Wilson Hall
Wilson Hall has a very storied past. It's a relatively newer
building being built in 1964 after the late Hiram Roy Wilson who
was a very influential faculty member in the early 19th century. Wilson Hall is located on West Green at the far end across from Irvine Hall.
But Wilson Hall is more than just a resident hall; it is known around Ohio University for being the most haunted spot on campus. Ohio University has a long and storied history of being haunted with the Ridges, the Indian burial grounds, to the pentagram of cemeteries that supposedly surrounds the campus. The reason behind all the haunting at Wilson Hall is the rumor that a student in the 1980s committed suicide in her room. The fame room is 428 and apparantly some of the hauntings include seeing blood drip from the walls and hearing marbles go across the ceiling.It's so infamous that the show on FOX, Scariest Places on Earth, visited Ohio University and did a special segment on Wilson and the famed room. As someone who lives in Wilson Hall I have yet to experience any of these phenomena's but that is not to say that they don't happen. I have had some friends on the third floor experience the marbles rolling on the floor but my friends on the 4th floor, the supposed most haunted floor have not experienced a thing so I guess it depends. All in all I love living in Wilson and it is always a good conversation starter with people who know it as the most haunted place on the most haunted campus in the United States. It's important to understand this because the history of the place we live will give us a better understanding of the community. This history of the haunted Athens does give us a sense of togetherness with our fellow OU students. We even identify with it when other students that we know acknowledge the fact that OU is infamous for our hauntings. Don't be scared of our haunted past, embrace it.
In the Fall of 1980, I moved into room 427 Wilson Hall, right next door to room 428. The dorm had been closed for several years and had just re-opened. The same stories were told to us about a suicide and a girl practicing the occult with the only change being it allegedly happened in the 1970s. We decided to embrace the story and had a Halloween party where anyone who wanted to could come see the room. There was a demonic image in the wood grain of the door, but that was it. There were bats in the attic above that made a lot of noise, but nothing creepier than that. Both 427 and 428 were at the end of the hall. The rooms were huge, twice the size of the average room, but very dark because there were no full windows. That added to its creepy factor too.
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