The Chenault Alumni House: Working beyond the Grave.

The Chenault Alumni House: Working beyond the Grave.

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 the paranormal activity within the walls of the Chenault Alumni house located on Centre Colleges Campus.

Seaver, Jacky

2021_01_19

Roper, Savanna

All Rights Reserved

MP4

English

Oral History (literary Work)

Roper, Savanna

Seaver, Jacky

Chenault Alumni House, Centre College, Danville, KY

HIS 470 Interview
Interviewer: Savanna Roper
Interviewee: Jacky Seaver
Interview Date: January 19, 2020



















Roper: And my name is Savanna Roper. I am interviewing Jacky today who is the director of donor relations. um I am here with Jacky and today is January the 19, and we are recording this over zoom. Today we will be discussing Jacky’s experience with spirits at Centre. Um so Jacky if you wouldn’t mind just going ahead and telling me where you work and what you do on Centre’s campus.

Seaver: Ok um I work in the shanalt alumni house um on Maple Avenue and as the director donor relations and stewardship it is my responsibility to make sure we are handling our donors gifts in the appropriate way. Making sure that they can see the impact that their gifts are making on campus and in the lives of our students. (1:00) So if they endow a scholarship I’m the one who sends them updates on how the money is being used, how the fund is performing, and um and a little bit of information on the actual student recipient so they can see um really what their dollars are doing um to advance the education of our students.

Roper: Cool. And what does a typical day for you look like?

Seaver: Um pre-covid it was a lot of -- I do a lot of the behind the scenes work. It's purely office based. I don’t travel or anything, a lot of our office travels, I am strictly homebased. It’s a lot of email all day long, correspondence with our donors, um phone calls with our donors and really just kind of making sure that all the appropriate paperwork is done. So um I spend 8 or 9 hours a day staring at my computer screen.
[Laughter]
2:00
Roper: Well that’s -- obviously things have changed since then. Um since covid, and even for students I know we are feeling the impact. Now we are going to get into the fun part of the interview where we talk about your paranormal experience or what strange unexplained event has happened to you on Centre’s campus. What has happened recently? I know you said it is a recent experience.

Seaver: It is recent. Ya know I went to Centre so I spent four years and all of the years since then listening to Wayne King do his Centre ghost stories and I lived in Breck hall so I kept thinking that I was going to end up in one of those rooms that he talks about. But I've never really witnessed anything for myself and just kind of thought I trust Wayne but I haven't heard or seen any of this for myself. (3:00) Um so as I said I work in the Alumni House which is a really old building a really old home. It was built in 1904. It has a lot of history. It was a person residents and for about 30 years it was the Phi Delt house from 1932-1962 I believe it was the Phi delt house. Then it became the alumni house shortly after that. And we renovated in 1998. The parts we didn't really renovate was the basement and the attic -- that I find very creepy. Um they're your typical old house kind of spaces. Concrete cement walls, kind of cold and drafty, cobwebby...Places that I don’t really like to go. I also have made it a rule not to try to be in the office by myself very often.

Roper: [Laughter]

