The Hauntings of Sarah Lawrence
Marshall Field, one of the buildings on campus with frequent reports of hauntings.
*Content Warning: This piece contains mentions of blood, violence, death, suicide, and mental illness
On the second floor of Schmidt behind a door simply labeled ATTIC is a staircase leading to three rooms. The Schmidt attic door remained inexplicably unlocked for most of the fall 2018 semester, blowing open at random. Lauren Ashby ‘21 who lived on the second floor of Schmidt right next to the attic door describes the attic space as “really gross and creepy.” Ashby elaborates: “When you go upstairs, there’s fake blood all over the walls. There’s a used condom, there’s a really regal clawfoot tub, and a cabinet with, many, many, many year old medical supplies… And there’s bloody handprints and stuff.”
But the Schmidt attic is only one of several spaces on campus thought to be haunted.
Marshall Field is supposedly the most haunted building on campus. Superstitious students and staff have been known to avoid the building at night. A campus security officer said that they don’t avoid any particular buildings on campus, but that “Marshall Field can be weird sometimes.” When asked to elaborate, he said that Marshall Field has a “weird energy.”
Claire Lewis ‘21 also describes a strange energy in Marshall Field: “I’ve heard a piano playing, but there was no one there. I don't know what that means. I mean, someone could have walked out and I didn't see them, but I don't know. And I [have] felt cold spots in Marshall Field and in Westlands, and I’ve heard stories from other students of having similar experiences like that in both Westlands and Marshall Field and the PAC.” A student reporter for the campus newspaper wrote in 2000 that “Sometimes piano music can be heard playing from rehearsal rooms or other areas that are found empty.”
Legend reported in these archived campus newspapers says that the building is haunted by the ghost of a young girl who disappeared during a game of hide-and-seek. Her family never found her, and eventually moved away. Her body was discovered in a trunk years later. Now, her ghost has allegedly remained in the house. If the ghosts like the music students play, they might encourage the musician. A 2000 article in the college archives says that a violinist reportedly heard the words, “‘Don’t stop’” spoken by a ghost while they were playing.
Other accounts of Marshall Field’s supposed haunting arise appear in these old campus newspaper articles. Doors at Marshall Field are supposedly left open after security has locked up, or have been heard opening and closing in the building from students standing outside when it is empty and locked. Students reported seeing a “light figure,” feeling paranormal energy in room 9, and hearing screaming from empty rooms.
A student in 2000 said he was once stuck in one of the rooms in Marshall Field for half an hour. He resorted to screaming for help clawing at the door frame, leaving scratch marks in the wood, only to find that the door mysteriously opened on its own.
There have also been two reports of a “bloody woman” in Marshall Field documented the archives’ collection of campus newspapers. One was a woman covered in blood standing at the top of a staircase, the other story described a bloody woman banging on the walls. Some students, however, say that this is uncharacteristic of the Marshall Field ghosts, who are typically described as benevolent.
Sarah Lawrence alumna Astrid Lundberg ‘18 directed the a cappella group Trebel in Paradise from fall 2016 - spring 2018. Trebel practices are held weekly in Marshall Field, giving Lundberg an insider’s scoop on the building’s supposed ghosts, but she isn’t sure if any ghosts truly reside there. “I think in a sense there is a genuine presence in Marshall Field that has human qualities and intentions, and I don't think that’s necessarily a ghost. I just think that’s what happens in spaces where many generations of people are making music… If I were to find out that that feeling and that presence were a person like a ghost person, I would be happy about that. I think that ghosts would be my friend,” she says.
That said, Lundberg and her Trebel cohorts have noticed some strange activity in Room 23 of Marshall Field, where the group often holds their rehearsals. That room specifically is thought to be haunted, possibly by the woman in the portrait there. Lundberg says that sometimes during practices, students thought they saw the doorknob turn when no one was on the other side. Professor Sungrai Sohn teaches chamber music in Marshall Field, and some of his students have told him about a woman in a rocking chair in that same room, despite the space’s lack of an actual rocking chair.
Lundberg also discusses an experience with a possible phantom reading over her shoulder in the music library. “I was sitting in the Marshall Field library… working on an overdue paper as you do, and I was looking down at my computer, and I saw a tall male-looking figure, tall and thin, dressed in black and white –– white shirt, dark trousers –– walk in through the front door of the library. I thought it was someone I know, so I looked up, and that figure was no longer there in my direct vision. I looked back at my computer. The first time it was my left eye peripheral vision at the front door of the library, and then the same figure in my right eye peripheral vision walks in from the commuter room in the library and sort of stands diagonally behind me to my right, as if looking over my shoulder. I look up. It’s not there in my direct vision. I sat there for a while, I finished the paper, and I looked up and I did not see the figure anymore in my peripheral or direct vision.”
Christina Sweeney is the circulation services and music librarian at Marshall Field. She also experienced something strange in the library last year with an object she thought was a CD box, but is actually some sort of music box which only plays one song. “I was in [the music library] early in the semester by myself, and there all of a sudden I hear that sound. I’d never heard it before because no one had ever turned it on. I go, ‘that’s weird, did someone leave their cell phone behind and just has weird old country music as their ringtone?’ And I go to check where it’s coming from, and I was like, ‘that’s weird that it’s coming from there.’ No one was in [the music library] to turn it on or do anything to trigger it. No one had been in here other than myself for 20 minutes, half an hour. I’m convinced it was a ghost.”
