The Ghost of Stuart Hall

The Ghost of Stuart Hall

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

An oral history about paranormal experiences that occurred to residents and faculty of Centre College, specifically in Stuart Hall.

Johnson, Adam

2021_01_17

Jury, Ellie

All Rights Reserved.

MP4

English

Oral history (literary work)

JURY, ELLIE

JOHNSON, ADAM

STUART HALL, Centre College, Danville, KY

CENTRE SHOPPES, Centre College, Danville, KY

PRESTON-PRUITT FUNERAL HOME, Danville, KY

Ellie Jury 0:02
My name is Ellie Jury and today I'm interviewing Adam Johnson who attend.... attended
Centre from 26.... 2016 to 2020. Today, is January 17, 2021. Today, we'll be discussing
Adam's experiences while living on Centre's campus specifically between the years of
2019 and 2020. So, we're first going to start off with just a little bit of contextual
information, and more about your time at Centre. So where did you live on Centre's
campus? And can you describe the location in the space?
Adam Johnson 0:31
Yeah, so my senior year I lived in Stuart Hall. It was fall of 2019 and spring of 2020. It's
kind of in one of the corners of campus, it's over by Pearl [Hall] and across the street
from the Presbyterian Church. I think it's one of the older, if not the oldest, building on
Center's campus, but it's been used for a bunch of things. It was the old bookstore for a
while. I had heard rumors that it used to be a morgue, not sure if that's true. But now, or
when I was there, that was where we lived. And I think now they're using it as kind of a
COVID first response place.
Ellie Jury 1:11
Yeah, so did you have like any roommates? So, like, how was like the living situation
setup in there?
Adam Johnson 1:22
I didn't hear any of that. Can you say that again?
Ellie Jury 1:24
Yeah. So how, like, what was the living situation? How were like.... did you have
roommates? or How did they set it up in this space?
Adam Johnson 1:33
Got it. So, when we.... it was.... yes, I had roommates, I had four roommates. We were in
the ( ).... in the suite, kind of tucked in the back corner. So, it had a living room with
three bedrooms and then kind of a common area with a bathroom across the hall. The rest
of the building had maybe six other rooms with a common area, washer and dryer,
kitchen, that kind of place, and then an extra bathroom on the second floor.
Ellie Jury 2:08
Awesome. So, you said that it was the bookstore and possibly a morgue, you'd heard.
Could you see like any of that? Like any of those spaces? Like was it you know,
transformed into a dorm? Or do you still like see those kind of places working within the
area?
Adam Johnson 2:23
So, they did their best to turn it into an only a dorm building. But you could definitely tell
at least with the bookstore, there are kind of remnants from that. So, in all of the
bedrooms, in our suite, there were walls that were made, specifically so that you could
hang bookshelves on it. And they had the bookshelves from the old bookstore in the room
still so that we could use them for.... for hanging or shelving or whatever it needed to be.
But we couldn't tell much about the morgue. So, I don't that's why I don't know if that's
true or not.
Ellie Jury 2:55
That's awesome. So, did you spend a lot of time in that area? You know, where are you
involved in other things on campus? Or did you spend a majority of your time in the
dorm room?
Adam Johnson 3:05
So, I was on the lacrosse team and then with that was involved in a couple other things on
campus, but when I wasn't at practice or the library, hanging out with friends, we were
usually spending a good amount of time in the there, so it wasn't.... wasn't anything out of
the ordinary as far as time spent in a in a living situation, but a good amount of time.
Ellie Jury 3:27
So, now we're going to kind of move on now that we've kind of set the scene of Stuart,
we're going to move on to some of these paranormal experiences that might or might
have not happened. So, what kind of strange or unexplained experiences have you had on
Centre's campus?
Adam Johnson 3:41
So, I've never had any until I was in Stewart. I lived in Old Quad freshman.... I think
freshman through junior year actually I was an Old Quad and didn't have any.... any
paranormal experiences there. Just heard rumors from other people, but then senior year
in Stuart, we had.... I personally had three and then my roommates had a couple others.
The first one, we.... we weren't living there for very long, I think it was pretty early in the
fall, in one of the doors into our.... our apartment, kind of the.... the living room area was
a big heavy industrial door that had a deadbolt lock and just a normal twist lock. But it
was it was a very, very heavy door and it would slam shut if you didn't prop it open or
have anything in the way. So, we were hanging out just watching TV on a weekend or
something, and we had a.... it was a piece of cement, like a chunk of cement, probably
size of half of a notebook or something like that.... like a sizable piece and it was heavy.
And we had it in the door so that we could get some airflow into the room and we were
sitting there for maybe an hour, hour and a half, and had never had any problems with the
door or anything like that. And all of a sudden, the door opened a little bit, the piece of
cement rolled out of the way and the door slammed shut. No one had touched it for like,
like I said, probably an hour and a half. So, we were pretty surprised by that. But we
thought it could have been the wind, anything like that. So, we weren't super freaked out,
I guess you could say. The second one I had is we had posters all over the room, just with
thumbtacks holding them into the wall. And again, they had been in the room, they'd
been on the walls, for probably a few months at this point. No one had missed with them,