Seaver: Um because I am kind of a scardy cat. But Once we got sent home and started working remotely nobody was in the office very often. A Lot of us were just dropping in and out as we needed to -- Um so it was sometime late spring early summer because I remember the project I was working on. So it was sometime before the end of june. I had gone into the office on a Sunday afternoon knowing that I would have peace and quiet and because of covid not be near anybody so that was a plus. And I was downstairs sitting in the conference room, no one in the office not expecting anyone in the office. And I heard the back door open...And our doors have some pretty distinctive sound since they are old. And I've worked in the building so long I’ve learned the-- I know which door is opening based on the sound that it makes. I heard the back door open, nobody said anything, and I heard footsteps go up the back staircase which you can’t see from the room that I was in. (5:00) SO I yelled out..ya know “hey, I’m Here”... No response, I thought well that’s not unusual, maybe they didn’t hear me. Gave it a little while then heard footsteps up and down the hallway upstairs-- like walking over me. Well I thought “that's odd what are they looking for, everybody has their own office?”... Um there is only one communal space upstairs with a copy machine and it doesn’t seem like that’s where they are going…[sight] so as much as I didn’t want to I went up stair to see who it was and there was no one at all...I looked in every office every space-- bathroom, um nobody. I thought “well that’s weird they must have gone down the back stairs as I was going up the front steps. We must have just missed each other”. So I went back to my work at my conference room table, tried to ignore it as much as possible and then I heard footsteps come down the steps again and the back door closed. (6:00) So I ran to the backdoor which has glass in it thinking “I’ll just see who it was”...and there was no one there. [Laughs] So...It could have been in my head I suppose but the sounds were just too recognizable. Um the back stairs aren’t carpeted so it has a different sound then somebody walking up the front steps and it's again a sound I’ve heard everyday for the last 17 years of my life is people walking up and down those steps. Um so needless to say I finished my work incredibly fast and left. Um texted a few people who typically come in on Sunday and said “Hey did you stop by the office by any chance and you were really fast on your way out the door?” No one had been there, no one had the attention of being there that day. They assured me when they got to work the next morning that no one was in the building. So I can only assume -- I guess that it was -- a…(7:00) Spiritual visitor.
[Laughter]
Roper: I have cold chills!

Seaver: I know. I-I know.

Roper: So Scary.

Seaver: So there are -- there are other people who have worked for us in the past who have said similar things that they have heard noises in the building that have no explanation. Um sounds that are happening in the attic that they know no one is up there but they have to be -- they’re not sounds that would be animals or.. Ya H-Vac systems clicking on… they’re people sounds. Um so again I try not to be there by myself [laughter] and I try not to be there at night...um especially now after hearing that!

Roper: Yaaa. And um so you said Wayne has told you stories um before, as he likes to share, and you said you like to try to avoid being in the office alone (8:00) was this based off of stories that Wayne has told you of this specific building?

Seaver: Um...no to my knowledge he didn’t -- he never told stories on our building and um I chalk that up to he wasn’t in our building very often, he just didn’t have anything to share. I think Wayne was really good about not sharing second hand stories. He would tell what happened to him or what happened to his employees um so I don't recall him ever telling a story about the alumni house but I think if he talked to several of us we could give him a lot of good information for his next uh ghost telling session.

Roper: Gotcha. And you said you heard things like feet walking upstairs, doors opening...you -- did you smell anything or see anything? Or have any other sensory ques that you might not be alone?

Seaver: I definitely didn’t smell anything that I can recall...um..(9:00) I never know when that happens --I do kinda get a cold chill. Like my goose bumps -- I get goose bumps um and I feel kinda a cold chill come over me. I don’t know if the temperature actually changed in the building. I always chalk it up to it’s just me, it’s just my body having kinda a frightened reaction. Um but it was mostly just the sounds that were so distinct. It wasn’t wind, it wasn’t a critter that had gotten in the basement. These were very distinct --y-you could -- I could make out the cadence of the person walking up the stairs. Like there was that kind of space between the noises where it was very clear that they were ascending a staircase. Um--

Roper: That’s --

Seaver: It-- it just-- and I mean-- I had -- I instantly came (10:00) home and pretty much said “I’m not going back”.

Roper: Ya..so that’s what I--an-and how long after I guess..the person left, did it take you to get out -- was it instantly instinct “I have to get out of the building”?

