Evans Hall Hauntings

When we think about Centre College, some things that come to mind may be the lush green lawns, the beautiful trees lining the paths to academic buildings and academic success. We might even think about Centre’s history, but not often in terms of the supernatural. Centre College is loaded with historical relevancy as well as notable individuals who have walked its halls — some who might not be entirely gone. 

When thinking about who I wanted to interview, I knew I wanted to focus on a place I had been before — somewhere I could relate to and really help articulate an experience. As a senior, when I think back to my fondest memories at Centre, I think of my freshman year dorm, located in New Quad just off of Main Street. I contacted one of my closest friends from that year and on, and she had a lot of spooky things to say about her time in Evans Hall. The story begins in her freshman year during Centre Term, when the weather is dark and campus is often eerie. Like most girls in their freshman dorm, Sarah had decorated the small space with Christmas lights to brighten it up during the dark January month. From her recollection, she told me about how the lights would flicker on and off, almost like clockwork, every night. Some nights, they would even turn off completely on their own. “Sometimes they would just flicker on and off and sometimes they would just turn off in the middle of the day,” she recounted. "And I checked all of the outlets and my roommate and I made sure everything was plugged in, nothing was messing with it but just all throughout Centre Term they would just… turn on and off.” At first, she chalked it up to a loose electrical outlet, but after her roommate and her had checked to make sure they were securely plugged in — and they were — they realized their might be something else messing with their decorations. “I don’t think it is [bad electricity] because they would flicker and then just stop. It wasn’t… there wasn’t any consistency or anything”

Sarah then went on to talk about the bathroom on the second floor of Evans, which also seemed to have a faulty electrical circuit. Lights in the bathroom would flicker off and on as well, sometimes shutting off entirely just like her bedroom lights. This story is similar to a story that takes place in Yerkes, just a few steps from the front door of Evans. In an interview conducted by my classmate Hannah Drury, interviewee Kelly Webb goes into detail about a similar experience her freshman year in Yerkes. “…I had string lights on my wall and I never plug my string lights in because they were really hard to turn off,” she recounts. “And so, I just left them unplugged and we always had our overhead lights on, so I just never had the need to use my string lights. And even if they were not plugged in they would flash, and I don’t know, it’s scary to think about whether it’s paranormal activity or if the electricity was off in the room.” The similarities in these stories are striking, and raises the question of what is lurking in New Quad. After hearing Sarah’s stories in conjunction with other interviews that were conducted, it was evident that feeling uneasy on Centre’s campus isn’t an uncommon occurrence — and maybe, paranormal sightings aren’t so uncommon either. 

Cheek-Evans Hall was constructed in 1962 as an all women’s dormitory. The building is nestled between Acheson-Caldwell (built the same year), and Yerkes, which is notable for it’s paranormal stories similar to Sarah’s. According to Wayne King, a retired facilities manager, private homes stood on the grounds that Evans and Yerkes currently inhabit. When researching, I was able to find that the homes were taken down by Urban Renewal. Centre specifically used the 7th Street Urban Renewal project so they could take down the houses of people who didn’t want to sell. The whole area was lower-income housing, mostly including African American homeowners. On a 1914 Sanborn insurance map, we’re able to see these homes before they were taken down to build New Quad, and the Danville Boyle County African American Historical Society has an interesting article titled “We Were Here,” which discusses the removal of black neighborhoods during the 1960s. The article reads, “The proposed 1961 expansion of Centre College into the Seventh Street area meant that the college was investing $4.5 million in new facilities, an additional $1 million revenue to Danville businesses, and a $300,000 urban renewal grant that the city would not have to pay” (Denis, 80). While these attributes of the renewal might sound attractive, the problem lies in the fact that black homeowners were the only ones that faced the tragedy of having their homes taken away — white families and homeowners did not. 

In addition to the racial injustice that Centre faced during the 1960s, there was also gender discrimination occurring on campus. Even though women were now integrated into the college, they were still isolated to the New Quad buildings across Main Street even after the school had been made co-ed. Student handbooks laid out a very specific set of rules for women — they had to serve the men in the dining hall, had an earlier curfew, and couldn’t have visitors the way men could.  Undoubtedly, this could be cause for some anger in life and in the after-life. Women faced inequality (and still do), which could be enough reason for some angry ghosts urging to make themselves seen in Evans and Yerkes Hall. While they were accepted as students, they were still treated as second-class citizens, therefore giving them plenty of reason to possess these buildings many of us have inhabited. Most students on Centre’s campus are well aware of Peter’s ghost in Breck and are quick to believe the stories, but not so quick to believe the stories of female ghosts in Evans Hall. There’s an interesting dichotomy there, and is enough to make us wonder whether or not it’s because of their gender. We hear about these injustices, whether they be racial or gender-related, through the telling of ghost stories and rumors of those who have already passed on. They are treated as instances so far removed from our lives and our own Centre experiences, but these tragedies didn’t take place too long ago. Black neighborhoods were only torn down for the development of nice, flashy campus housing roughly sixty-one years ago. It is important that as members of the Centre community, we not only take accountability for our schools faults, but acknowledge that they happened — that we learn, grow and change, rather than allowing these to just be mindless scary stories. 

During my interview with Sarah, we talked about the popularization of the paranormal in media in recent years. We are constantly being met with a new horror film or story on social media. When we put this in context of the places we actually occupy in reality, it’s interesting to think about whether not there is some truth to these media pieces. My interviewee mentioned that without the media portrayal of the paranormal, she might not believe what she’d seen her freshman year — but because of its popularity, how could it all be entirely made up? If you were to scroll through Netflix right now, there would be at least five titles dealing with the paranormal, and they aren’t just fictional horror films. Like Sarah said, “If it’s happened to that many people, how can it be made up?” While it is undetermined who or want lingers in Evans Hall and New Quad, the stories shared hold a massive weight of credibility.

-Keeton Crowe

Bibliography

Denis, Michael J. “We Were Here: African Americans in Danville and Boyle County, Kentucky,” 2020, 79–82. 

Thomas, Charles A., “Acheson-Caldwell and Cheek-Evans Houses,” Centre College Digital Archives, accessed February 1, 2021, https://centre.omeka.net/items/show/189.

Sarah Fly, interview by Keeton Crowe, 25 January 2021.

Kelly Webb, interview by Hannah Drury, 18 January 2021.