Spirit of the Theater

Title

Spirit of the Theater

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

Description

An analysis of the Grant Hall ghost at Centre College, detailing a possible origin story and the importance of interpreting those roots.

Creator

Lyon, Grant

Date

2021_01_14

Contributor

Fehribach, Andrew

Rights

All Rights Reserved

Format

MP4

Language

English

Type

Oral history (literary work)

Interviewer

Fehribach, Andrew

Interviewee

Lyon, Grant

Location

Grant Hall, Centre College, Danville, KY
Breckinridge Hall, Centre College, Danville KY

Transcription

Fehribach:
My name is Andrew Fehribach and today I am interviewing Grant Lyon, who is currently a Senior Sociology major and music minor at Centre. Today is Thursday, January 14th 2021. We are recording this interview using Zoom at Centre. Today we will be discussing Grant’s experiences and understanding of campus ghosts during his time as a student at Centre, specifically a ghost in Grant Hall. Can you briefly explain where this particular campus ghost is and paint a general picture of the area?

00:30

Lyon:
Yeah, I’ll start by saying, I’m not an expert on this particular ghost, nor any ghost really, but, I do spend a lot of time in Grant Hall, and people talk about it occasionally. Um... So he lives in Grant Hall and specifically, he likes to hang out in the elevator, that’s a big part. Um... He’s also in other sections. People attribute other things to him, such as closing doors in the uh... in the hallway down in the basement of Grant Hall though. Never heard anyone mention him on any of the other floors. It’s the basement and the elevator is the only times it’s come up, but that’s also where I hang out, you know, so maybe... maybe there’s other stuff. I don’t know. Um... The main thing with the elevator is that there’s this little door in there. It’s kind of an old timey elevator and its got a little emergency button panel thing, and if you open that up, you can feed him. That’s his main thing is that he’s hungry. He likes candy, you know. So he eats Cowan mints primarily. That’s the main thing I’ve ever seen anyone feed him, but candy, you know. Candy in general I guess he’d probably eat, you know, whatever you put in there. But you just feed him a little piece of candy, then you shut the door, and you come back later, and the candy is gone, because he ate it. That’s what he does. He’s hungry.

02:00

Fehribach:
Is this a particularly trafficked area of Grant Hall?

Lyon:
I would say no, not a whole lot most students will take the stairs, especially if they are just going to regular classes, like... So if you aren’t in the music department or the drama department or something, you’re not even really going to the basement all that much. You’re usually just going to the fourth floor and it’s not that hard to go up one flight of stairs. Um... Faculty use it a fair amount I’d say and people who are doing stuff sort of after hours, like ensembles and stuff like that. That’s the only times I’ve ever used it. I don’t really use the elevator a whole lot. I’ve maybe been on it maybe... I used to use it to transport musical equipment, just for like, to save on going up the stairs, probably only a handful of times really. But a lot for moving equipment, um, which is the main reason anyone has ever mentioned it.

Fehribach:
When did you first hear about it and do you remember who told you?

Lyon:
I don’t remember exactly, but it’s come up a couple times. Definitely was mentioned to me at least by sophomore year someone had talked about it, probably even freshman year. But just kind of casually. It’s not like, here’s like this deep dark legend, let me tell you all the details of a person who died or something like that. It’s more of a cute gimmick really, um... I think Dr. Link in the music department has mentioned the ghost before, um... and probably knows more than me and has probably personally added to the lore about him before, um... and other students just in the music department are people that I’ve just sort of heard about it from or they’ve mentioned it or they’ve said something like, oh we gotta feed the Grant Hall ghost, etc.

04:00

Fehribach:
So do only students who spend time in Grant Hall really know about the ghost, so music and drama students predominantly?

Lyon:
I can’t specifically speak to even drama students, and I can’t even generalize about all music students. It does not come up a lot. I don’t think I’ve ever talked about it with people who aren’t music students, but those are the only people I’ve been in Grant Hall basement with or in the elevator with. Um... I have no idea how well known this ghost is. It’s certainly, in comparison to Peter—is that the one in Breckinridge, Peter?— Um... people know about Peter, people talk about Peter, but especially people in Breckinridge talk about Peter. It’s kind of the same way I think, but to a lesser scale. I don’t know. There must be some primary people who disseminate information about it, and it’s not really me and it’s not... I don’t really know who it’d be, but I think probably mostly music students, but even then, if you walked into orchestra or something, and said, how many of you know there’s a candy eating ghost in the elevator, I don’t think a lot of them are going to say yes [Laughter - Lyon]. So I don’t know.