Seaver: Ya...Ya. It was less than five minutes. It was long enough to finish what I was doing. It wasn’t even long enough for me to clean up my space. I think I told someone I’ll come back...um..it…

Roper: I’ll come back with reinforcements
[laughs]
Seaver: Ya. Ya next time someone’s in the office I’ll come back and clean up. Um..the door was locked when I left. Because we--we lock the door when we are there, on weekends particularly. Um but right now because of covid the general rule is we can’t have visitors so our doors are always locked whether we are there or not. So when I came in the building my instinct was to lock the back door behind me. I never heard a key in the door (11:00) from what I remember and I didn’t hear a key in the door for them to lock it back but I did hear the door open.
[Laughs]
Seaver: Um...and that's why I ran to the back door thinking “Okay somebody did just they were just speedy and got around me ya know and they were going down the back as I was coming up the front and they got out the back.” Um...we have a pretty wide open space I mean the person would have had to go out the back door and instantly cut a really sharp left to go down our driveway to get out of my line of sight… Um and that’s just not typically for anyone who would be coming in our building. There would be a car outside. Um and everyone knew my car was there which meant I was in the building.

Roper: And they would’ve been like ‘I’m here’

Seaver: Ya and we have our own parking lot. Ya so they would walk in the door and say--because they know I’m a little (12:00) on edge most of them open the door and say ‘Hey Jacky it’s me’ and I can recognize the voice or ‘Hey Jacky it’s so and so’ and I don’t worry about it. Um but when they didn't announce themselves and they didn’t respond when I said ‘hello’ ummm -- no one has a key to our building except us and DPS. DPS is good about announcing themselves, particularly if someone says ‘hello’ they say ‘hey, DPS’ um and they all know me anyway so um -- it had no explanation. I tried to explain it away 25 different ways--

Roper: Yeah.

Seaver: Um but I couldn’t come up with anything that made sense.

Roper: Yeah. That’s pretty crazy. And ya know some people when they have encounters with ghosts they have (13:00) like a calm feeling like ‘oh somebodys here but it’s ok’...you didn’t really have that feeling?

Seaver: Um no I didn’t have that [laughs] no. Um if they could --if the person there could have given me some indication that they were good I would have, I probably would’ve been okay with it but I know that there of some of the-- the ghost stories that Wayne has told that the -- he has the they are friendly ghost they are not gonna bother you. Um and I have friends that claim that they’ve had interactions with them and they say ‘they’re great! They don’t bother anybody.’ I don’t know what the case was with this one so...I didn’t engage.

Roper: Ya that’s pretty fair. So this is not like uh-- it’s not traumatizing but it kinda makes you reconsider things a little bit more before you head into work, so after this experience how has it shaped the way you think about work or think about the place where you work?

Seaver: Um well I think it (14:00) just kinda confirmed what other colleges have told me over the years when they have had these experiences of um going upstairs to get something and then coming downstairs to find doors closed or opened that had been the opposite when they had went upstairs when they are the only ones in the building. Um the college who heard someone typing on a typewriter while she was in the building umm we don’t have typewriters in our offices anymore…[laughs] haven’t for years. The only typewriter we know of is in the attic um a place where no one goes, it’s storage purely storage -- And this happened late at night when she heard the keyboard like fingers on the keyboard um so I already kinda had like a healthy appreciation that I might not always be the only one in the building um…(15:00) not really scared because for the most part I don’t-- I don’t even know how I think about spirits. I don’t know that I believe or don’t believe. But I have a healthy appreciation that they are here and I wanna believe that they’re all good...um..but for fear that they’re not I do not want to be alone with them. Um so for my own personal safety in general, spirits not involved, not to be at the office at night by myself. Don’t want to walk to my care alone, that sort of thing. This kinda heightened that a little bit and um I move a little faster when I am at the office alone. I don’t dilly dally. I get in, and I do what I have to do and I leave.
(16:00)
Roper: Mhmmm

Seaver: and I let my co-workers know who might be there the next day that they might have company.

Roper: [laughs] Yeah, so overall what does this personal experience make you think about Centre’s campus as kind of a whole? I mean we all know the rich history it has behind it so does this impact your opinion of the campus? Or has this shaped your view of the campus?

