The Pitt News Th e in de p e n de n t st ude nt n e w s pa pe r o f th e Un iv e r s ity o f Pitts bur gh PIttnews.com | OCTOBER 26, 2022 | Volume 113 | Issue 52
‘THAT’S JUST MY GHOST’:
PITT GHOST STORIES FEATURE UNIVERSITY HISTORY, FOLKLORE Allison Radziwon
Assistant News Editor cA cording to aM tthew Swayne, au thorof P“ aranormal Pitt,” experiences with hg osts oen occur on college cam puses because much of the population is in a transitional period of life. ou' Y “ re og ing rf om a, you know, a child to an adult, and there's this in between phase and d'I like to refer to that as these hg ost stories tend to hap pen in this liminal area, neither real nor dreamlike,” Swayne, a oj urnalism professor at Penn State, said. ou' Y “ re really trying to discover your direction as your occupation, but also spiritually. So a lot of these hg ost stories speak to your transcendence about og ing to the next level.” Since Pitt was of unded as the Pitts burgh cA ademy in ,78 1 several ru morshave popped up among students and af culty to explain strange noises and incidents. Several campus build ings allegedly house hg osts, including the aC thedral of eL arning and the iW l liam Pitt nU ion. Students also report experiencing hg ostly incidents in their residence hall buildings, such as Ruskin -
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aH ll and eC ntrePlaza. e Early m A erican Nationality Room in the aC thedral h“ as a uf nny haunting story,” according to Nation ality Room Tour oC ordinator iM chael Walter. eH said the of rmer national ity room programs director, aM ix ne rB uhns, thoughtthe hg ost was her late rg andmother, who was related to writer Edgar lA len Poe. S“ everal decades ago, a Pitt custodi an who was rf iendly with aM ix ne told her he once was cleaning the upstairs area and part of what he did was make the bed. hW en he le the room, he said, he heard a sound and looked back and saw that the bedspread was turned down and a head sized depression was in the pillow,” Walter said. hW “ en he told aM ix ne this, aM ix ne immediately thought it was her maternal rg and mother, aM rtha aJ ne Poe, who was haunting the room, because it was her bedspread and several other items in the room that aM ix ne and her mother donated.” Walter said rB uhns loved talking about these stories during her 45 years -
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See Ghost Stories on page 3