I just thought about this when talking about Rollins Hall with one of my friends.
Disclaimer: I'm not a superstitious guy at all. I believe that there is an explanation for just about everything.
That being said:
I worked as Office of Admissions tour guide and Office Specialist for four years as a student. Since I was technically a student worker, I wasn't able to get paid holidays off like most of my other coworkers. So some holidays, I was given a key to access the building (they really trusted me) to do my work. As an old building, I expected to hear the all-too-familiar sounds of settling floors and walls. However one evening I heard something more.
As I was closing up shop for the day, around 6pm, I felt a chill down my spine. I looked around the "cube farm" and didn't see anything, so I continued to close up shop. Suddenly I hard a loud thud as if someone had hit the door, but I didn't see anyone when I looked out of the window.
At this point I was a bit on edge, so I grabbed my things and headed for the exit. That's when I heard, what sounded like, children laughing and playing in the pool.
(For those who didn't know, there is a large swimming pool tucked away inside of Rollins Hall. The swimming team started using it again when the old Fieldhouse was torn down and it was occasionally used by the coast guard for training exercises. In 2001 some neighborhood kids broke into the building and two drowned in that very same pool.)
I KNEW that I was the only one in the building, but to be sure I climbed the stairs and made my way to the balcony overlooking the pool.
NOT A SINGLE RIPPLE IN THE WATER.
I couldn't get out of that building fast enough.
I was bored, so I figured I'd share.
That's wild. I never had an experience like that on campus, luckily. Won't make assertions about what is or isn't, but I've had a few experiences elsewhere. It must have been really weird experiencing that in an office environment, though. My experiences were in the suicide ward of an old asylum and an Underground Railroad house, places where that sort of thing isn't totally unexpected.
I probably would have sprinted out of there and got hit by a car on Hampton Blvd or something. C.r.e.e.p.y.
Every test I took in Rollins I aced. But those damned ghosts kept changing the answers. I would've gone to Harvard for grad school if it hadn't been for those meddling kids!
(05-11-2015 10:34 AM)odusteeler Wrote: [ -> ]Every test I took in Rollins I aced. But those damned ghosts kept changing the answers. I would've gone to Harvard for grad school if it hadn't been for those meddling kids!
The ghosts in Dragas made me late to a bunch of classes Sophomore year. They locked all but one of the front doors, and the unlocked door was a different one every day!
(05-11-2015 10:34 AM)odusteeler Wrote: [ -> ]Every test I took in Rollins I aced. But those damned ghosts kept changing the answers. I would've gone to Harvard for grad school if it hadn't been for those meddling kids!
Maybe those same ghosts can jazz up my transcripts for grad school? I was nothing but nice to them. I left them alone. lol.
I took senior life saving in that pool back in the late 60's. Some may not know there was also a basketball court connected to that area. The team used it to practice back in the Div. 2 days. Back then we used to get players who had played service ball as enlistees. Once their enlistment ended they played college ball. One year back then we had a very promising ex-navy enlisted player who dropped dead on the court. He had a faulty valve in his heart and it had gone undetected all that time. Could have been him?
Imagination can be a powerful hallucinogen -- at least that's how I explain my one encounter (not Rollins Hall, or even ODU -- my apologies).
It was close to midnight on a summer night in New York, when I decided to take a short cut home from a friend's house through the neighboring church property. I noticed when I passed by that the side door to the chapel was ajar. (It never occurred to me that it might have been a break in -- churches were not considered targets for crime back the 70's.)
When I reached the open door, my curiosity got the better of me. Instead of shutting it and proceeding home as I should have, I snuck into the darkened sanctuary, made my way past the empty pews and up to the alter. After checking out the various books and personal items stashed behind the lectern. I went down to the baptismal font, which our pastor always seemed to make such a big deal over. I assumed that the water was emptied after each service and replenished only when needed.
But, to my surprise, when I lifted the cover of the baptismal font, it contained water. Was it holy water? I carefully dipped my hand in to feel it.
The moment I touched the water, I felt an actual, immediate, physical whoosh from above -- like a silent blast of air coming from a jet-dry machine. There was no noise, and I saw nothing hovering over the top of me. But it felt like a real presence in the sanctuary, one that very definitely did not want me there.