Seaver: Um I’ve always thought that you know my history with Centre now goes back about 23 years, um, my personal experience with Centre, and um I’ve always thought that the campus is so rich with a lot of different types of experiences for people. Our campus in the last 200 plus years has seen a lot. You know old centre being a civil war hospital, um stewart hall had been a funeral home. You know we have things that have occurred on campus that (17:00) I think in some ways in my mind lend itself to this sort of thing being very possible. Um i've never looked at it as a negative and um I just think it’s part of the campus and part of who we are now. I think for the most part I think they are there because they think it is a pretty cool place to be. I mean there is a reason I am still here 23 years later. I love it, I love everything about it! So, that is where I kinda look at it as the people who are probably here the spirits that are on campus are probably good spirits and um I just kinda think it makes our campus that much more interesting. I mean I am sure other campuses kinda have the same experiences but when a campus is as small as our and our student body and our alumni body are so close knit and stay connected, these are just more of the stories that (18:00) I think connect us more. That the ghost in breck, so many alumni have experienced that same ghost and that is what I think is cool about it. That that same ghost isn’t something that happened at your house or in your hometown its something that we have all kind of experienced or heard about. And it is just one more thing for us to kind of rally around as a group of like minded individuals, I guess. We all love Centre and it is just one more thing about Centre that we can relate to.


Roper: Yeah I totally agree. I think, my friends who lived in Breck they all have had their experiences and um even Ruby-Cheek, just like when alumni come back just to visit or for homecoming they always talk to somebody about it --it’s interesting because in a weird way it does end up being something, a connecting factor...
(19:00)


Seaver: Right

Roper: between our bodies and I do appreciate the um rich history of Centre because not a lot of school can say they’ve had a inferemery --
Seaver: Right

Roper: or brothels...that sort of stuff [laughs] on campus at times and I do believe the place of the story does have a lot to do with your friend or your ghost. I’ll be excited to look into do some research between this specific house because it seems like there's a lot behind it. But Ya I’m excited. So my final question for you, and I know you’ve kind of touched on it, umm what do you think of ghost and ghost stories? Do you believe in them? And has this situation affected your beliefs?

Seaver: Um, I think I do believe in them...or I-I guess (20:00) in some ways I think ghosts -- the word ghost has somewhat of a negative connotation, ghosting is a little scarier to me I think Um so I think of them more as spirits and I think i do--I do uh believe in them even before this encounter. Um of just kind of feeling like at time I’ve just had kind of a spirit with me during really hard times um and maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part. Ya know I’ve lost some really important people in my life long before their time-- and so I just sometimes think they're still with me or they're doing these things along with me. Um -- I just I don’t know. We lost a daughter so sometimes I like to think that her spirit is around (21:00) obviously in a very very good way of just -- kind of looking on us and trying to send a little message of ‘I’m ok, We’re ok’ or something like that -- I mean you just never really know. I want to believe in the goodness of them and that they show up when people need them to show up.

Roper: I love that, I love that cause I think that sometimes especially through Hollywood and Drama that just gets construed so I like the idea of a spirit watching you and guiding you through life and ---

Seaver: It’s comforting!

Roper: Ya it is comforting and I love that you have that connection with your daughter. \

Seaver: I don’t know if that um -- it’s also weird because the person that showed up at the house was a guy, I don’t know why. I don’t know if it was a louder march up the stairs (22:00) or if it was a lack of calling themselves out because they were polite. I kind of had an instant like ‘that was a guy; I don’t know why it-- it very easily could have been a young girl an old women, but in my head it was like a middle aged man who just showed up at an office needed to do something and left. So

Roper: Ya and when you were speaking you kind of made it sound like a ‘him’

Seaver: Yeah.

Roper: I can understand how you talked about you know--you co-workers and you know your co-workers' cadence of their footsteps and that sort of thing so it wasn’t like a like a little kid pitter patter….

