The advent of the hallowest holiday of the year draws ever closer with each passing night, and the spirits that roam Winthrop’s ghostly grounds grow more and more restless waiting to greet students and faculty who still roam the mortal plane. Student residents of the Margaret Nance dormitory trade stories of encounters with a feminine, strangely garmented figure that appears before unsuspecting students to ask them where their lost trunk of belongings is, only to disappear before their very eyes.
“There was once a young lady who was a student at Winthrop while Margaret Nance was used to house injured soldiers during a war,” said Micheal Reid, a law enforcement officer for the campus police department and Winthrop ghost aficionado. “The all-female student body and the soldiers weren’t supposed to fraternize with each other, but the young lady and one of the soldiers ended up starting a relationship together, and she ended up getting pregnant by him.”
“Eventually the soldier got shipped out to war, and the girl was expelled without being allowed to take her belongings. She kept trying to contact her beloved fighting in the war, but got no response. When she finally got a letter from him, it said that he had been killed in battle. After hearing this devastating revelation, it’s said that she was so distraught that she threw herself in front of an incoming train with her unborn child” Reid said.
The chilling fate of the unfortunate female student that haunts Margaret Nance, sometimes referred to as Shelly or left unidentified, varies depending on the retelling. Some versions state that she returned to the building and hanged herself in the third floor stairwell, whereas others say that she threw herself off the front of the building, according to Reid. All retellings end with her inevitable return to the Margaret Nance dormitory, where her spirit aimlessly roams and approaches students in search of her unclaimed property.
“A student once told me a story of how she was about to leave her room when a strange lady appeared in her doorway and told her that she was looking for something,” said Reid. “She noticed how the woman was dressed in old-timey clothing. The student tried to tell her that what she was looking for definitely wasn’t in her room, but the mysterious lady was adamant that what she was looking for was in there. Eventually the student definitively told the lady that her item wasn’t in her room and turned around to grab something. When she returned her gaze to the doorway, the lady was nowhere to be found.”
Much like the ghastly figure said to prowl its hallways, Margret Nance has gone by many identities in the past century since its establishment. The dormitory was constructed in 1896, not long after Tillman Hall, to house the all-female student body, and was known simply as the Dormitory, according to information listed in the digital commons website for the building. Not long after, the building was renamed to the North Dormitory after the construction of McLaurin Hall to the south of the original dorm. In 1925, the first dorm was finally renamed to Margaret Nance Hall in honor of Winthrop’s founding president’s mother.
Experiences with the strange and unexplainable are a common occurrence for many of the Resident Assistants and office workers who manage the dormitory’s phones and cameras late into the night, and each have their own eclectic stories to tell.
“Sometimes while working super late at night I’ve heard footsteps nearby while no one is around or on the cameras,” said Kiera Mccall, a senior biology major and front desk manager for Margaret Nance. “I’ve also heard the bathroom door slam while no one was in or leaving the bathroom. Of course, I usually tell myself that it’s just my imagination, but there’s always that possibility that it could be something else.”
Jack Hardie, a Resident Assistant for the Margaret Nance dorm and sophomore business major, has also experienced some bizarre incidents while performing his nocturnal duties.
“I think a lot of us who’ve stayed up in the dorm late at night have seen or heard some strange stuff.” said Hardie. “Back during the beginning of August, when the RAs were the only people on campus, some of the doors on my hall were opening on their own when they were supposed to be locked. One of the first nights I was sleeping on the third floor, which is the most haunted one, I heard the distinct sound of a key going into a lock right above my head, where the attic is supposed to be. I later found on one of my on-duty walks during a shift an unlocked entrance to the attic. None of the RAs had keys to the attic at that time.”
The hauntings and paranormal experiences that have plagued the ancient dormitory’s residents for years may one day find plausible explanations in the realm of scientific fact and logic. Until that fateful day arrives, the possibility remains that the Margaret Nance building may house students both living and dead.
Photo by Kaily Paddie