nobody bumped the tacks, we were all hanging out in the room again. And then all of a
sudden, on multiple posters, at the same time, tacks fell out of the wall. And the poster
started to fall and swing. So again, we had no idea what was going on with that. But that
was kind of the second story. And then the third story I was I was by myself for this one.
But I was.... I think it was a weekend early in the year and was at the library for most of
the morning and came back to the room and was just lying in my bed for a little while
kind of relaxing. No TV.... or.... or I had a TV in the room, but it wasn't on - it was
plugged in the remote was on the other side of the room. And we actually haven't turned
it on all year, but I was the only one in our whole apartment of the five of us. So, I'm
sitting on my phone on my bed, again with the TV and the remote on the other side of the
room, and I start hearing something, so I think okay, someone's.... someone's home,
someone turned the TV on, out in the living room or something. But was sitting there for
a little while longer and didn't hear any more any voices or anything else and ended up
putting.... I think I was on my computer or something but looked.... put my computer
down and looked up in the TV had turned on. So again, the remote was on the other side
of the room, we hadn't turned the TV on all year, I was the only one there and it just
turned on by itself. So, I thought it was weird. Got up, went to turn the TV off, grabbed
the remote to turn it off, it wouldn't turn off. So, I grabbed new batteries, put them in the
remote, still wouldn't turn off and then finally went to just hit the power button on the
TV, and it still wouldn't turn off. So, I ended up having to unplug the TV to get it off and
it stayed unplugged for the rest of the year. (laughing) wasn't going to mess with....
Ellie Jury 7:48
Probably a good idea (laughing)
Adam Johnson 7:50
Yeah, but those were those are my three stories.... main stories, and then throughout the
year, a couple of our roommates got into the spooky part of Stuart, and the rumors about
it and whatnot, and brought out a Ouija board a couple times throughout the year, and
everyone who did it, claimed as always that it was working, but I didn't take part of that.
Ellie Jury 8:13
(laughing) Probably a good idea. I don't think I would either. So, during these
experiences, did you smell anything different? Did you hear anything? I know you said....
you know.... the TV's on, you thought someone's home, but was there anything like
abnormal about the day or just kind of about the time?
Adam Johnson 8:28
No, they were they were all normal days I want to say.... thinking back on it they might
have all been on the weekend, but probably late morning to early afternoon and the
time.... but no, not any smells that I can remember, not any weird feelings when we were
in the room, just all kind of out of the ordinary events.
Ellie Jury 8:51
That's crazy. So, has this like experience, or these experiences, changed the way like you
see Centre's campus, because I know.... you know that there's a lot of rumors or stories
that are being told that.... you know.... Centre is a relatively haunted place.... you know....
different buildings: Old Quad, New Quad.... you know.... no matter where you go on
campus, even Young [Hall] that.... you know.... maybe it is haunted, but have these
experiences change the way you see kind of Centre's campus?
Adam Johnson 9:17
No, I - I wouldn't say it changed anything for me I always.... I mean I - I believe in ghosts
to a certain degree and stuff, and you hear the stories on Centre's campus about X, Y or Z
happening, but I wouldn't say changed anything for me, just kind of a fun.... fun stories to
tell.
Ellie Jury 9:34
And going.... kind of connecting back to the stories and.... you know.... the places that
Stuart used to be, do you think that those places.... kind of.... like the transforming from
either a morgue to a bookstore to a residence hall, do you think that kind of influences the
way.... like maybe we.... you had these experiences?
Adam Johnson 9:52
(laughing) I think the.... the morgue part of it definitely adds to the story. Whether it's
true or not, it's a.... it's a fun addition to it.... kind of adds to the.... the drama behind it, but
the bookstore - no, I don't think that had any.... any relation to the story or added anything
to the story.
Ellie Jury 10:11
And so, you said that you know you believe in ghosts and you believe in ghost stories....
kind of like why? I think this class that we're looking at place and how it's important to us
and how it's important to ghosts.... so, you know.... do you believe in ghosts and also like
why and what do you think the significance of this place could be for you know.... ghosts
or other people?
Adam Johnson 10:33
Um as far as why, I don't really have one big this is why I believe in it. I think just
hearing different stories from people and friends or my own events, like it.... Centre, I
can't say I have any outside of Centre. But you know the TV shows and documentaries of
all these things that you hear kind of add to the lore behind it, so whether they're true or
not it's.... it's fun and I definitely can see things.... things like that happening. As far as....
kind of Center's.... Centre's aspect of it.... Centre's relation to it, I think it could ( )....
probably does happen in more places than just Centre. I think it's got.... Centre's got the
history behind it, so that it's easy.... kind of easy pickings to find stories like that or beef
up the.... the paranormal activity sense behind it. But, I don't think that has anything
specific to do with, with what wouldn't go on anywhere else.
Ellie Jury 11:33
Yeah. Awesome. Well, I think that's all I have for you. So, thank you for answering these
questions.
Adam Johnson 11:39
Thank you. Okay.
END OF INTERVIEW

MP4

11:40