I of course dropped the lid, ran for the door, slammed it behind me, hightailed it for home -- and prayed like the dickens that whatever it was would not follow me into my bedroom. The next Sunday in church, I spent the whole service looking up at the ceiling and silently asking forgiveness for my boldness.
At this point, nearly 40 years later, I am mostly convinced that this was all just the vivid imagination of an insecure kid. But it sure felt real at the time.
When I lived in Shockoe Bottom, my apartment building was on at least one Haunted Richmond tour. I was walking home one night when the tour stopped in front of the building. The tour guide spun a tale of someone who died there, and how in one apartment, whenever a male enters, the toilet seat slammed shut. It wasn't mine, at least.
No hauntings that I remember at ODU, though I'd like to think there's some rat ghosts around University Village and the Ted from when they tore down all the bars.
I've never personally seen anything, but I heard that the KA house at Randolph Macon was VERY haunted.
Of course, the fact that it was also used as a hospital during the civil war could probably have a little something to do with that.
Sometime the brain misinterprets sounds that it hears. Much like lyrics in a song.
I used to hear about this pool. Been in Rollins hall multiple times every year from 05 to 12 and could never figure out where. But if I had to guess where a haunted odu place would be...it would be there.
The pool is disgusting. Haunted? Who knows. Why they still Keep the pool running is beyond me. We trained in that pool once or twice and I'm still trying to get clean. 10 years later.
(05-11-2015 05:15 PM)ConradODU10 Wrote: [ -> ]I used to hear about this pool. Been in Rollins hall multiple times every year from 05 to 12 and could never figure out where. But if I had to guess where a haunted odu place would be...it would be there.
There's a door, located on the Foreman Field side of the building, that is tucked away in the corner between the ROTC entrance and the Admissions Office ADA Accessible ramp entrance, directly adjacent to the employee parking lot. Most never pay attention to it. That door leads to a small hallway with an entrance to the ROTC locker room (directly to the left) and a staircase at the end of the hallway (also to the left). That staircase is across from the entrance to the "cube farm" where I worked and leads directly to a catwalk above the pool.
Anyone heard about this story?
Gresham Dorms – Norfolk
In 2003, a woman and her husband were shot in front of this ODU dorm and the killers were never found. The woman is said to roam around the dorm looking for help for her husband. Sightings of the woman are reported to be most numerous at the ends of the months, but particularly the month of November, when they were killed.
Get Spooked: The Five Most Haunted Places in Virginia
(05-12-2015 12:11 AM)Sirloin Burger Wrote: [ -> ]Anyone heard about this story?
Gresham Dorms – Norfolk
In 2003, a woman and her husband were shot in front of this ODU dorm and the killers were never found. The woman is said to roam around the dorm looking for help for her husband. Sightings of the woman are reported to be most numerous at the ends of the months, but particularly the month of November, when they were killed.
Get Spooked: The Five Most Haunted Places in Virginia
Never heard of that one. I have heard of some other creepy stories involving the river in the Gresham and Rogers vicinity though.
(05-11-2015 10:59 PM)ODUMONARCHZ1 Wrote: [ -> ]I love ghost stories
A lot of people that have worked in Rollins for a long time have stories about weird happenings there. Some claim to have seen things while others claim to have heard weird noises.
Once everyone returned from the holiday break, I mentioned the incident. Man, I was surprised at the sheer number of people who had a story to share (some of these people were well-respected administrators). It also put me even more on edge. lol.
It's called substance induced psychosis. Don't worry, it'll clear up ....eventually.
(05-12-2015 12:11 AM)Sirloin Burger Wrote: [ -> ]Anyone heard about this story?
Gresham Dorms – Norfolk
In 2003, a woman and her husband were shot in front of this ODU dorm and the killers were never found. The woman is said to roam around the dorm looking for help for her husband. Sightings of the woman are reported to be most numerous at the ends of the months, but particularly the month of November, when they were killed.
Get Spooked: The Five Most Haunted Places in Virginia
I was just going to post this. I heard this story a few times.