaches farther back in history to the time when the building was used as a nursing center, when ETSU was first founded. After Lucille Clement had been built, it housed a baby ward. One night, a child being carried by one of the nurses andwas accidentally dropped. The child died. When the child fell, so did the marbles with which he was playing.
Sure, all these stories could be explained by the building settling in the night.
Gilbreath Hall has a story that will make you ponder the actions of the other world. Custodians and students who work in the computer labs have supposedly seen a haunting apparition that is believed to be Sidney Gilbreath, ETSU’s first president. Then, the school was known as East Tennessee State Normal School.
Charles Edwin Price wrote in his book Haints, Witches, and Boogers: Tales from Upper East Tennessee, which is available in the ETSU Bookstore, that Gilbreath, who was known as “Uncle Sid” chose the site for the building by walking to the edge of a rolling field and jamming a wooden stake into the ground.
This would have been as you were leaving Burgin E. Dossett Hall and walking up the hill to Gilbreath Hall.
Maintenance workers claimed that Uncle Sid roamed the halls acting very much like a “fussy custodian.”
“When the lights go out and as the janitors are leaving for the night, the slamming of windows and doors left open by mistake vibrates throughout the building,” Price writes. “An approaching thunderstorm also prompts the closing of windows by an unseen hand. Apparently, the long-departed Gilbreath takes an active interest in the welfare of his building.”
Another legend described by Price tells of a time when the graduate dean was in the building late one night and had heard noises over head. The dean dismissed the whole incident and wanted to return to his office, but an unknown force was calling him back. He couldn’t forget the feeling.
He cornered the custodian the next day and asked if there was an attic in the building. There was no recalling of any attic, but they both searched the building to find one anyway. When they did, the dean “felt a powerful compulsion to look in one particular corner.”
There he discovered two framed pictures. One of Abraham Lincoln and the other a big engraving of Chief Mushuladubbe.
As the dean picked up the photo of Abraham Lincoln, “something brushed against his shoulder, and a voice whispered in his ear, `Thank you, from Uncle Sid.'”
Moreover, these accounts are not just located in those two buildings. Practically all of the buildings have stories.
The custodians in Mathes Hall have learned to look over their shoulders when they are cleaning at night.
Mathes Hall has been known for its loud unexplainable crashings and footsteps that seem to follow people throughout the building.
Price writes of one custodian who chanted, “I ain’t afraid of no boogers!” But later her bravery was tested. The building shook with a tremendous crash overhead. She went to investigate and everything was fine.
Again she heard the crash, and again the building shook with the impact. She said that it sounded like part of the building was caving in.
This time she was scared and immediately called a friend of hers to talk to her until it was time to leave.
These, again, are only some of the many ghostly tales that are passed around campus. Some may write them off to the buildings being old, but these stories are loaded with moans, groans and screeches that could put goose bumps on the arms of the bravest soul.
Not all ghost stories on campus have legends of tormenting hauntings, but legends of love and lost love.
The ghost of Burleson Hall is said to be that of Christine Burleson who participated in a variety of activities at the school for many years. According to Price’s research, some described Christine’s features as being striking.
She was universally loved across campus, yet she was very reserved with her colleagues. She seemed to think that some of the younger faculty were after some of the classes she taught. It was said that she “owned” the subject of Shakespeare.
Christine had a horrible debilitating disease that ran in her family. Late in her sixties when she contracted the disease and was confined to a wheelchair she decided to take her own life. She was determined to never be a burden to anyone.
There have been cases where it sounds like a woman’s moaning in an office in Burleson Hall. It is said to be her moaning, according to Price’s book.
While no one has documented the story, there may be a ghost of a friendly young lady in West Hall. She doesn’t intend on spooking or scaring or scream or make things disappear, but she likes to communicate through music.
Angie Miller, a sophomore and resident of the building claims that the ghost was sending her messages.
“I haven’t heard from her in a while but it was strange what happened. It was the second day of classes and when I return to my room and I was standing outside my door, I could hear the radio blasting.
“This was about 12:30 in the afternoon. I walk into the room and the radio is playing “Country Grammar.” As soon as I get into my room, the radio turns off.”
Miller says that the ghost only plays her radio during the day. Never at night.
“About three days later, I return to my room and I could hear the radio playing again. But this time I thought it was my roommate, because she listened to Delilah. I didn’t think it was the ghost.”
“But then, when I stepped into the room, she changed the radio station to a Christian station. I heard a song on there that I really needed to hear because I was having a really bad day. Then, I returned one day to hear that Michael Jackson song from the 80s – `Somebody’sWatching Me.’ I think it was her way of saying something over me.”
Miller also says that her communicating friend likes 80s music. “I hope she comes back, she was cool and she had good taste in music.”
Well, that ends the stories about the ghosts and apparitions on campus. Beware of things that go bump in the night

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