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Haunted Libraries in Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina and North Dakota

Nebraska

•    Bellevue Public Library. The ghosts of an old man and a 10-year-old girl with large round glasses are said to appear occasionally.

•    Bellwood Elementary School. At night, the apparition of a severely burned woman has been seen standing in the library window.

•    Malcolm, Westfall Elementary School. The spirit of school founder Fern Westfall (d. 1996) knocks books off the library shelves.

New Jersey

•    Old Bernardsville Public Library. Phyllis the library ghost was so active at one time that the staff issued her a library card. Jean Hill, a volunteer in the Local History Room, remarked that Phyllis “was not put on our computer with the rest of us mortals, but her card is always available should she choose to use it.” Beginning in 1974, employees started seeing an apparition moving through the front rooms of the building, which was the Vealtown Tavern during the Revolutionary War. The ghost is said to be that of Phyllis Parker, the innkeeper’s daughter, who suffered a nervous breakdown when her boyfriend, a British spy, was hung in 1777 and delivered to the tavern in a coffin. The fireplace in the former reading room was a focal point for phenomena. Another Local History Room volunteer, Eileen Luz Johnston, wrote a 46-page booklet about the spook titled Phyllis—The Library Ghost? in 1991. One of the last known Phyllis sightings took place in November 1989, when a 3-year-old boy saw a lady in a long, white dress in the reading room and said hello to her. The new public library was built in the 1990s around the corner from the original building.

•    Raritan Public Library, General John Frelinghuysen House. Dating back to the early 18th century, this historic house was partially restored as a library in the early 1970s. Ghost hunter Jane Doherty sensed the presence of several specters here, according to the Bridgewater Courier News, October 14, 1999. One spook turns on lights and moves books after hours, and an elderly woman is seen both in a window and in the garden.

•    West Long Branch, Monmouth University, Murry and Leonie Guggenheim Memorial Library. Completed in 1905 as the summer home of mining and smelting entrepreneur Murry Guggenheim (1858–1939), the estate was converted into the college library in 1961. A lady in white walks down the staircase at midnight when the library closes.

New Mexico

•    Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System, San Pedro Branch. In the evenings, a disembodied voice has allegedly been heard to say, “Please come check out a book.”

New York

•    Aurora, Wells College, Louis Jefferson Long Library. An eerie presence is felt on the third floor of this 1968 building.

•    Clinton, Kirkland Town Library. Phantom footsteps and whispers have been reported.

•    New York City, Joseph Papp Public Theatre. This building housed the Astor Library in the winter of 1859 when Library Director Joseph Green Cogswell (1786–1876) allegedly met the ghost of Austin L. Sands, a wealthy insurance executive, wandering in the alcoves on three separate nights. Lawyer and composer George Templeton Strong (1820–1875) mentioned the event in his diary. The building became the Public Theatre in 1967 with the world premiere of the musical Hair.

•    Rochester, University of Rochester, Rush Rhees Library. A workman killed during the construction of the library in 1929 is said to haunt the old part of the stacks.

•    Tarrytown, Sunnyside. Several years after his death in 1859, three witnesses saw Washington Irving’s ghost walk though the parlor and disappear into the library. Irving’s spirit is said to pinch some female visitors, and the ghosts of his nieces tidy up the place at night after the interpreters leave.

North Carolina

•    Elizabethtown, Bladen County Public Library. A former janitor reported books and furniture moving around in the early morning hours.

•    Hickory, Patrick Beaver Memorial Library. Director Corki Jones said that her predecessor Elbert Ivey has visited the library long after his death. Staff heard his footsteps and doors slamming.

•    Marion, East McDowell Junior High School. Built on the site of an orphanage that burned down, the school’s media center is haunted by the orphanage director who died in the fire. Her figure can be seen on the upstairs balcony.

•    Mooresville, Brawley Middle School. The library is haunted by a middle-aged woman.

•    Raleigh, State Capitol, State Library room. Capitol administrator Samuel P. Townsend Sr. visited the third-floor library in the late 1970s around 1 a.m. and felt cold spots at the doorway and north window. Capitol Curator Raymond Beck also had an uncomfortable feeling in the library late at night in 1981. Paranormal researchers from the Rhine Research Center in Durham detected cold spots and electromagnetic spikes during a 2003 investigation.

•    Saluda, Polk County Public Library, Saluda Branch. Librarians, volunteers, and patrons have heard muted sounds like people talking on the telephone and footsteps on the stairs in this 1919 building that became a library branch in 2000.

•    Taylorsville, Alexander County Library. Library staff saw a woman in a dark coat walk past the circulation desk one night and disappear when the library was closed. Employees have also heard someone rattling the locked door to the workroom and tidying the reference shelves after hours.

•    Washington, Beaufort-Hyde-Martin Regional Library, Old Beaufort County Courthouse. This building dates from about 1786 and was restored in 1971 to accommodate the library on the first floor. The sound of breaking glass is heard occasionally.

•    Wilmington, New Hanover County Public Library. The North Carolina Room harbors the ghost of a woman who frequented the library conducting Civil War research. Librarian Beverly Tetterton said some mornings she has found files spread out on a reading-room table when she had put everything away the night before. Sometimes people report the sounds of pages turning—subtle rustling noises that a “librarian would recognize as the sounds of doing research.” One book in particular, The Papers of Zebulon Baird Vance, has been left out frequently. About 1995, Tetterton related, a 10-year-old boy came into the room to investigate the ghost. “I gave him the Vance book to look at. Later, he walked up and said, ‘Do you think this has anything to do with it?’ Inside the book was an envelope addressed to the person that I thought might be the ghost. I had been through that book hundreds of times and never saw that envelope. I could feel my hair standing straight up.” Another employee once saw the glass door of a locked bookcase shake violently. The woman was seen and recognized on at least one occasion.

•    Winston-Salem, Salem College, Gramley Library. Screams are said to be heard on the third floor where two students were electrocuted in 1907.

North Dakota

•    Bismarck, Liberty Memorial Building. The offices of the North Dakota State Library occupy a basement area where the stacks of the North Dakota Historical Society were housed from 1924 to 1981. Society archivists reported strange presences, footsteps, and voices that they nicknamed the “Stack Monster” and attributed to Indian bones stored in the collections. Current library staff have reported no activity.

•    Harvey Public Library. Lights switching themselves on and chairs and book carts that rearrange themselves are said to be caused by the ghost of a woman who was murdered in a house where the library now stands.