Marymount College - EF Academy

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The former Marymount College merged with Fordham University, then was sold to EF Academy in 2007. It is said to be haunted by the ghosts of its founders, Father Gailhac and Mother Butler, on hand to protect the former woman’s college’s students. More sinister tales tell of ghosts who shake the beds or spy on students in the Gailhac and Gerard Halls, and evil spirits who lurk in a parking lot, remnants from a house torn down over 100 years ago, before the college was built.

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Geographic Information

Address:
100 Marymount Ave
Tarrytown, NY 10591
United States

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GPS:
41.07674762909911, -73.85001772629039
County:
Westchester County, New York
Nearest Towns:
Tarrytown, NY (0.5 mi.)
Sleepy Hollow, NY (0.8 mi.)
Elmsford, NY (2.2 mi.)
Irvington, NY (2.8 mi.)
Greenburgh, NY (3.1 mi.)
Hawthorne, NY (3.5 mi.)
Fairview, NY (3.6 mi.)
Nyack, NY (3.7 mi.)
South Nyack, NY (3.7 mi.)
Grand View-on-Hudson, NY (3.8 mi.)

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Comments (21)

  1. I work at what is ef now and I have had experiences there like seeing shadow figures hearing whistling being touched in a non harmful way there have also been claims of seeing a little girl in a a white dress and doors slamming shut on there own it has also been rumored that a girl hung herself in one of the buildings

  2. I used to date a student who lived in Gailhac Hall in the late 1980’s. One summer when she stayed on and the dorm was 90% empty we occasionally saw a smokey figure at on end of the hallway on the 3rd floor and sometimes would hear a murmur of something like “come here,come here”. One night during the week when the power went out we heard a scratching at the door. When I opened it there was no one there but when I went out into the corridor I saw the figure at the end and it was very pronounced and looked sort of like a negative of a photo, it was waving and saying “come here,come now”, I just froze and looked at it, the figure became more pronounced and took on the image of a young girl in a plain white dress,long light strawberry blonde hair with deep blue eyes. It made really strong eye contact with me and started to speak louder and with a sort of deeper pitch. My girlfriend came out into the hallway and started screaming and the windows started to rattle and the figure seemed to be drawing me into a vacuum. When she pulled me away the windows at the end of the corridor that over looked the car park just blew out and the figure vanished-there was no smoke, no hocus pocus, just a metallic rain water smell. We were so scared from the experience we spent that night at the Tarrytown Hilton and after that my GF moved back to Atlanta for the rest of the summer(and the following semester stayed in Gerard). She never went back into Gailhac again but did find out that during the 1950’s a Freshman had hung herself in the shower of her room and thats why all the pipes on the showers are now slanted..to stop hangings. Just drove by Marymount this past weekend at around 10pm and although Gailhac was empty, a light was flickering at the end of the 3rd floor corridor, needless to say I was scared.

  3. I was a student in there last year, it’s true that EF TarryTown campus is haunted. I lived in Bulter once, but then i changed to Lugari building, I have experience some unexplainable events that can proof it’s really haunted.

  4. Once when i was in Spellman-Auditorium at night after dinner. I wanted to find my music teacher, but he was already left. It was strange because it didn’t locked by the securities. Normally it’ll be locked immediately right after the Voice Lessons end. But it didn’t. However i was happy about that i could hang out in there alone. So i did, i was on stage and played piano. Soon, i heard some whispers, human-like voices and noises behind my back. At first i thought it was my friends who tried to scared me. I didn’t care at first. I kept playing piano. But afterward i felt weird because nobody showed up. I started tho feel scared.. I can still remember that faint cold feeling. Somehow the sound of that piano was getting very off pitched. Right after that, i could clearly felt a cold breath whispered beside my ear closely. And that thing touched my arm. Im sure it was real because i saw the breath that blowed my hairs on the side of my face. I didn’t understand what did it say but it was very quick and clear!! I’m not even sure if that’s English. Also i was normally COLD.That scared the crap out of me i swear, then i ran out of that horrible auditorium as fast as i could without taking my jacket or looking back. I tried to tell my friends, and they told me that they believed the campus is haunted. I swear to god that’s really true.

