Ghosts Everywhere: Centre Over the Past Four Decades with Retired Director of Facilities Wayne King
Title
Ghosts Everywhere: Centre Over the Past Four Decades with Retired Director of Facilities Wayne King
Subject
Centre College (Danville, Ky. : 1918- )—Anecdotes
Centre College (Danville, Ky. : 1918- )—Buildings
Centre College (Danville, Ky. : 1918- )—History
Centre College (Danville, Ky. : 1918- )—Students
Ghosts—Kentucky—Danville
Haunted places—Kentucky—Danville
Haunted universities and colleges—Kentucky—Danville
Centre College (Danville, Ky. : 1918- )—Buildings
Centre College (Danville, Ky. : 1918- )—History
Centre College (Danville, Ky. : 1918- )—Students
Ghosts—Kentucky—Danville
Haunted places—Kentucky—Danville
Haunted universities and colleges—Kentucky—Danville
Creator
King, Wayne
Date
2021/01/15
Contributor
Conkling, Mackenzie
Rights
All Rights Reserved
Format
MP4
Language
English
Type
Oral History (literary work)
Interviewer
Conkling, Mackenzie
Interviewee
King, Wayne
Location
Breckinridge Hall, Centre College, Danville, KY
Stuart Hall, Centre College, Danville, KY
Sutcliffe Hall, Centre College, Danville, KY
Transcription
00:00
Mackenzie Hi my name is Mackenzie Conkling and today I'm interviewing Mr. Wayne King, retired director of facilities at Centre College. Today is January 15th, 2021 and today we will be discussing Mr. King's paranormal experiences over the decades he spent at Centre College. So just to start things off, can you describe your role as director of facilities and what responsibilities you had?
00:22
Wayne Well, I started at Centre College in 1971, so forty-nine years basically. In my last fifteen years or so I was the Director of Facilities, which covers all of the maintenance, physical maintenance, custodial, grounds, operations throughout the entire campus. So we did a little bit of everything and over the years I've had a lot of experiences, been on a lot of the buildings on campus, every nook and cranny pretty much.
00:55
Mackenzie Awesome, yeah, so can you tell us what your typical day-to-day was like in that job?
01:02
Wayne Well in the last little bit I was in the office a lot doing a lot of computer work [Laughter - Wayne] they had a lot of people working for me. We had over 70, I think 71 or 72, employees under my supervision. So yeah it was busy trying to keep the day-to-day going. You know working with the budget, particularly with the COVID things coming down, it was difficult. Of course over the years I also worked with two vice presidential debates and ran all the detail work that went through those, so it's been an interesting career at Centre to say the least. That and five presidents.
01:43
Mackenzie Yeah, for sure. So you kind of touch on this but you've definitely gotten to see a lot of different individuals pass through Centre, and I guess see the institution change and grow over time. So some of these experiences include paranormal ones, can I hear about the paranormal experience that has stuck with you the most?
02:05
Wayne Well I guess Breck Hall would be the biggest problem we have on campus, if you want to call it that. There have been a lot of instances with Breck over the years. One of the first instances we had, back in the seventies we had some students, and at that time Breck was all boys. That was before we actually went co-ed and the girls were actually able to be in the same building with boys. And we had these two boys that contacted us and they were awakened in the middle of the night with their door open and their window, and they thought somebody had a key and was playing pranks on them. So we went in, changed the lock on the door so if anybody had a key they couldn't get in...same thing happened that night. They woke up about two o'clock in the morning with their door standing open, the window to the room was open, the radio was going, and the lights come on. So they reported it again the next morning and so we went up and changed the lock again and we put a side bolt on the inside, so even if someone had a key they couldn't get in to unlock the door. Nevertheless about two o'clock in the morning they had woken and same thing, their door was standing wide open, the window was open, the radio was going, lights were on, and so these boys were too afraid to stay in the, in the room. So we actually shut that room up the rest of that year and didn't put anybody in there, and we relocated them to another part of campus. So we've had a little problem with that particular room and in particular...the young lady that was at student life at that point in time did some research, and we found that a student had committed suicide in that room almost 50 years to the day that we started having these problems...So we've kind of kept it quiet on what room it is over the years, but Breck has had several instances. Some of the things, one of them in particular that I was very involved in, in my early years I did a lot of work out on campus. I wasn't the director. I worked from the ground up and during that time we had very few groups in the summertime, so basically the building was empty. And I was in there working on mattresses one day and by myself. And I was on the first floor and that was before we air conditioned the building, so in the middle of summer… (interruption due to poor connection on Zoom.). “and I heard doors slamming and could hear people walking down the hall. So I went upstairs, went through the second floor, went through the third floor, couldn't find anybody. Got back down to the first floor, went into the room where I was working, and again, I heard doors slamming again. And I heard somebody sounded like they were running down one of the halls. So I go upstairs ,and I go through every room on the second and every room on the third floor, and found no one...When I got back down to the first floor and about the time I walked into the room I was working in, it sounded like all heck broke loose. Doors were slamming throughout the building...and I headed for the outside. The problem was when I got to the exterior door back then they didn't have panic bars, and it was locked for some strange reason and I couldn't get out.
