McKendree University

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This college has seen its share of tragedy, and the spiritual activity reported here can attest to that. On the main campus, it is said that a distraught student once hung himself in the bell tower, and his ghost has been seen on the upper floors. In the Alumni House, an elderly woman was killed when she fell down the stairs, and her husband hung himself in the building shortly thereafter. It is also said that a baby died of pneumonia here, and the back office, which used to be the nursery, permanently stays very cold. Footsteps can be heard throughout the lower floors, and red eyes are said to appear and watch visitors from the gardening shed. In Carnegie, 3 ghosts are said to reside. TVs have been known to come on or change channels. Eerie feelings and suddenly being grabbed have been reported. In the chapel, the organ is said to play by itself, and footsteps can be heard running down the middle of the sanctuary, although there is no center aisle.

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    Geographic Information

    Address:
    701 College Rd
    Lebanon, IL 62254
    United States

    Get Directions »
    GPS:
    38.60879197823684, -89.81551989206542
    County:
    St. Clair County, Illinois
    Nearest Towns:
    Lebanon, IL (0.6 mi.)
    Summerfield, IL (3.5 mi.)
    Scott Air Force Base, IL (4.9 mi.)
    O'Fallon, IL (5.3 mi.)
    Shiloh, IL (5.5 mi.)
    Trenton, IL (7.2 mi.)
    Saint Jacob, IL (7.7 mi.)
    New Baden, IL (8.0 mi.)
    Mascoutah, IL (8.3 mi.)
    Rentchler, IL (8.7 mi.)

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    Comments (7)

    1. Old Main is also haunted. It is currently home to the Financial Aid and Registrar’s offices on the first floor, and the doors have been known to open after being firmly latched and one can hear footsteps below the bathrooms even though there is no basement.

    2. It was my great grandfather, John Chamberlin, who hung himself in what we called the yellow room. The room is to the right at the end of the upstairs hallway and was a bedroom. The morning my great grandfather was to depart for California, he asked my grandfather, Charles Earl Chamberlin for a rope to tie up his trunk. He tied the the rope to the inside part of the closet doorknob and passed it over the door. I used to ask people to run their finger across the top of the door and tell me what they felt. They felt the groove made by the rope. They also felt an intense feeling of cold throughout their body – starting at the finger that passed over the groove, and which traveled down their body to their feet. Since our old house has become the alumni house, I wonder if the yellow room is someone’s office. If so, please tell them to avoid feeling for the groove atop the closet door and not to be surprised should the door swing open violently. It has done that many times.

    3. When I was going to school here, my English professor told us all that he went into Carnegie Hall to his office on the 2nd floor to get some work done in the afternoon. Since it was a holiday, there was no one else inside the building. He said that after about 10 or so minutes of his arrival, he started hearing the desks on the floor above his office moving around, as if a classroom full of students were rearranging the desks. Knowing he was the only person there, he quickly packed up his stuff and bolted out of there. I’ve taken many classes on that 3rd floor, and well, I never liked being there at night. It was super creepy, for sure.

    4. The performing arts building is also haunted. I was told it used to be a stable before it was a gym and theater, so I’m not sure of all the history that happened with all that, but my dance teacher and I have heard doors opening and closing and what we assume to be piano benches moving in the practice rooms. In the Hett, there’s an urban legend that Mrs. Hettenhausen’s spirit inhabitates her pain in the choir room. The stall doors in the women’s restroom behind the ticket booth slam around when there’s no one else in there and sinks randomly start and stop. Show choir kids all make sure to say hi to “Fern” before they go in so they don’t literally get the crap scared out of them. I think one of the traditional dorms is haunted too, the one with the creepy basement, maybe Baker?

      • It is Baker. I lived in 214 last year, the room rumored for a past suicide, and I kept seeing people late at night walking in the middle of my room out of the corner of my eye. It was always while I was using my computer and out of the corner of my eye. It got as close as my left shoulder. I also got growled at in that room, but found no escape because the hallways is reminiscent of an abandoned hospital. I have had many experiences in Carnegie and Clark as well, doors slammed on me, got grabbed on my right arm, and a projector turned on while we were in 301, and nobody was remotely near the computer. This was in direct response to a previous question asked. Have a Class A EVP from Clark 2nd floor, and one of my good friends nearly was pushed down the stairs of Carnegie.

    5. Etienne Francois  |  

      Etienne Francois,
      Having been a student of music at this University there were many times when practicing upon the organ’s Great Manual that all of a sudden the Swell Manual played independently of myself. Typically it was often warm in the upper area of the Chapel except when I had these experiences; then it was rather chilly. The first time I experienced this I got off the bench and took a couple steps away from the organ. Whatever was there kept playing upon the Swell Manual; and, stepping away from the bench the temperature was once again warm where I was standing. Occasionally, while working upon an organ concerto the Swell played the Orchestral part. When I spoke of this to my Professor I was asked to keep it to myself, and I did so.
      While rehearsing a piano piece for four hands in Ryder Hall in the lower level of Bothwell, I had the experience of something/one playing the accompanying upper two hands next to me. Then too, the area where I was seated got chilly.
      Oddly enough who/whatever performed these pieces with me was exceptional for they never made an error, followed my learning tempos and did not seem to be afraid to be with me (although it was alarming when it first happened). This often joined me for rehearsing in the later hours of the day when I had registered to practice.

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