    • Working over night in Marianne build heard foot step behind me it was 3am,flashed the light down the hallway nothing was there felt some lightly put pressure on my left shoulder turned around swing my flashlight at nothing ran down the stairs snap a pic from my cell phone.told others about incident, we looked at cell phone there was a pic of a short blonde hair girl looking at me.never worked the overnight again

  5. I think it was 2008 and my wife, daughter and myself were on the way back from NYC, heading
    back to our home in Massachucetts when we decided to visit the campus.
    My wife had graduated from Marymount in the mid seventies when we both lived in NY.
    The grounds at that point had been sold to the language school that it is now, but we drove right
    up to Butler Hall, where my wife had lived, and walked right in.
    A security man followed us in and told us very nicely that we were trespassing.
    We explained that my wife had been a student there and asked if he would just let us have a
    quick look around just on her dorm room floor. He very nicely opened her dorm room and was in the
    process of opening the room next to hers when I heard a distinct knocking on the door, but very
    obviously coming from the other side of the door.
    Strangely, my wife didn’t hear the knock but I could. see from the man’s reaction that he had.
    My daughter looked up at me and said “Dad, Somebody just knocked at the door.”
    The man opened the door and let us in. There was no one in the room. I looked around
    trying to find a source that could have explained the sound but I couldn’t.
    My daughter looked very uneasy.
    Looking back, I think that the security man was aware of more than he let us know.

  6. I lived in gailhac hall for four years during my time in college. I was young and loved to hear the stories of haunting. I never had any crazy experiences. But there was this room off the forth floor that was just insanely creepy. We would go up there at times and just hang out and it was the creepiest feelings. Also the basement was not somewhere you ever wanted to go alone! If we had to do laundry you always brought someone with you. People would talk about a little boy playing with a ball but I never experienced it myself.

  7. I went to MMC in the late 80s. After reading all these stories I now understand why my Ouija board was banned. I played with it regularly.. candles would go on and off, things would be moved…. in Gailhac.. but once we went to the Dome and as we were playing, we took a break… when we were about to start, the eye started moving by itself, no one touching it… we all ran scared and the next day or a fewdays later cant remember well, I went back to get it, and just like in the movies, it was filled with dead pidgeons…. the dome was banned after that…

  8. I graduated from Marymount in 1970. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Father Gailhac never visited the place. He founded the religious congregation that founded the college. Mother Butler’s remains rest in the Marymount Convent crypt, and I don’t think she’s been interested in haunting the place. The haunted parking lot is the site of Sacré Coeur Hall, which was one of the original college buildings. It was traditionally the freshman dorm, with wings added in the 1920s. Having lived in Sacky myself from 1968-69, I can attest that it was still around until after i got my BA. So… while it’s a good story, the FACTS here are a little skewed. Ah, well… The campus is more likely to be haunted by the spirits of alumnae who wanted to see Marymount survive for more than the hundred years it did.

    • Yeah, I was a security guard there in the mid nineties and graduated from their weekend college program which was coed as fordham was acquiring the campus. I worked there full time, and also worked as a security RA for EF international who were housed in St Johns. I was constantly on that campus between full time work and taking classes. I did not drive at the time so I frequently slept on the premises between shifts. I was all over that campus at odd hours. I slept all alone in the Tea house-locked in-by myself, the top floor in Marion, I would even catch Zees in pitched dark Spellman at night. If that place was haunted, I should have seen something. And other than waking up in the middle of the night in the upstairs dining room at Marion by my friend Sister Eddie who had an apartment up there….and being woken by a pretty EF student who snuck into my RA dorm room in the middle of the night- but that’s another story HAHAHA-I had no scary encounters there that could not be easily explained over a three year period of time.

