October has always been a month when you begin feeling chills from the weather — and from the spooky stories that are shared. From the dead body on campus to the ghost in Lib, the following are only some examples of ghost and spirit encounters on campus.
Di’Anna Bonomolo ’20 has heard multiple ghost stories at Choate. “One was about a guy named Utus in the Library dorm. A group of Choate students were playing with an Ouija board and swore on their lives that they didn’t influence it. The ghost spelled his name out. Of course, I don’t usually believe in that stuff, but people who live in the dorm say they hear footsteps from upstairs in the attic all the time. At one point, a friend of mine named CC and other people went up into the attic and ended up getting locked in it. Pretty creepy stuff. Another story was told by Mrs. Amanda Arcand. She heard someone shushing her baby over the baby monitor, but no one else was there. The last story I’ve heard about recently was about a ghost living in someone’s room at Arch, and the girl thought it was her roommate’s figure behind her. When she turned around, her roommate wasn’t there, but she could feel the essence of her,” Bonomolo stated.
Ms. Judy Donald, Choate Archivist, also shared her knowledge on the spirits on campus. “On Reunion weekend in 1992, there was a program honoring the immurement of the ashes of Caroline Ruutz-Rees and Mary Elizabeth Lowndes. According to the 1992 Choate Rosemary Hall Magazine, the immurement was ‘one of the most moving events of reunion,’” said Donald. More than 60 people attended the event\. Caroline G. Ruutz-Rees Stafford ’62, granddaughter of Caroline Ruutz-Rees said, “I am delighted that Rosemary Hall is in Wallingford and my grandmother would be too.” Their ashes had been at the Rosemary Hall campus in Greenwich and then brought here with the move in 1971. If you go up to the Ruutz-Rees building, you can see the stone tablet to the left of the front door. On the tablet is inscribed, in Greek, ‘To you, fair ones, this mind of mine can never change.’”
Bonomolo has also heard some rumors about a dead body hidden inside a wall somewhere on campus. “I remember a lot of people definitely mentioning it. I’m just not sure about the actual details or which building.”
Ms. Donald disproved this rumor. “Technically, there are no bodies buried on campus, but the ashes of two of our illustrious past heads of school are entombed in one of our buildings.”
Although it seems as though no one has stood face-to-face with a spirit on campus, Bonomolo remarked, “I feel like a lot of the older buildings and dorms like Pitman and Squire are really sketchy though. I’ve heard rumors about there being a tunnel between Nichols and Mem, and there is probably some creepy stuff that happens in the basements of these dorms. But I have never had any spooky encounters on campus.”
On the other hand, Mr. Deron Chang, Director of Curricular Initiatives, says he has not heard of any ghost stories on campus. “The only thing was not really spooky — more ghostly— a couple of days after our dog Jack died, I heard him walking on our hardwood floor in the dining room of our McCook House when I was working in my study. When I went to investigate, the tick tick tick of his nails on the floor stopped,” Chang said.
The general consensus seems to be that as we grow older in age and gain more knowledge of the world around us, the haunting aspect of Halloween has just seemed to lose its relevance. Yet no one has been able to disprove the existence of ghosts and spirits. Therefore, be wary, because you are never too sure if a ghost or the spirit of a school founder just happens to be watching you in the corner of your room.
Graphic by Chandler Littleford/The Choate News
