The 3rd Theatre Ghost

Though you have already read about two other ghosts that live in Alumni Hall, there is still one more. This building is haunted by three ghosts, the last one being Mr. Steve. Mr. Steve is not to be confused with Steve Zumbrun who plays piano for auditions for the theater sometimes. Mr. Steve was a man who ran the costume shop. Some theater professors remember him very well. He passed away years ago and now haunts the costume shop. He will rattle the cages that contain all of the costumes. Scissors and measuring tapes will go missing. Many costumer designers absolutely hate being down there. Mr. Steve is an unpleasant ghost and is unhappy when students make a mess or steal shoes, etc.

Whiteford Hall, Ghost #2

A few years ago, there was a shy young woman who was moved into the dorm at the end of the hall in Whiteford on the fourth floor, the room just next to the green staircase door. She was a depressed and introverted student. It was hard for her to make friends. She loathed college but her parents insist she stay and finish out the year at McDaniel. The girl took an on campus Jan Term class that year and a few days after she moved on campus to take the class, she committed suicide by slitting her wrists in her room. She bled all over the floor.

Her teacher supposed she had dropped the class and she wasn’t friends with anyone on campus, so she was not missed. Her parents didn’t find it unusual that their daughter didn’t call home—she rarely did during the previous semester. It was not until the weekend before the beginning of second semester that the girl was found. The other students on the floor were complaining about an awful smell that was coming from the room at the end of the hall. Maintenance came to Whiteford to check it out. They had to key into the room and were horrified at the sight of a bloody, decaying mess in front of them on the floor. The blood stained the floor and now the fourth floor hall is carpeted and that particular room is said to be the only carpeted room in the building. Students who have lived in that room since have complained about loud shrieking in the middle of the night, waking up in the morning with enormous bruises and little nicks and cuts on their arms.

Whiteford Hall

The Blue Boy is a little boy ghost who haunts Whiteford Hall, the freshman women’s dormitory. When Whiteford was being constructed in the 1950s and 1960s, one of the construction workers brought his little boy to the site. The little boy loved to play with marbles. His father often let him go off on his own on the site. While the workers were assembling the second floor, the boy went to the other side and started playing with his marbles on the unfinished second story. One of his marbles, his favorite, rolled away from him. The little boy jumped up and dashed after it. It rolled off the edge of the unfinished floor and the boy followed. He fell to his death. The Blue Boy’s presence can be heard. The sound of marbles rolling across the floor is the identifying sound. Students claim to hear marbles being rolled on the floor, and residents claim to not be the ones responsible for this noise.

However, the Blue Boy is not the only ghost that haunts Whiteford Hall.

Tragic Love Story

Two students of Western Maryland College were very much in love. Betsy was a young woman who had fallen in love with the academically top ranking senior in his class. This young man was given the enormous dorm room at the very top of Elderdice because of his prize winning GPA.

Betsy and her boyfriend had to meet in secret to perform certain activities that would be frowned upon by the faculty and the parents. They met in the college’s ice house—which is now the gazebo. After becoming sexually active in the ice house, Betsy discovered that she was pregnant. In a time where an unwed young woman would suffer the cruel rejection of society because of pre-marital sex and a baby on the way, Betsy became horrified at the prospect of telling her boyfriend about his unborn baby. Betsy killed herself in her dorm room.

Betsy’s boyfriend was madly in love with her. He had all sorts of plans post college for himself and Betsy. He planned to marry her and dreamed they would have a happy life. His friends informed him that Betsy had committed suicide. The young man was distraught and it was determined that Betsy had been pregnant. He was heartbroken. He wished she had told him—he would have married her in a heartbeat! He went to his room in Elderdice and killed himself. His ghost still haunts the room at the top of Elderdice. He bangs things and throws things around. Students who live in Elderdice report that there are sometimes screams and groans heard from the direction of the haunted dorm room. The young man is still enraged over Betsy’s suicide. No one is allowed up in that room because the steps leading to it are crumbling and are very dangerous for someone to walk on. Betsy can be seen wearing all white and just walking back and forth between McDaniel and the gazebo. She is waiting for her lover to come back to the gazebo.

Dorthy

Not only is the Theatre of McDaniel College haunted by Harvey, it is also said to be haunted by Dorthy. Dorothy Elderdice was a woman who gave much to the theater. There is a plaque of her in the Green Room. The rumor is that she cries blood if a show is bad. This is a very silly story but sometimes, a person can hear footsteps of an old woman in high heels walking down the hall past the Green Room.

Harvey

Harvey is one of the ghosts that resides in Alumni Hall, or the theatre. He is the most popular and appreciated theatre ghost. There are two different stories about Harvey how he became a ghost, and I will share both with you.

The first, more romantic story, is that Harvey was a student in the early 20th century at Western Maryland when WMC was still affiliated with the United Methodist Church. His family wanted him to become a Methodist reverend. Harvey felt this decision would leave him no room for his love of theatre. Harvey desperately wanted to please him family but he also could not imagine his life without theatre. His family abhorred his desire for theatre and insisted on the church. The evening before his graduation from WMC, Harvey, overcome with depression, doubt, and guilt, killed himself from the center of the balcony in the theater.

The second story is that he was a student living in Blanche Ward Hall. There was a party one weekend and, drunkenly, Harvey sat on the edge of a window and lost his balance and fell to the ground, three stories. He broke many bones and cracked his skull. His friends managed to call 911 and ran down the stairs and outside. They picked him up and carried him to the front of the theater so that the ambulance could just grab him when they arrived. Unfortunately, Harvey died on the steps of the theater.

Harvey is a “good ghost”. He can be spotted by students before a show goes up. It is meant as good luck. He is often blamed when lights in the building flicker or if any weird noises are heard.

What is this blog about?

I go to school in Westminster, Maryland. This small city is known for its ghosts stories, as is the college that I attend. I go to McDaniel College, a small liberal arts school in Westminster. There are many ghost stories that are passed around on campus, and I want to provide a hub for all those stories. This school was founded in 1867, so it is old and does have opportunity for friendly hauntings. This blog has been designed for me to share my findings of ghost stories in Westminster and the rest of Maryland. However, it does not need to stop there. Any good ghost stories will do, regardless of where they happened. I am going to interview students on campus and see what they have heard/seen/experienced. This will allow me to branch out and provide better information.

Share your own ghost stories with us!