  9. I graduated from mmc 1987. I lived in Gailhac hall for two years. Room 410 facing the Tappan Zee Bridge. I never had a ghostly experience. I miss MMC!

  10. I attended MMC in the early 70s. The story I heard was that a girl in Sacre Coeur had been haunted by the ghost of a young man hanging in the bathroom. She did some research and found that a young man did indeed take his own life in Sacky years ago because his fiancée had jilted him. Allegedly the haunted girl resembled the fiancée.

    • Update: Even Mother Butler isn’t a local resident anymore. She’s been moved from the crypt at Marymount Convent and now rests with other deceased religious, including many of my former teachers and friends, in a section of one of the Westchester County cemeteries. Anyway, who could compete with the Headless Horseman in Sleepy Hollow? Go look there for your ghosts. 😉

    • Got documentation on that? I lived in Sacre Coeur Hall. No young men hanging in bathrooms. No jilting fiancées. Just a nice old house overlooking the Hudson. Miss it.

      • I also graduated from MMC in the 90’s. I’m skeptical about the story regarding a man hanging himself in a shower at Sacky. While the guest rules were relaxed when I attended, I can bet men were not allowed past the downstairs lobby/sitting room in the days this story allegedly took place. There have been many stories shared over the years there. One story I had heard was a student died in the Sacky fire and haunts Gailhac hall. I am a believer in the paranormal but not necessarily the stories that have been rumored as a basis for the activity.

  11. Lisa Anderson  |  

    I lived in Gailhac for 4 years. One nght, it felt as if someone, or spirit, walked past me, through the room. It wasn’t a negative feeling, just very interesting.

  12. I’ve worked there as a security guard,had 3 incidents,while moinitoring,camera during 4to midnight shift,saw a white mist,kept changing form,and floating around one of dorms outside camera,many security staff witnessed it on camera,I had the courage to go down personally, didn’t see it by the naked eye,but people saw it floating around me,till just shot off and vanished. Was working the guard both 1night I saw a shadow,figure watching me from the spellman theater,another saw a young woman walk by me ,while working the guard booth,wear blue Jean’s and white shirt,dark hair worn in a poney tale,thought it was a student ,went out too ask for ID,she vanished into thin air,that was the last straw for me,I quit after that.

  13. I was an English student there, I did a summer course 2009. One night I stayed connected to the internet in the hall until 2AM, suddenly I felt very cold and a strange feeling that someone was there. I was scared and went to my dorm, I didn’t want to turn on the light because my other roommates were already asleep. I couldn’t sleep because I felt that something evil was in the room, and then I heard a horrible guttural voice (I don’t think it’s from this world) whispered in my ear “GIVE ME YOUR SOUL.” I got out of bed and started running down the hall without knowing where I was going, suddenly I thought about going up to the next floor where i had other friends and when I tried to climb the stairs, I stopped because I heard someone coming down the stairs and suddenly stopped, there I heard the disconsolate cry of a woman. I ran back down the hall and found other stairs where I was finally able to get to the next floor and find my friends who calm me down because I was in shock for several minutes. This has been one of the worst paranormal experiences I have ever had.

  14. It was in the late 70’s that I grew up in Dobbs Ferry and would often go with my buddies to the bars in Tarrytown with the hope of meeting girls from Marymount College. More often than not we never succeeded as the MM girls were a bit more sophisticated than my beer swilling and football loving friends. On the odd occasion I did manage to meet a couple of them which ended up with me driving them back to the campus ( I have to add that I only drove when I was the designated driver!) so they didn’t have to walk back by themselves.

    At other times when one of us did land a date, 6 of us would cram into my dads dorky Mercury Colony Park Wagon to drop of our fortunate friend at MM so he could meet his sweetheart….and pray that we would get invited in to meet her friends.