05:44
Mackenzie Yeah
05:45
Wayne So I went back to the room I was in and opened the window and attempted to go out the window. The screen was screwed in from the outside, it didn't stop me. I went through, took the screen and all out, and I went out the window. And it was a couple of days before they got me to go back into the building by myself. So that was my personal experience with it. We had a psychic in there at one point. Student Life was involved and we spent the night, did some research through there, and the psychic went through the building and identified a spirit. A young man....” (interruption from poor connection.). “he called Peter. It's in the building and apparently he wasn't going to leave. What they didn't know is that the student that, and I'm the only one left on campus that knows what happened in the seventies when we found out that the student had committed suicide in there, that first instance, but the student's name was Peter. And so this psychic, and I didn't tell her the name and I hadn’t told anybody the name...but that was, that was strange that she came up with the name of that young man.”
07:00
Mackenzie Yeah
07:02
Wayne So we've had other instances where there was a couple of my mechanical guys, the plumbers, were working on the first floor and it was in the summer. And they hadn't bothered to turn the hall lights on because they could see to walk down to the bathroom. They were working in there and the one, the main plumber, decided he needed to go to his truck to get some tools. So he left his helper in there and while the plumber was outside, the helper walked out in the hall and he saw somebody standing down at the end of the hall. Kind of in the shadows, but still there was a light coming through the door and this person or... this person that he saw, actually walked to a room, opened the door, and went in. Well all the doors were locked, but this person just opened the door and walked in.
07:58
Mackenzie Mhm
07:59
Wayne So when the plumber got back in he told him what happened. So knowing nobody was supposed to be in the building they went down to that room where they saw that person go into that room. The door was locked. They unlocked it and walked in and there was nobody there.
08:14
Mackenzie Yeah
08:15
Wayne They refused to go back in there for two weeks. I mean they were terrified.
08:19
Mackenzie [Laughing] Mhm
08:20
Wayne So but we've had several things happen in that building over the years that kind of scared some people so. I've told that story several times for sororities and it...gets to have a lot of fun with everybody.
08:36
Mackenzie [Laughing] Yeah those are very wild…I guess a question I have for you considering the experiences (interruption from poor connection.).
08:51
Wayne I’m sorry?
08:53
Mackenzie Do those experiences influence how you feel about Centre's campus and Centre as a whole?
08:58
Wayne No, Centre was my whole life for many years...I'm not afraid to go into any of the buildings and so, no, that hasn't really affected me. I would go back in there today. It's not a bit of a problem. Of course, like I said, Breck is one of the best...areas for ghosts. Stuart Hall would be another one.
09:24
Mackenzie Mhm
09:25
Wayne Stuart Hall for, for many years, was a funeral home. And so after the funeral home turned it back over to Centre, we converted it into a bookstore upstairs and or--coffee shop upstairs in a bookstore--throughout the building for several years. And there were several instances that happened in there where people would see...somebody walking by them. And they turned around and that person was gone, they'd catch them out of the corner of their eye. When we were remodeling it, I was in there with the carpenter and we looked up and this older fellow just walked in the front door, walked through the first floor right beside us, walked into the back of the building. We kind of looked at each other because it wasn't supposed to be anybody there. So we went back in there to find out what he was doing there because the building was empty and it belonged to Centre. And we went back into the room that he went into and he wasn't there, and there was no way out of the room.