Professor Sohn, who has an office on the basement level, says that he saw a figure pass by his office door one morning before the building opened to students. One morning when he came in early, he saw a figure pass by his office door. “I usually keep this door open when I practice. And Marshall Field is completely closed then –– only faculty members can come in with their cards. And I’m practicing and I turned around and there’s somebody in a white gown,” he recalls. Professor Sohn says that he ran out, but he did not see the woman, who he described as appearing in her mid-twenties. He says that the experience got him a little spooked, “After that, I always close my door when I practice.”
Andrews house, MacCracken, Bates and the PAC are all rumored to be haunted. Brazen students even had success with a seance last year in the PAC. Lisa Negro and a group of students went into the Open Space at the bottom of the PAC at midnight with a ouija board and claim to have made contact with a spirit. Sophomore Corinne Alexander confirms that the ouija board said it was a little girl who was murdered by her aunt.
In Andrews House students have attributed minor issues to ghost activity: computers shutting off, power outages, and missing belongings have often been blamed on the paranormal.
Unexplained activity also occurs commonly in Hill House, particularly in the form of loud noises. Hill House 3G has been a particular hotbed for suspected paranormal activity. Past residents of Hill House 3G say they frequently heard strange noises coming from above them, even when all of their neighbors were sleeping.
Residents of 3G also hear sounds through their bathroom vent, some of which cannot be directly attached to Hill House residents. “My roommate heard an old man crying through the vents. I've heard people singing. Other people have heard my music playing,” says Julianna Markham-Adkinson ‘22.
Noise isn’t the only strange activity in 3G. One resident who lived in 3G in the 2017-18 academic year, says that she sometimes saw “weird balloons floating around” in the apartment. Markham-Adkinson lived in 3G last year and would frequently lose some of her belongings, particularly earrings. “Lots of shiny things have gone missing” she describes. Markham-Adkinson recalls that she lost her keys in her first semester in 3G, and that both she and her suitemate lost several earrings. Oddly, each time only one earring a pair would be unaccounted for.
Other areas of Hill House have also been suspected of hauntings. Lundberg recalls that when she lived in 2K, the radiator made strange noises, but “Not normal radiator noises, human crying noises and laughing noises,” she says. She also remembers that the shower would spontaneously turn on when no one was in the bathroom.
Hill House has been called “demonic” along with another of Sarah Lawrence’s largest residence halls: the New Dorms. In the New Dorms, ghost stories find their main place in Taylor. According to legend, in the ‘60s a dance third painted a black target at the bottom of the stairs between Taylor and Garrison. Her class was invited to watch her conference piece, where she danced to the top of the stairs and jumped to her death, falling onto the target on the floor. More stories from the archives’ collection of campus newspapers include words that mysteriously appear on a wall in Taylor, mirrors that have ghosts in them and act “like a passageway,” a ritual performed in the bathroom released a spirit, and the building is, simply, “evil.”
Shea Sprague ‘22 says of her former room, Taylor B-10, “I just get kind of an eerie feeling in here.” Liz Stafford, another former-resident of Taylor B-10, adds that the windows and doors open randomly, although she notes it could just be the wind. The roommates also believe the Taylor B bathroom may also be haunted. They say, “when you’re in there you kind of get the creeps,” and things often go missing, including the shower curtains and a soap dispenser. A Sarah Lawrence student who graduated in 1994 is recorded in the college newspaper archives for use of one of the Taylor bathrooms for a film project. The space was chosen for the project specifically because of the student’s feeling that the bathroom was “really really creepy.” The article did not mention which bathroom in Taylor the student was referring to.
Also situated on main campus, Westlands also has been the subject of ghostly speculation. The building is said to be haunted by the ghost of the Lawrence family’s maid, who Westlands residents in 2016 affectionately named Gertrude. Legend says that Sarah Bates Lawrence murdered the maid by pushing her down the stairs. Gertrude supposedly haunts the third floor of Westlands, which is the building’s student residence hall. Isabella Vargas ‘20 describes how Gertrude got her name. “I lived in Westlands C7 in 2016, my first year. My roommates and I had heard the stories about Westlands being haunted and about Sarah Lawrence pushing a maid down the stairs. The door to our room would mysteriously creak open and slam shut, and we attributed this to the ghost of the maid. After a while, the three of us decided to give her the name Gertrude, Gertie for short. It spread throughout the rest of the Westies, and I guess it just stuck with the rest of campus,” she says. Gertrude’s story inspired student actors to play the characters of Sarah Lawrence and Gertrude last October in the Westlands haunted house.
Perhaps serving as evidence to the Westlands hauntings, lights reportedly flicker, and it is also rumored that one Westlands resident goes insane every year. Erica Amabile ‘20 heard from another student that if you stand in a certain spot on the lawn at night, you may see the silhouette of Sarah Lawrence herself. Or it could just be the shadow of a Westlands resident eating a midnight snack. It’s true that most of the reports strange happenings have explanations unrelated to the paranormal and that most of the suspected hauntings of Sarah Lawrence aren’t much more than student-created lore. But you might want to keep the light on, just in case.
Camryn Sanchez, ‘21