    I had a night time job at a Pizza place in Ossining and would always drive home through TT. One snowy night I was driving home when I saw a young woman walking by herself, she wasn’t really dressed well for the snowy conditions, I pulled over and asked her if she needed a ride home and told me she went to MM.
    She commented on how fancy my dads car was and that she was a good girl and I was a nice boy which I thought odd as the car was an embarrassment and the use of girl and boy was outdated. I was very attracted to her as she was so attractive and just lovely.

    We arrived at MM and she asked me to let her out approx 100 yards from Gailhac Hall. I mustered up the courage and asked her if she would like to go for a coffee or a movie sometime and she said yes! So we met the next night at 10pm (very late I know but she said she had a lot of study to do). We didn’t end up going for coffee we just drove around and then parked. We chatted for about an hour and she then said she needed to go back to her dorm. I drove back to MM and dropped her off at the same place near Gailhac.

    I was totally smitten with her, her name was Margaret and we ended up seeing each other two more times and all we did was drive around and then park and talk. She would always have me drop her off at the same spot, never asked me into MM nor did she speak of any friends. I really liked her and started to overthink about things. Was it my dads car, was I a total geek and she was embarrassed to be seen with me? I didn’t care as I was blinded by love. Then It dawned on me that she always seemed to wear the same clothes and that her vocabulary was really like old fashioned in a way.

    So, one the last time we drove and talked and parked I tried to make the move, I put my arm around her and she snuggled her head in my shoulder. She once again told me she was a good girl and slowly pushed my lips away when I tried to kiss her and then mentioned something about going to a Snow Queen Festival. I had no idea what she was talking about so I agreed to whatever the heck she was on about. I asked her why I always have to drop her off away from the front of Gailhac Hall and why I have never seen her friends. She started to get upset and was crying. She said that she had been a bad girl and was sent to MM as a form of disciple by her parents as they knew the head Nun and she would be able to repent for her sins (WTF!).
    By this time with the cars heater running, the windows fogged up, it was really hot inside the car. She took off her cardigan and I stupidly thought it was a sign she wanted to ‘busy’. She asked about the Snow Queen thing again and I said “you’ll always be my snow queen” and then tried to kiss her again. This time she yelled and screamed, I’m not a bad girl anymore!!!, You’re not a nice boy, you’re just like the rest of them!” And with that, she fled from the car and ran off. I tried to follow her to apologize but she ran off.

    The next day my dad asked who’s cardigan was left in his car and mentioned a religious brooch on it. I told him it was Margarets and we had been on a date. He suggested I return it to her (Duh). Anyway I found this as an excuse to venture up to Gailhac Hall and to see her again. When I walked to the front of Gailhac Hall I was met by a crusty nasty assed old Nun who asked what I was doing there. I told her that I saw Margaret leave her cardigan at a cafe and wanted to return it to her…had to cover my ass.

    The Nun held the cardigan and stared at the brooch on it, asked me inside and questioned me about how and when I came to have it. It was like an inquisition as if I had committed a crime. Sister,Mother Mad cow Mary or whatever her name was started sobbing and told me to leave BUT did call the TT cops to make sure I left. The cops seized my dads car and took me to the station for even more questioning!! I’m freaking out by now, scared shitless and crying about something I had no idea about. I’m starting to think that Margaret may have reported me for trying to kiss her or even worse!

    ​The cops had me in this interview room for about an hour when finally one came in who was, fortunately a local and was cousins with one of my buddies.
    I asked him what was going on and he took me outside and explained that a student from MM called Margaret had committed suicide back in the 1940’s by hanging herself as she fell pregnant and was unwed (a second time) and that the Nun whom I met felt guilty and responsible as Margaret had been sent to MM to be under her care.

    Nearly 30 years later I was driving through Tarrytown with my wife and kids on a snowy winters night and my wife alerted me to a young woman walking by herself, and who was wearing a cardigan of all things. I slowed down, she turned to me, waved and smiled. It was a sad smile. I have no idea who she was. I just wanted to leave it alone.

    I no longer live in Westchester but I am aware MM has closed. I often wonder about my Snow Queen. I later found out that Marymount had a Show Queen Festival back in the 1940’s.

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