By Olivia Montes
Elm Staff Writer
It’s that time of year again — ghouls and goblins roam the streets, looking for both a trick and a treat: to scare Washington College students right out of their minds, at least according to sophomore Megan Walsh, who has experienced something of a paranormal entity perusing the fourth floor of Minta Martin Hall.
“It started with little things, like a door rattling at night or scuffling sounds coming from the roof. At first we thought it was a squirrel or some other animal making those noises, but then the door started banging and the lights would randomly start turning on and off,” Walsh said.
Sophomore Mahin Zaman, a former resident of Minta Martin, also fell prey to strange goings-on inside the dorm last year.
“There would be doors slamming when there was no wind, whenever I said something political. Every day at 5:27 a.m., there would be stuff being knocked down. We were never able to figure out what it was,” Zaman said.
This isn’t the first reported ghost sighting or haunting around the college; dozens of students have reported witnessing paranormal activity occurring across campus, according to Lindsay Lusby, assistant director of the Rose O’Neill Literary House.
As a first-year student at WC, Lusby enrolled in a class with Professor Sandy Hiortdahl titled The Afterlife in Literature and Culture that involved a one-day field trip to places in Kent County rumored to be haunted.
Their travels took them to the Inn at Mitchell House in Tolechester, the White House Farm, and the Lauretum Inn Bed and Breakfast in Chestertown.
“Some of my classmates reported seeing orbs in the camera footage they took at the Lauretum Inn, [and] White House Farm is supposed to harbor a ‘lady in white,’ which is a very particular type of apparition,” Lusby said.
Julie Armstrong, the Literary House’s administrative assistant, spoke to the presence of spirits in the floors of the House itself.
“I would not be surprised if it were haunted; the [Rose O’Neill] building is pretty old and has housed so many different businesses and groups of people over the years,” she said.
Although Armstrong has not personally interacted with Dickens, the supposed Literary House ghost, or other spiritual beings, she doesn’t rule out the possibility of future encounters.
“I can tell you this: I don’t like being alone in the Lit House for too long at night. It can get pretty spooky,” she said.
There have also been reports of mysterious, corrupt creatures roaming about the halls of Somerset Hall, according to junior Mari Mullane.
“The poltergeist [in Somerset] was pretty scary, people were getting scratched and things were getting thrown — but otherwise it’s been pretty tame,” Mullane said.
Walsh also reported visiting the house where President George Washington’s mistress was rumored to have lived.
“She died falling off her horse, and cracked her head on this giant rock near the house. My friends and I went to see where the rock was, and we found this giant, red blood stain right there where she fell,” Walsh said.
Other legends of Kent County discuss St. Paul’s Cemetery, which allegedly contains a lantern-carrying spirit of a former Revolutionary War officer who wanders at the graveyard’s edge, and the Devil’s Playground, where lies the remains of a judge who reportedly kidnapped innocent women and skinned them alive.
“Having grown up in the Chestertown & Kent County area, I’ve heard a number of stories, but mostly I’ve chalked [them] up to urban — or rural — legends at this point,” Lusby said.
Mullane also reflected on the plausibility of haunted happenings at the College and in Chestertown.
“As a general rule of thumb, the majority of ghost stories tend to be fictional things created to bolster tourism. I don’t believe every ghost story I hear [but] I definitely believe that Somerset had a poltergeist and that Middle Hall is haunted, though I don’t know by who,” she said.
As the President of WC’s History Society, Mullane and the club are planning to research the potentially paranormal history of various academic halls and residential dorms on campus.
Whether or not their research can corroborate students’ claims, Lusby remains convinced that otherworldly beings aren’t just figments of the imagination.
“Despite my lack of paranormal activities, I do believe they are real,” Lusby said.