Seaver: No it was like a clomping. Um it's what you would expect a-- a guy who really isn’t worried about if they were making sounds as they were going up the stairs they just need to get upstairs so they just...I don’t know they just -- it didn’t sound like any of my co-workers going up the stairs, which sounds odd that you become so (23:00)familiar with those kinds of noises but we don’t have a lot of guys in the building so I kinda knew what they sounded like going up that back staircase. It just seemed too loud for a women...umm

Roper: Do you think he or she or they wanted you to know they were there? Or do you think they knew you were there?

Seaver: Umm I think, in my head I think they did know I was there um-- they were just too loud upstairs. Just a constant pacing back and forth of our hallway upstairs. I mean it's, ya know its a big house rooms down the back rooms down the front and rooms down the middle of the hallway. It was like they were walking from the back offices to the front offices with no purpose, like they weren’t (24:00) to do anything. It was just a march back and forth and back down the steps. So um I felt like maybe they were looking for something but like when I was thinking it was a real person I was like oh they’re sticking their head in everybody's office looking for...ya know...a stapler. I don’t know. Um but I have to assume they knew I was there. Since I called out a couple of times. I went upstairs and called out ‘Is anybody here’ Um even called out a couple of particular names of people that I um thought were more likely to show up on a Sunday afternoon to do something. So they had to of heard me. Um so ya I do think they knew I was there. But given what they did I don’t think they had any sinister plans (25:00) They were upstairs back down, out. Never, I never got a sense that they were in the same part of the building I was in so

Roper: Mhmm that’s so interesting, and how long did this all last?

Seaver: I mean it was very brief. I feel like they were probably in the house less than five minutes definitely, less than that even. Ya know when you're nervous or scared about something that seems like it takes forever. But it couldn't have been longer than five minutes.

Roper: and you don’t think they were there for you specifically…

Seaver: No, I never got the sense that them being there had anything to do with me at all. I just happened to be in the building when they came in.

Roper: [Gasp] that’s so crazy like I have cold chills just sitting here. But it is a really interesting story and I feel like out of the places on Centre campus (26:00) you never really hear about -- you know you hear about sutcliff, and yerkes, and breck but not specifically this location.

Seaver: Right and you know part of that is because we don’t really have students in our building and so these weird things that happen with some of us don't really, you know this is sorta the first outlet any of us have had to kinda share these stories. Otherwise we just share them with each other and that is as far as it goes. Um but all these other buildings you know its happening to students and then you know word spreads through the student body. And also you know you are only really hearing it about buildings that are pretty old. You dont really hear about anything happening in the campus centre or the new dorm. You know it's all the old buildings that have seen a lot of history. So you just kind of have to wonder are they (27:00) are they alums who have special places that they wanna come back and see. You know? I don’t know, nothing sinister nothing bad they are around for some reason and they want to go visit some of their old stomping grounds.

Roper: And you know it’s funny because since it is kind of like the alumni house but it was a phi delt house and it was personal housing you can’t help but wonder well was it a phi delt well maybe it's an alumni who donated money awhile ago and they were lookin around for their receipt or something
[laughs]
Seaver: Right and it was a personal private residence first before the college acquired it so maybe it was somebody who had something to do with that family, um nothing to do with the centre at all, you know it was just their family home. You know it's served purposes over the years and its had a lot of people in it for various reasons (28:00) so it really could have been anybody. Um a ghost looking for a copy machine

Roper: Who knows

Seaver: You know until they make their intentions known we just have to make guesses. And the person did nothing that day to make me nervous except just be there. Ya know there was nothing that made me feel ill at ease except that I was in a building alone and then I suddenly felt like I wasn’t.

Roper: Which is not a feeling you seek out by any means

Seaver: Right, Right

Roper: Well I thank you for sharing with me so much. I am really excited to just look into the history and just like the significance of the place and um your experience. So thank you so much!

MP4

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