Throughout the World, there are many universities and campuses that experience paranormal activity. In the United States these include several historic places of higher education including Notre Dame, Ohio University and Gettysburg college. While there are many more in the US alone, in today’s post we will be covering a small historic college in Alabama that allegedly has anywhere between 3-5 ghosts roaming the campus.
Its unique as well in that there appears to be spirits that have roamed this campus, although the campus moved locations.
We will examine primarily the most famous, an entity known as the Red Lady of Huntington College.
To understand this case, we must first point out that there are two red ladies that have manifested. One that resided at the original Tuskegee campus in the 19th century and another that popped up on the Huntington Campus decades later.
To begin we will examine the original Red Lady of Tuskegee. In 1854, the college, known as Tuskegee’s women college, located in the southeast part of the state would experience something strange. On one evening, the girls in Sky Residence Hall on the upper floor saw a red light illuminating under their doors. The girls were confused and peeked out to see a glowing red lady in a red dress. She was carrying a red umbrella and was gliding down the hallway. The apparition seemed like it was unaware the girls were watching. It kept pacing back and forth up and down the hallway until it finally vanished.
(Read about Paranormal Activity on Lydia’s Bridge here)
Although this apparition didn’t interact with the girls or appear to be malevolent, the girls were quite scared after that night. They would have difficulty sleeping and moving on from the incident as they were worried the red lady might come back. The spirit never did though. Many have tried to research who this might have been, but so far, no answers have been provided.
Years later, in 1910, the college would move around 120 miles from Tuskegee to Huntington. The school renamed itself Woman’s College of Alabama. As the college moved away, the thought at the time was that they had left the Red Lady behind and any paranormal activity.
And many will say they did, but oddly this new location in Huntington would have a new Red Lady, one that is seemingly unrelated to the Tuskegee Red Lady. We will dive into a possible link later, but for now let’s dive into the story of the Red Lady of Huntington.
Unlike the Red Lady of Tuskegee, much more appears to be known about this spirit.
It is said that once the new campus opened in Huntington opened, a young woman named Martha or possibly Margaret arrived in the dormitory.
Martha came from a wealthy family in NY and her mother had attended school. Her father, who was deceased, left specific instructions in his last will and testament that she needed to attend the school. Martha was comfortable in NY though and didn’t want to be schooled in Alabama. Ultimately though, she felt guilty and decided to honor her father’s wish.
(Read about the legend of Payne Road)
Right from the get-go Martha had trouble fitting in. An outsider from NY, she was described by her classmates as shy and somewhat strange. Everything she owned was pretty much red. Her clothes, her blankets, the rug in her dorm room. While some say she was shy, others say since she was wealthy she looked down upon the other girls at school. Regardless though, Martha had trouble fitting in.
Several girls tried rooming with her and time and time again it didn’t work out. After many attempts to socialize her were made, Finally, the president of Pratt Hall decided to try rooming with her. The president was one of the friendliest and well-liked girls in school. The President would try and befriend Martha but after some time and many attempts to get her to socialize, she realized was too strange and gloomy. As a result, the president decided to move out. When the president told Martha she was moving out, Martha, feeling abandoned, snapped and warned her she would regret the decision to move out.
After this, things went from bad to worse for Martha.
She would spend more time in her room isolated. When she did come out and came in a room, the other girls would leave, and the girls would make every effort to avoid her when possible.
Strangely she went from a sad and gloomy girl into one that started acting creepy and threatening. She would wander down the hall at night after the school announced lights out and Martha would open other classmate’s door staring at them with a blank stare.
Finally, one night Martha was absent from all her classes and her former friend, the president of Pratt Hall decided to check on her. When she approached the room, she saw a red glow from coming under the doorway. After opening the door, she would see Martha deceased, wrapped in her red blanket. Martha had taken her own life and slit her wrists.
Ever since this occurrence, the apparition of Martha has been seen on the fourth floor of Pratt Hall. Many students over the years have said they have seen her walking up and down the hall and also a strange red light from glowing under the door where she used to reside. Some say she appears through the windows on the fourth floor. It is said on the anniversary of her death, the most activity occurs.
Today, Pratt Hall has been converted from a dormitory to the College’s Department of Education or Psychology. Huntington College itself is still a small school as well with only around 1100 students in its undergraduate programs. Despite this, the campus appears to have quite of bit of paranormal activity, even excluding both Red Ladies.
One such example is Frank, the library ghost. The library is said to be over 100 years old and stories of Frank go back to the 80’s. There’s been many stories of items being rearranged when individuals walked away and other stories of doors closing by themselves. Books are known to fall off shelves by themself. Despite this frank is known to be a benevolent spirit although there doesn’t appear to be any idea who this ghost might be.
In the 90’s a student decided to name the ghost Frank and it stuck.
One other ghost is said to be a man who killed himself on campus after a bad breakup. Students have reported all sorts of activity including tugging on their clothes and blowing in their ear or hair while walking across campus at night. It’s not clear though how students are linking this spirit to the student who committed suicide.
(Is this restaurant haunted in Charleston, South Carolina?)
There’s much to unpack when examining the activity at this college.
One interesting thought concerns the relationship between the Original Red lady and the second red lady or Martha. While it’s not a 100% evident that a link exists, is it possible that Martha somehow was influenced or even possessed by the Original Red lady? It seems like quite a coincidence that two different ghosts appear to be manifesting both glowing red. We cannot forget that Margaret began acting extremely odd and started behaving similar to how the original Red Lady in that she would walk the hallways. Even while alive it’s not evident if she was always loved the color red. Perhaps she was influenced. Still though, the original red lady didn’t appear to be harmful in her one appearance. this could have just been a sad, lonely girl who spiraled downhill.
Today many say that Martha roams Pratt Hall and does so as a warning to other girls to not bully. Since she died in much pain, perhaps that’s why her spirit is not able to move on. Still, though she doesn’t appear to be malevolent.
As for the original Red Lady, some believe she still roams the campus while others don’t agree.
Although the Red Ladies appear to get much of the attention, perhaps the other spirits should be getting more. Fred appears to be displaying poltergeist activity, moving things around and pranking people. It’s probably the case since Fred doesn’t have a backstory, he doesn’t get the same level of attention.
With so much activity on this historic campus, we must also consider that perhaps spirits are somehow attracted to the place.
We should also point out that the spirits appear to be people that passed away young and in pain. This might be a reason why some of these spirits are unable to move on.
