If the creepy legends passed down by decades of students at Drew University are true, then nearly every building on the campus of this New Jersey college could be occupied by legions of ghosts.
The caretakers of Drew U's online archives encourage students and alumni to submit their own ghost stories via a dedicated link. The first entry is the chilling article "Guess Who's Sleeping in Your Attic?" written by Lisa Spits and originally published in Acorn magazine over thirty years ago.
“[T]here are certain buildings you won't walk in to by yourself,” said a '83 Drew graduate. “[Y]ou couldn't pay me to go in by myself.”
Photo: Jim Henderson
The article collects tales of Drew U hauntings that go back to the early 19th century, and include alleged hauntings by the school's founder Roxanna Mead Drew, who is said to haunt her namesake building, Mead Hall (shown above). Stories of footsteps echoing through Mead's corridors are commonplace, as well as reports of cold spots and a shadowy “mass” that reacts to the presence of visitors.
Other haunting rumors circulate around the Drew Seminary (above) and its chapel, where shadows of stationary objects are said to move on their own, accompanied by flickering lights and sudden changes in temperature. Some witnesses have reported that the chapel's pipe organ sometimes plays by itself.
The Hoyt Building (below) has a particularly creepy legacy – especially the notorious fifth floor attic, where multiple students witnessed a dark-haired female figure standing in the window at 2 am. Oddly enough, when they reported the sighting to a security officer, he discovered that his radio signals would not reach outside out the Hoyt building.
Photo: J. Purdes
Elsewhere in Hoyt, residents have described personal items moving on their own, or disappearing from students' rooms altogether. These incidents have been reported so frequently, they came to be called "the Drew phenomena," leading to investigations by paranormal researchers.
Be sure to check out our other tales of campus hauntings – including the ghostly legacy of the University of Georgia, or the spirit of a murdered woman said to occupy the Penn State library.