October kicks off a number of yearly traditions, one of the most popular being Halloween. Celebrated on Oct. 31, Halloween is a time to get scared while eating buckets of candy. Some people get their dose of Halloween chills by watching scary movies or going to a haunted house. What about going to a haunted university? Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) may not be listed in the “Top 10 Scariest Places in Texas,” but students have heard a few rumors concerning ghosts and ghouls around campus. Get ready to travel on a journey of scary proportions.
Manning Hall J.R.
Manning Hall is known as the first campus building at TAMUK. Construction for the building was completed on May 6, 1925. During its first semester, Manning housed 16 offices, a library, 21 classrooms and six laboratories.
Although the building has three floors, the third floor is blocked off from students. Restriction from the third floor has raised questions about why it was closed off in the first place.
“I’ve been to the third floor once. It has low ceilings and arches… it’s like an attic,” said Lori K. Atkins, University Archivist at TAMUK “No one would tell me why [the third floor was closed]. But there’s different articles in the archives you could look at.”
Over the years, people have developed different stories as to why the university decided to close-off part a floor of its oldest buildings. A popular rumor is that the third floor is haunted. People say that the third floor is haunted by a ghost that moves desks and chairs.
According to the rumor, a janitor was cleaning up late and became terrorized by the apparition Celest Lopez and Schlaine Wynn, both Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSDO) majors at TAMUK, explain the story they’ve heard about from other friends.
“I remember that there was a janitor and that he was working late…something appeared, but there was nobody there,” Lopez said. “Also, the janitor would clean, then turn around, but the desk he had moved would change and sometimes appear sideways,” Wynn said.
However, John Collins, a janitor who works late at night in Manning, says there are logical explanations to some of the sounds in Manning. “In Manning, it’s possible it’s just the ceiling creaking and not ghosts,” Collins said, “There’s a few times when you bump into something or not bump into something, literary speaking, but where you may hear something, but you can’t quite figure out what it was. Most of the time it can be explained. Not everything is a ghost, at least in my opinion. I have experienced things that I couldn’t even explain so; therefore, it’s still unexplained. There’s stories, rumors and legends, but a lot of times it’s just pipes creaking in the woodwork.”
College Hall
Often called the Bell Tower, College Hall was completed in 1949. The Bell Tower has been a symbol of TAMUK for years, making appearances in certificates and Javelina merchandise and advertisements.
However, there is an eerie rumor about the well-known Bell Tower. Students claim seeing a person hanging by a rope late at night. “There’s like a rope, and then it looks like someone’s head is hanging. There’s a shadow at every single corner… I heard there was some janitor who hung himself or something….You can see it from every corner on campus every night.” Whitney Walker, a TAMUK student, claims.
However, this is considered a “debunked” rumor. The supposed “hang’”man shadow is actually an optical illusion caused by the lights hitting the pillars. “I’ve heard quite a few things about haunted things around campus. People used to talk about how in the bell tower, you would see a man up there at night, but it’s just a reflection of the pole. Personally, I’m not on campus late, but I’m pretty sure if you stayed on campus late, you’d probably see something occur, but personally, I haven’t,” said Mariah Reyna, a TAMUK student.
Lynch Dorms
The Lynch Dorms are an all-female dorm at TAMUK. It houses more than 200 students and some claim it’s also the home of lost souls. “I’ve heard the female dorm is haunted. Apparently, a bunch of apparitions show up there,” Noah Reyes, animal science pre-vet major, said.
Alexus Hernandez, special education major, works as a resident advisor (RA).RAs are in charge of monitoring the halls of their assigned dorm building. Although she now works in Bishop Hall, she used to be an RA in Lynch Hall, where her friends would tell her some personal spooky stories.
“I worked there last year [in Lynch]. Apparently, they say that there is a ghost in there. Things would go missing, and you’d be like, ‘hey, bring it back,’ but they wouldn’t find it,” Hernandez said.
Martin Dorms
The male dorm, Martin Hall, has had its share of ghostly apparitions. Several students claim there was an exorcism in one of the rooms, which is no longer available for residents to use.
“I’ve heard that Martin had an exorcism, which is true. Then they closed of a room in the third floor of Martin… avoid it all costs,” Briana Kidd, criminology major said. “They closed the room off, and now it’s a janitor’s closet,” Katelin Bar, fashion merchandising major, said
Edward N. Jones Auditorium
A popular location for plays, concerts and speakers, Jones Auditorium is also a hot spot for unexplained phenomenon. Built in 1942, the building is rumored to have caused the death of a construction worker.
“In Jones Auditorium, there’s rumors that one of the construction workers fell into concrete that wasn’t set yet, and they couldn’t recover the body. So, his body is incased in concrete underneath Jones, auditorium,” Mathew Bast, mechanical engineering major, said. Bast also stated that he always gets an eerie feeling whenever he passes through Jones Auditorium alone at night.