10:25
Mackenzie Yeah
10:26
Wayne So whether he was one of the spirits left over from the funeral home, we don't know [Laughter]. There was an instance where the lady at the coffee shop called and said that her blenders were going crazy. That they would come on by themselves and wouldn’t shut off. So we go up there and sure enough they were running and they wouldn't shut off and the only way we could get them to stop was to unplug them. And after that we plugged them back in and they worked fine. But she also stated that she would come in in the morning and of course nobody there, and the coffee maker had made coffee and nobody in the building. So there's a lot of different things that went on in that building like I said.
11:10
Mackenzie Yeah for sure. I guess before these experiences how did you like what do you think of ghosts and then how did you think of ghosts I guess after these experiences you've had at Centre?
11:26
Wayne To be honest with you, I have never really believed in ghosts and until my experiences personally with Breck and the things that I've seen there and some of the things I've seen across campus there and for example over in Sutcliffe. We had--I had--a really strange personal instance there...where we were painting the old racquetball courts, which are backed by the weight or--the training room--and…It was nobody on campus over three of us down there painting it. We broke for lunch and walked back up the stairs, locked the door, and as we started out the door, we kept hearing a ball. Somebody was throwing a ball around in the handball courts...and we just painted the walls. So we go back, look in the windows, the lights were out, nobody was there. We unlocked the door, go down the steps, open the door and...a handball was rolling across the floor with paint on it and nobody in the room. One of the guys that was with me painting for me that summer, he went up the stairs, and I have never seen him since. He left, never came back from lunch.
12:38
Mackenzie Yeah.
12:40
Wayne There's been a few instances, so yeah, Centre made a believer out of me.
12:46
Mackenzie Mhm, I mean yeah [LAUGHS] I could definitely see that with everything you've experienced...But I guess it never like got enough--struck enough--fear in you that you still continued to go to work every day?
13:02
Wayne Yeah they've never attempted to hurt anybody they just...there's been a lot of people went through Centre over the years. A lot of different things have happened with Centre and its history so I'm sure there's more than a few spirits still wandering around.
13:21
Mackenzie [Laughing]
13:22
Wayne It’s been a good place for a lot of people to live over the years. But no, I'm not afraid to go in there and would go back tomorrow without any hesitation.
13:30
Mackenzie Yeah awesome. Well that's all the questions that I have for you today. It was really great hearing about the different ghost stories and ghosts you've experienced on Centre's campus
END OF INTERVIEW
Mackenzie Hi my name is Mackenzie Conkling and today I'm interviewing Mr. Wayne King, retired director of facilities at Centre College. Today is January 15th, 2021 and today we will be discussing Mr. King's paranormal experiences over the decades he spent at Centre College. So just to start things off, can you describe your role as director of facilities and what responsibilities you had?
00:22
Wayne Well, I started at Centre College in 1971, so forty-nine years basically. In my last fifteen years or so I was the Director of Facilities, which covers all of the maintenance, physical maintenance, custodial, grounds, operations throughout the entire campus. So we did a little bit of everything and over the years I've had a lot of experiences, been on a lot of the buildings on campus, every nook and cranny pretty much.
00:55
Mackenzie Awesome, yeah, so can you tell us what your typical day-to-day was like in that job?
01:02
Wayne Well in the last little bit I was in the office a lot doing a lot of computer work [Laughter - Wayne] they had a lot of people working for me. We had over 70, I think 71 or 72, employees under my supervision. So yeah it was busy trying to keep the day-to-day going. You know working with the budget, particularly with the COVID things coming down, it was difficult. Of course over the years I also worked with two vice presidential debates and ran all the detail work that went through those, so it's been an interesting career at Centre to say the least. That and five presidents.
01:43
Mackenzie Yeah, for sure. So you kind of touch on this but you've definitely gotten to see a lot of different individuals pass through Centre, and I guess see the institution change and grow over time. So some of these experiences include paranormal ones, can I hear about the paranormal experience that has stuck with you the most?
