Mary Reed
The Mary ReedBuilding is part of the University of Denver campus. It's alarge, stately red brick building which used to be theUniversity's library. Built in 1930, it's quite lovely, withmarble floors, great architectural decorations, etc. Its layoutis castle-like: a base of four stories with a tower in the middle.The tower goes up to seven stories. From the tower, you can lookwest toward the Rockies, and see part of the city, etc. Very niceview. The tower offices are run down and not very comfortable,and the elevator is sketchy at best (I spent an uncomfortableSaturday afternoon stuck in its cozy, claustrophobic interior),but the wonderful view and the cache' of being "in the Tower"made up for it.
When I was in college, I worked (still do) for an academicjournal whose office just happened to be on the seventh floor ofthe tower. It was great! I was on work study, and carrying a fullclass load, so I worked some very odd hours, notably 8pm-Midnighta couple of times each week. I had heard all the rumors of thebuilding being haunted, and the elevator did run by itself (I'llpost about that another time) occasionally, and the janitor usedto regale me with tales of strange happenings, but I never reallypaid much attention. Besides, I was in the Tower, and the onlyaccess was the elevator. There were stairs leading to the roof,but the access doors were locked all the time, and no one everused them. (The thought of the elevator breaking down andtrapping me in the office never occured to me until later...)
One room on the main floor of the building was reserved formeetings for the administration, receptions, etc. It was theDupont Room, named for a long-gone alumni who left money for theReed Library. The room was all fixed up, with high-backed leatherchairs, glass bookcases, etc. Whenever I saw it open, I liked togo in and hang out there. Most of the time, though, Security keptit locked up tight. People told me the ghost of Mrs. Dupont likedto sit in "her" room and read, and the janitor claimedto have seen her more than once. [ The janitor, not to belittlehim in any way, was mildly retarded, and I frankly took whateverhe said with a shaker of salt...] I was intrigued by the ghosttales, but gave them little thought.
Finally, The Ghost Story. Sorry for the delay :)
I was working late on a Friday, because I wanted my weekend free.A friend of mine, Scot, was stopping by to pick me up so we couldgo to a party. It was about 11:30pm when he showed up. Anxious toget moving, and not liking the elvator, he said he would rideback down and wait on the main floor, or at his car. I said togive me 10 minutes, and I'd be down. Well, I was just wrappingthings up when, to my surprise, Scot came back up in the elevator.He was _very_ shaky, white in the face, and extremely agitated. Iasked him what was wrong, and he wouldn't speak for about threeminutes. I was getting worried, and pressed him for the answer.He finally told me that he had seen a weird woman in the DupontRoom. It was open, and while he was wandering around waiting forme, he had gone down the hallway to the room and had gone in tolook around. He turned on the light and entered the room, whensuddenly an elderly woman stood up from one of the high backedchairs (the chair was facing away from him) and said hello. Shehad a book in her hand, and was dressed in an old-style dress. (Ipressed him for details on the dress--he could only say it was"old-fashioned", black, with a high collar and longsleeves.) He apologized to her, he said, and backed out towardthe door. The woman just stared at him. He was freaked out, ofcourse, and finally turned and sped off down the hall. Lookingback as he turned the corner, he saw that the light in the roomwas off. He had left it on.
Well, I decided to investigate. Scot would have no part in it. (Imust say right now that if Scot was lying/acting, he was doing adamn good job. And considering the fact that he told mutualfriends about the encounter, and refused to take a class that washeld in the Mary Reed building the next quarter, I tend tobelieve him.) We rode the elevator to the main floor, and Scothit the doors and sprinted to his car. I continued down the mainhall, and turned off into the hall with the Dupont Room. Iremember being quite frightened, but went on anyway. The door wasajar and the light was off. I reached the door, and (god, I'mgetting chills typing this!), flung it open, hit the light andpractically screamed "Hello??!" No one was in the room.I walked around (to see all the chairs and their occupants, ifany), and got a weird feeling. It was--hmmm--I wish I couldarticulate it--cold? uneasy? Something like that. I left thelight on and got out of there. As we were driving off, I lookedback at the building. The Dupont Room sits in the back of thebuilding, overlooking the garden area of the main campus. Thelight was off.
So, that's it. Perhaps to this day Scot has been having me on,but I don't think so. And I can swear I left the light on. So--whoknows? I still get very uneasy thinking about it. I would beinterested in comments from others.