05:00

Fehribach:
Why do you think this ghost fails to receive the attention that the Breckinridge ghost seems to have?

Lyon: Um...

Fehribach:
Just location, perhaps?

Lyon:
I think... It’s lower traffic, certainly, and it... to my knowledge anyway, I might be wrong on this, because again, I don’t even know all the details, it doesn’t have such an extensive lore, you know. Having like a backstory and stuff, um, there might be some. There might be a name for this ghost that people refer to it by, um, there might be a person that it’s attached to that’s real or something. I’m assuming not. I think that it’s probably a story that’s told primarily around explaining phenomena of Grant Hall and eating candy, and less around a story that became those things. But I don’t know. I mean, that’s kind of the thing, it’s not talked about as much.

06:00

Fehribach:
Ghosts may be used to intrigue people, and the ghost stories are meant to entertain people. They can even be a selling point, haunted house tours and the like. What do you think those kind of practices say about how we treat ghosts on campus, if we talk about them as a means of getting people more interested in Centre, or do we tell them to make ourselves feel like we are more part of a Centre community?

Lyon:
Um... Certainly, he adds a little bit of charm, a bit of story to the building. It’s become a social meaning attached to it, it’s kind of fun to talk about beyond just the physical building. But we can do that with all sorts of different stuff, any sort of story you can tell about a place could sort of have that same effect. I’ve never heard of anyone like using the fact that there’s a candy ghost to draw people into Centre, into like coming here or anything, but I could see how, you know, having stories about places could do that in a more abstract way. Beyond this specific example, but it’s kind of charming to have stuff about it, if that makes sense.

07:30

Fehribach:
Did you find yourself more interested in ghosts upon hearing other campus ghosts or do you not know any other campus ghosts other than this one and the Breckinridge ghost?

Lyon:
I know Peter and the candy guy. I don’t know anything about any other ghosts, and I don’t really talk about ghosts all that much. I’m not someone who believes in ghosts, um... I don’t know, it’s just not a topic that I interact with much.

Fehribach:
Have you or anyone you know experienced something in this space, this particular location?

Lyon:
Other than sometimes you open the hatch and the candy is gone [Laughter - Lyon]. Again, anything that could go wrong in Grant Hall—not really wrong, but just anything eerie— one might make a comment and attribute it to the ghost. That would be a pretty normal thing to do. The only thing I can really think of, other than the candy thing, is that a door has shut that’s not someone doing it. I think it’s ‘cause there’s weird heating practices [Laughter - Lyon] in Grant Hall, specifically in the basement, sometimes it’s really hot down there or really cold down there. And there’s kind of pressure differences in hallways and stuff. Um... I don’t think it’s really anything more than that, but I’ve definitely heard someone say, like, oh that’s the Grant Hall ghost who closed the door or whatever.

09:00

Fehribach:
Have you had anything strange happen to you in general on campus, or even off campus before?

Lyon:
I’m sure lots of strange things have happened, but I’ve never had phenomena in my life that I attribute to the supernatural, in any meaningful way. That’s just not really something I do, so...

Fehribach:
Do you know anyone who has?

Lyon:
Um.. There’s probably a lot of people on campus who are more likely to buy into the sort of supernatural stories and phenomena and stuff. I don’t know if I have a specific example of anyone saying anything spooky happened to them, and if they did, they might be someone more like me, who’s attributing it to a ghost sort of in a comical way or just to discuss this common thing that we know, so trying to literally say a ghost did it, but there probably are people that do, so I don’t want to discount that that’s a thing that happens as well.

10:00

Fehribach:
Do you think that has anything to do with being on a college campus as opposed to perhaps a more stereotyped, small, rural community?

Lyon:
Could you repeat that? Sorry.

Fehribach:
I’m asking if the lack of belief, perhaps, has more to do with us being on a college campus, rather than a more stereotypical small, rural community, who perhaps uses ghosts stories as a means of connecting with one another?