02:05
Wayne Well I guess Breck Hall would be the biggest problem we have on campus, if you want to call it that. There have been a lot of instances with Breck over the years. One of the first instances we had, back in the seventies we had some students, and at that time Breck was all boys. That was before we actually went co-ed and the girls were actually able to be in the same building with boys. And we had these two boys that contacted us and they were awakened in the middle of the night with their door open and their window, and they thought somebody had a key and was playing pranks on them. So we went in, changed the lock on the door so if anybody had a key they couldn't get in...same thing happened that night. They woke up about two o'clock in the morning with their door standing open, the window to the room was open, the radio was going, and the lights come on. So they reported it again the next morning and so we went up and changed the lock again and we put a side bolt on the inside, so even if someone had a key they couldn't get in to unlock the door. Nevertheless about two o'clock in the morning they had woken and same thing, their door was standing wide open, the window was open, the radio was going, lights were on, and so these boys were too afraid to stay in the, in the room. So we actually shut that room up the rest of that year and didn't put anybody in there, and we relocated them to another part of campus. So we've had a little problem with that particular room and in particular...the young lady that was at student life at that point in time did some research, and we found that a student had committed suicide in that room almost 50 years to the day that we started having these problems...So we've kind of kept it quiet on what room it is over the years, but Breck has had several instances. Some of the things, one of them in particular that I was very involved in, in my early years I did a lot of work out on campus. I wasn't the director. I worked from the ground up and during that time we had very few groups in the summertime, so basically the building was empty. And I was in there working on mattresses one day and by myself. And I was on the first floor and that was before we air conditioned the building, so in the middle of summer… (interruption due to poor connection on Zoom.). “and I heard doors slamming and could hear people walking down the hall. So I went upstairs, went through the second floor, went through the third floor, couldn't find anybody. Got back down to the first floor, went into the room where I was working, and again, I heard doors slamming again. And I heard somebody sounded like they were running down one of the halls. So I go upstairs ,and I go through every room on the second and every room on the third floor, and found no one...When I got back down to the first floor and about the time I walked into the room I was working in, it sounded like all heck broke loose. Doors were slamming throughout the building...and I headed for the outside. The problem was when I got to the exterior door back then they didn't have panic bars, and it was locked for some strange reason and I couldn't get out.
05:44
Mackenzie Yeah
05:45
Wayne So I went back to the room I was in and opened the window and attempted to go out the window. The screen was screwed in from the outside, it didn't stop me. I went through, took the screen and all out, and I went out the window. And it was a couple of days before they got me to go back into the building by myself. So that was my personal experience with it. We had a psychic in there at one point. Student Life was involved and we spent the night, did some research through there, and the psychic went through the building and identified a spirit. A young man....” (interruption from poor connection.). “he called Peter. It's in the building and apparently he wasn't going to leave. What they didn't know is that the student that, and I'm the only one left on campus that knows what happened in the seventies when we found out that the student had committed suicide in there, that first instance, but the student's name was Peter. And so this psychic, and I didn't tell her the name and I hadn’t told anybody the name...but that was, that was strange that she came up with the name of that young man.”
07:00
Mackenzie Yeah
07:02
Wayne So we've had other instances where there was a couple of my mechanical guys, the plumbers, were working on the first floor and it was in the summer. And they hadn't bothered to turn the hall lights on because they could see to walk down to the bathroom. They were working in there and the one, the main plumber, decided he needed to go to his truck to get some tools. So he left his helper in there and while the plumber was outside, the helper walked out in the hall and he saw somebody standing down at the end of the hall. Kind of in the shadows, but still there was a light coming through the door and this person or... this person that he saw, actually walked to a room, opened the door, and went in. Well all the doors were locked, but this person just opened the door and walked in.
07:58
Mackenzie Mhm
07:59
Wayne So when the plumber got back in he told him what happened. So knowing nobody was supposed to be in the building they went down to that room where they saw that person go into that room. The door was locked. They unlocked it and walked in and there was nobody there.
08:14
Mackenzie Yeah
08:15
Wayne They refused to go back in there for two weeks. I mean they were terrified.
