Indiana University Bloomington

Indiana's flagship public university, founded in 1820. The campus has multiple reportedly haunted buildings, including Read Hall, the Indiana Memorial Union, and several residence halls.

Indiana University Bloomington, founded in 1820, is one of America's oldest public universities, and its sprawling limestone campus harbors over two centuries of ghost stories documented in the university's own archives. The Linda Degh Collection at IU Archives, assembled by the renowned folklore professor (1918-2014) who spent decades collecting supernatural accounts from 90 of Indiana's 92 counties, contains extensive documentation of the campus's paranormal heritage.

The oldest and most persistent legend is the Woman in Black, first documented in October 1911 issues of the Indiana Daily Student, now stored at Herman B Wells Library. A student named Noble Barr reported being chased by a veiled figure in black clothing across campus, fleeing "with greater speed than any Indiana track athlete ever possessed," according to the original article. Multiple students reported rocks being thrown at them by the same mysterious figure. The Woman in Black has been spotted drifting along the sidewalks of East Third Street for over a century, always vanishing when directly observed, her face perpetually hidden behind a dark veil.

The Dunn Cemetery, nearly as old as the campus itself and located near the Indiana Memorial Union, is haunted by the spirit known as Agnes -- believed to be a member of the Dunn family who tended to soldiers' graves. According to legend, Agnes rises at midnight to continue her work, moving grave to grave in the darkness. The cemetery's proximity to the Memorial Union may contribute to that building's own supernatural reputation: maintenance workers have reported seeing shadowy figures in reflections and hearing soft voices that sound like chanting. The IMU also houses a painting called "Halloween" by O.O. Haig in the Tudor Room restaurant, depicting a boy with a jack-o-lantern, and staff have long reported finding deliberately disturbed table settings and floral arrangements after nights when the painting allegedly causes mischief.

Owen Hall, the oldest building on campus, has one of the most disturbing legends. In the university's early years, the third floor housed cadavers for medical study, transported via a dumbwaiter from the first floor. Limbs were frequently severed when they caught in the dumbwaiter machinery. According to campus lore, a prank involving a stolen severed arm placed on a ceiling light ended in horror when a female student was later found gnawing on the arm while rocking back and forth -- driven to madness by the discovery.

Read Hall, formerly called Smithwood Hall, is said to be haunted by a girl in a yellow dress who was murdered by her medical student boyfriend in a jealous rage during the 1960s. Different versions of the story describe her wearing a bloody yellow nightgown, and accounts differ about whether her body was hidden in the boiler room or the campus tunnels. Visitors have reported seeing a young woman in yellow on the upper floors. Biology professor David Matlack, a professional storyteller since 1992, has noted that this particular ghost story serves a purpose beyond entertainment: "Ghost stories help us deal with our fears," and this one may teach about "recognizing warning signs in relationships."

Briscoe Hall is haunted by a student who died during an elevator surfing incident in the 1970s. The student fell into the elevator shaft and was killed, and his ghost reportedly causes the elevator to open and travel to floors without anyone pressing the buttons. The old Kappa Delta Rho fraternity house at 1503 East Third Street harbors stories of Room 104, where a woman experienced an apparition of a disfigured boyfriend wielding an ax, and a missing pickaxe was later found in the room.

Since 2001, the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology has hosted an annual Ghost Walk, an evening tour of campus where student guides share these darker chapters of IU's past. The Bloomington Storytellers Guild has hosted its own Festival of Ghost Stories for nearly fifty years, making IU Bloomington one of the few American universities that has formally preserved and celebrated its haunted heritage as an academic tradition.