Lyon:
Um... I’m sure there is some difference between a college campus and how they interact with ghost stories versus different places, especially throughout history. I think we are in kind of a moment in history in, like, American western history where ghost stories aren’t as believed in. They are more of just a fun little folklore tidbit than they are a thing that someone is actively fearing for the most part... I don’t know how much it would depend on here versus another place or how much they, like, legitimately believe in ghosts versus how much they talk about ghosts or whatever, but we have ghosts here because a bunch of people in close a proximity community that values tradition and storytelling a lot passing that down, so I think that’s kind of how we end up with stuff like that. Um... but, I don’t know. I don’t live in a bunch of other different communities, so I can’t really compare how they do or do not interact with ghosts.

11:30

Fehribach:
How did you personally feel about hearing, uh, first hearing about the ghost? Did anyone take it seriously, or was it very off handed? You say it was a very casual thing to even mention it, let alone somebody actually reacting to it per say. So when you first heard about it, was that immediately clear, or did it seem like someone was actually invested in the ghost in some way?

12:00

Lyon:
Again I don’t remember my first time someone mentioned it to me, but it was notably very casually. It was kind of a quirky, goofy ghost if that makes sense. It’s not like a serious fear thing. It’s not something that, I think... I could not point to like a student who thinks that there’s a person who died in the elevator or something like that. I don’t even know again if that’s the actual story that is meant to accompany this particular specter. But, it’s goofy, it’s a goofy, quirky ghost that eats Cowan mints. It’s not... gonna go like, chase you with an axe or something [Laughter - Lyon]. It’s just not that kind.

Fehribach:
With it being so casual, do you think it is worth mentioning to people at all, other than as a joke if a door shuts suddenly, do you find it’s even worth bringing up?

13:00

Lyon:
Not really, yeah [laughter], I don’t talk about it a lot because it’s kind of a thing most people wouldn’t even know what I was talking about. But if somehow I was riding the elevator with someone who had not been to the elevator before, that is the moment that I might decide to open the candy hatch and see if there was a mint in there. So there’s a situation that I would want to share with other people about the ghost, but it’s for the joke of it. It would be like, this is a cute, quirky little story that we tell about this building. But there’s truth to it because the candies are gone. That’s kind of the important part. That if you do put a candy in there, it will go away at some point. Um... yeah.

Fehribach:
Do you attribute the candy going away as just somebody else taking it out [Laughter - Lyon] or even janitorial staff?

Lyon:
I do absolutely attribute the candy going out to somebody taking it out. I will personally admit to having done so twice in my Centre College career. Um... And I have put candy in there also about twice. I think if you are someone who knows about the ghost—and again, I’m not even an expert, I barely know anything about this ghost—but if you are someone who knows about it, and you think the story is cute, you think it’s funny, you want to keep it alive, it is sort of your responsibility that if you are in the elevator alone, and you open the hatch, that you take out that Cowan mint if it’s in there. Um... It’s a personal responsibility thing I think [Laughter - Lyon], that if you want the story to stay alive, you have to sort of... be a part of it, which is weird, because by doing so, you’re actively admitting that it is not real at all, not even remotely, but [Laughter - Lyon] I have to imagine that’s the case for a lot of ghosts that people actually do keep or take very seriously, um... yeah.

15:00

Fehribach:
Now, upon seeing the elevator, do you associate it first with the ghost at all, or is it still elevator first and ghost second? Have you changed your habits in any way revolving around your knowledge of a ghost being in the elevator?

Lyon:
Sometimes I open the hatch, but not a whole lot more than that, and not even always. I haven’t used it the last few years as much. My freshman and sophomore year, I had to use the elevator more often. I had to transport equipment on it weekly. Um... I don’t even remember looking in the hatch much those times. I haven’t... I don’t do it every time I’m in there, but I guess I’m more likely to do it now then I used to, because I don’t go on it now as much. Um... yeah, I don’t... It’s still an elevator to me [Laughter - Lyon]. I haven’t let the fact that there’s a ghost that’s fake that partially is me taint the fact that it is just an elevator, so I don’t know. And people still use it normally. No one would be like, hey, you want to take the elevator up, and we will go up on it, and I won’t necessarily mention the ghost. It’s not a big part of my life.

Fehribach:
Alright, that’s about all the time we have. I appreciate the interview very much. I hope we can learn more about the Grant Hall ghost. Thank you. I’m going to stop the interview now.
——————————END OF INTERVIEW——————————

Citation

Lyon, Grant, “Spirit of the Theater,” Ghosts at Centre College, accessed May 17, 2024, https://centreghosts.omeka.net/items/show/23.

Output Formats

Geolocation