08:19
Mackenzie [Laughing] Mhm
08:20
Wayne So but we've had several things happen in that building over the years that kind of scared some people so. I've told that story several times for sororities and it...gets to have a lot of fun with everybody.
08:36
Mackenzie [Laughing] Yeah those are very wild…I guess a question I have for you considering the experiences (interruption from poor connection.).
08:51
Wayne I’m sorry?
08:53
Mackenzie Do those experiences influence how you feel about Centre's campus and Centre as a whole?
08:58
Wayne No, Centre was my whole life for many years...I'm not afraid to go into any of the buildings and so, no, that hasn't really affected me. I would go back in there today. It's not a bit of a problem. Of course, like I said, Breck is one of the best...areas for ghosts. Stuart Hall would be another one.
09:24
Mackenzie Mhm
09:25
Wayne Stuart Hall for, for many years, was a funeral home. And so after the funeral home turned it back over to Centre, we converted it into a bookstore upstairs and or--coffee shop upstairs in a bookstore--throughout the building for several years. And there were several instances that happened in there where people would see...somebody walking by them. And they turned around and that person was gone, they'd catch them out of the corner of their eye. When we were remodeling it, I was in there with the carpenter and we looked up and this older fellow just walked in the front door, walked through the first floor right beside us, walked into the back of the building. We kind of looked at each other because it wasn't supposed to be anybody there. So we went back in there to find out what he was doing there because the building was empty and it belonged to Centre. And we went back into the room that he went into and he wasn't there, and there was no way out of the room.
10:25
Mackenzie Yeah
10:26
Wayne So whether he was one of the spirits left over from the funeral home, we don't know [Laughter]. There was an instance where the lady at the coffee shop called and said that her blenders were going crazy. That they would come on by themselves and wouldn’t shut off. So we go up there and sure enough they were running and they wouldn't shut off and the only way we could get them to stop was to unplug them. And after that we plugged them back in and they worked fine. But she also stated that she would come in in the morning and of course nobody there, and the coffee maker had made coffee and nobody in the building. So there's a lot of different things that went on in that building like I said.
11:10
Mackenzie Yeah for sure. I guess before these experiences how did you like what do you think of ghosts and then how did you think of ghosts I guess after these experiences you've had at Centre?
11:26
Wayne To be honest with you, I have never really believed in ghosts and until my experiences personally with Breck and the things that I've seen there and some of the things I've seen across campus there and for example over in Sutcliffe. We had--I had--a really strange personal instance there...where we were painting the old racquetball courts, which are backed by the weight or--the training room--and…It was nobody on campus over three of us down there painting it. We broke for lunch and walked back up the stairs, locked the door, and as we started out the door, we kept hearing a ball. Somebody was throwing a ball around in the handball courts...and we just painted the walls. So we go back, look in the windows, the lights were out, nobody was there. We unlocked the door, go down the steps, open the door and...a handball was rolling across the floor with paint on it and nobody in the room. One of the guys that was with me painting for me that summer, he went up the stairs, and I have never seen him since. He left, never came back from lunch.
12:38
Mackenzie Yeah.
12:40
Wayne There's been a few instances, so yeah, Centre made a believer out of me.
12:46
Mackenzie Mhm, I mean yeah [LAUGHS] I could definitely see that with everything you've experienced...But I guess it never like got enough--struck enough--fear in you that you still continued to go to work every day?
13:02
Wayne Yeah they've never attempted to hurt anybody they just...there's been a lot of people went through Centre over the years. A lot of different things have happened with Centre and its history so I'm sure there's more than a few spirits still wandering around.
13:21
Mackenzie [Laughing]
13:22
Wayne It’s been a good place for a lot of people to live over the years. But no, I'm not afraid to go in there and would go back tomorrow without any hesitation.
13:30
Mackenzie Yeah awesome. Well that's all the questions that I have for you today. It was really great hearing about the different ghost stories and ghosts you've experienced on Centre's campus
END OF INTERVIEW
Original Format
MP4
Duration
13:43
Citation
King, Wayne, “Ghosts Everywhere: Centre Over the Past Four Decades with Retired Director of Facilities Wayne King,” Ghosts at Centre College, accessed May 16, 2024, https://centreghosts.omeka.net/items/show/19.