There’s a ghost in Johnson Hall! But don’t worry, she’s friendly. Her name is Caroline, named after Caroline Crawford, who was a beloved professor in Winthrop’s theatre and dance department.
Crawford was involved in countless productions and taught many classes in her time at Winthrop University. However, according to Winthrop assistant professor of theatre and dance Robert “Biff” Edge, she either left the department or passed away from cancer in 1994.
While many people in the department today never got the chance to meet Crawford, her legacy lives on and her ghost often likes to make its presence known.
Hannah Baird, a senior theatre performance major at Winthrop, said her first time seeing Caroline’s ghostly shenanigans came after a rehearsal for “Dog Sees God” in 2018. She was lingering backstage with the stage manager of the show when all of the stage lights suddenly turned on. Naturally, Baird said she was startled at her first encounter, but is now very familiar with the ghost and helps to share the story of Caroline with the new class of freshmen every year.
Shane O’Reilly, a senior theatre education major at Winthrop, also recalled a time when Caroline appeared during a rehearsal for Winthrop’s production of “In the Red and Brown Water” in 2019.
O’Reilly said he and two other students were sitting in the audience of the mainstage theater when they heard what sounded like “people dropping screws on the floor” of the catwalk above their heads.
Even adjunct professor of theatre and dance Cher Lambeth said, “there will be times where we’re working in the shop and perhaps things might fall off shelves when no one’s there…we’ll all look at each other and laugh and say ‘it
was probably Caroline.’”
So, Caroline is a welcomed guest in Johnson Hall.
“It’s a mutual respect. This was her space before it was our space and she’s still watching over it, making sure we’re all okay,”O’Reilly said.
Not only is she welcomed, but she’s celebrated. Every year, Alpha Psi Omega, the department’s theatre honor society, hosts an event called the Caroline Awards.
O’Reilly, who is also the current vice president of the organization, said “The Caroline Awards…are like our department’s Tony Awards…making sure that all of the talent that is present in our department gets recognized.”
Edge said that this night was originally started as a fundraiser for cancer research, memorializing the beloved professor and her fight against the disease.
While Caroline is a famous name in Johnson Hall, she might not be the only ghost paying the department a visit. Edge said that he has heard stories of another ghost that appears to be “a man in a suit or a top hat… from much
earlier on in Johnson history.”
Edge says that many of his students come to him saying that they saw this mysterious man with a top hat on the spiral staircase that is backstage in the Johnson mainstage. He said that this “is only interesting because that [staircase]…wasn’t part of the original building.” Edge said the staircase was built in 1994, the very same year that Caroline Crawford died of cancer.
So who is it that haunts Johnson Hall? While Caroline is the notorious name that accompanies strange happenings around the building, she may have a friend that very few people know about. Or it could all just be one big ghost story.
Photo by Kaily Paddie.
