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Haunted Libraries in Delaware, DC, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa

Delaware

•    Dover Public Library. Not haunted, but the library’s technical services department keeps the skull and a few loose teeth of notorious Maryland slave dealer and kidnapper Patty Cannon (d. 1822) in a hatbox. The staff is happy to show it to visitors on request.

District of Columbia

•    U.S. Capitol Building, Rotunda. The Library of Congress once inhabited the rooms to the west of the Rotunda. A male librarian allegedly haunts the area, looking for $6,000 he stashed in the pages of some obscure volumes. (The money was found in 1897 when the collection moved to the Jefferson Building.)

Florida

•    Miami, Southwest Miami Senior High School. Books in the media center are often rearranged and the lights flicker.

•    Tampa, Howard W. Blake High School. A cold spot can be felt around the tables in the back of the library.

•    West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Atlantic University library. A janitor who disappeared mysteriously haunts the library near an old janitor’s closet.

Illinois

•    Cairo, A. B. Safford Memorial Library. A ghost nicknamed Toby reportedly hangs out in the special collections room on the second floor of this 1884 building. “I’m here a lot of times by myself at night, and I do hear many different sounds like someone walking around upstairs,” director Monica Smith said. “Many times I come back and find the lights on that we turned off in that room. I definitely think there is a presence there.” Former librarian Louise Ogg and another staffer once saw a ghostly light rise up from behind a desk, pass slowly by her office, and disappear into the book stacks. There used to be a rocking chair in the library that made creaking noises by itself, as if someone were rocking it. “You kinda get used to it,” Smith said.

•    Decatur, Millikin University, Gorin Library. A room in the basement is supposed to be haunted by a maintenance worker who was accidentally killed there.

•    Godfrey, Lewis and Clark Community College, Reid Memorial Library. This institution started life in 1838 as Monticello College. Harriet Haskell, an ardent feminist who directed the college from 1868 to 1912, haunts the library that stands on the spot of a former chapel. One incident in the 1970s involved a young librarian who felt a hand touch her on the shoulder blade. She was so scared that she closed the library and left. Two prominent cold spots have been noticed in the reading room.

•    McHenry, McHenry East High School. The library metal detectors go off for no reason on the last day of the school year.

•    Normal, Illinois State University, Williams Hall. The ghost of ISU’s first librarian, Angie Milner (d. 1928), has been seen by several faculty, staff, and students. Archives Specialist Jo Rayfield sensed a “kind, gentle” presence one day while looking at microfilm. Others have reported cold spots, a white figure, and books restacked in an odd fashion. The building is used for the Illinois Regional Archives Depository and stores infrequently used books owned by the Milner Library (named after Angie).

•    Peoria Public Library. Mrs. Andrew Gray, who owned the land where the library now stands, uttered a curse in 1847 that allegedly resulted in the untimely deaths of three library directors in the early 20th century. The first was killed in a streetcar accident in 1915, and the second died from a heart attack suffered after a heated debate at a library board meeting in 1921. Ever since 1924 when the third committed suicide by swallowing arsenic, Peoria library directors have lived long, fruitful lives. Employees have allegedly seen ghostly faces in the basement.

•    Peru Washington School. A disturbed school librarian supposedly killed three students and herself April 12, 1956, in the library. Since then, students have reported hearing screams and seeing an apparition.

Indiana

•    Evansville, Willard Library. A “lady in gray” has been seen in this 1884 Victorian Gothic building since 1937. The specter sports a scent of perfume that is often sensed near the elevator, near the rest rooms, or in the children’s room. Occasionally staff will walk into cold spots. Former Director William Goodrich said the lady appeared once on a security monitor placed near the rest rooms. One theory is that the ghost is Louise Carpenter, the daughter of the library’s founder. Louise once sued the library’s trustees, claiming that her father was “of unsound mind and was unduly influenced in establishing [Willard] Library.” She lost the suit and, as a result, her claim to any of the library’s property. The Evansville Courier and Press set up three ghostcams in the research room, the children’s room, and the basement; images can be examined at www.willardghost.com.

•    Fort Wayne, University of Saint Francis Library, Bass Mansion. A student suicide is said to be the source of cold spots and occasional apparitions.

•    Greencastle, DePauw University, Roy O. West Library. An old story has the ghost of James Whitcomb, Indiana’s governor from 1843 to 1848, appearing to students who took home books that he had donated to the library.

•    Madison–Jefferson County Public Library. Women riding the elevator sometimes find themselves patted or caressed. A young man confined to a wheelchair is said to have lived in the Powell residence before the library moved to the site in 1930. The ghost has been nicknamed Charlie.
•    North Webster Elementary School. A young boy wearing khakis and a blue sweater is sometimes seen in the library trying to check out books.

•    Poseyville Carnegie Public Library. After the town expanded and rededicated this 1905 building in 2000, staff and volunteers began to feel that someone was watching them. Several staffers also reported sounds like someone was entering the building when the door was locked, though no one could be seen on the security camera. Library Assistant Sheryl Taylor was the first to see the ghost in the winter of 2001, a matronly woman surrounded by a hazy mist. The four computers in the old Carnegie section are always having problems, while those in the new section behave perfectly.

Iowa

•    Cedar Rapids Art Museum. Prior to 1985 this building housed the Cedar Rapids Public Library. An apparent case of “crisis apparition” occurred sometime in the late 1960s when a longtime patron was seen in the library shortly after she had died in a fire.

•    Cedar Rapids, Brucemore Mansion. Strange groans and laughter can be heard and objects move by themselves in the library of this 1886 home.

•    Council Bluffs, Union Pacific Railroad Museum. A 1903 Carnegie library until taken over and renovated by the museum in 1998, this building’s basement was supposed to be haunted. Books would fly off the shelves, items disappeared, and people saw shadowy figures.
Kansas
•    Dodge City, Soule Intermediate Center. The library of this former high school used to be haunted by the ghost of a student who died in the school.

•    Hutchinson Public Library. The ghost of Ida Day Holzapfel, head librarian from 1915 to 1925 and 1947 to 1954, has been seen and heard since her death in California in 1954, according to the October 31, 1975, Hutchinson News. Library staffer Rose Hale said she saw a lady standing below the stairs one day. She did not know the woman’s name, but when she described the woman to another library employee, Hale was told she had just described Ida Day. Other employees claim to have heard footsteps in the basement, and it became a shared joke that whenever anything was misplaced or missing, Ida Day took it. The stacks area in the southwest corner of the basement is notorious for cold spots, disembodied voices, and hazy apparitions.