(NOTE:
This is a long tale, but well worth the read. If you're going to college at the
University of Oregon, be VERY careful when finding a place to live...)
The (name
omitted to protect reputation) house at the University of Oregon is VERY haunted.
What happens in the house is kept pretty quiet because some people just wouldn't
understand, some flat out wouldn't believe, and also to avoid social stigma. Every
brother KNOWS about the ghost(s) and many have seen or felt them, as well as a few other
friends/outsiders. Over the years that I lived there (while in school) I heard enough
stories about it before seeing it for myself that I am able to piece together this brief
background:
The house is
colonial, with white pillars out front and looks something like Gone With The
Wind. It was built between 1910 and 1920. I know this because there is an
aerial/hillside picture in the foyer of a local bar from around this date that shows the
entire campus. The house is included in this shot. The rest of the street is
vacant or under construction. It appears that it was initially a residence, probably
for a professor and his family. In the 1940's to 1960's it was a sorority that
either dwindled or went bankrupt. In the '70's and '80's it was several different
fraternities and then rented by us, who still reside there today. The house was
converted from a residence into what it is today probably during this time. It has
20+ rooms and 4 levels. The main floor is mainly a living room, library, dining
hall, etc. The 2nd floor is made up of the individual rooms. The third floor
houses the sleeping porch, TV room and two large individual rooms. The basement has
the bars and dance floor and another private room. The 3rd floor and basement are
where the weird stuff happens.
There are two ghosts at the house, the "thing" in the basement and the man in
the brown suit on the 3rd floor. There usually are hardly any people on these floors
which is why I think so many 'things' have been noticed there.
THE
BASEMENT
First of all, I
NEVER believed in this stuff until I saw it for myself. As a freshman first moving
in, you heard the stories; empty beer cans in the basement crashing off a wall with no one
down there; people asking who the old guy was wandering the 3rd floor hall; that it
was freezing cold in the basement boiler room, etc. A friend from high school came
to visit once. I was giving her a tour of the place and she freaked out as soon as
we hit the basement stairwell. She wouldn't go down there. She felt it.
She refused to go further. A lot of girls would never go down there unless the dance
floor was fired up and there were people down there. I never SAW anything until
I became an older member and moved into the suite in the basement.
See, I thought
all the stuff mentioned above was just people's drunken/drugged imagination. I
did NOT believe in ghosts! I took the basement room because it was quiet down there,
it stayed relatively cool in the hot weather and it had a private bathroom. It was
summer term 1996, I was taking summer school. Only about 10 of us staying there at
the time. After about a week things started to happen. I'd be down in my
room, watching TV or reading something and all the hair would suddenly stand up on the
back of my neck. I felt like I was being watched from all directions. It was
creepy as hell. Then, almost as instantly as it started, it would just stop, and the
room would return to normal.
Sometimes, at any given time during the day, I could hear footsteps on the cement floor of
the dance floor down the hall or doors creaking and no one else was down there but
me! Sometimes you'd get a chill, the air around you would become freezing then
return to 'normal temperature' a second later. I told my buddy Brad about what
was going on. He thought I was stupid. One afternoon we were downstairs
playing Playstation and we paused the game so he could use the bathroom and I could go
outside to have a smoke. Brad came up two minutes later, asked for a smoke and was
quiet. "What's your deal?" I said. He just looked at me and
said "your friend popped in for a visit." He was almost white.
"Did you see it?" I asked. "No" Was all he
said. He didn't talk about it for a long time after that and rarely stopped by while
I still lived there. I think it shook his religious beliefs a bit.
I got
"visited" about twice a week or so that summer. Sometimes it was
scary and I would leave. Most of the time, it wasn't. I guess I got used to
it. I've seen movies before like "Poltergeist" and
"Amityville" and I was always the one that said "Why don't these
stupid people just move!" Why didn't I move? I could have had a room
upstairs. Most of them were empty. I guess I preferred the ghost to the noise
of drunken 18 year olds running through the halls. Bizarre, huh? Anyway, I got
visited twice a week or so. There was one night I got really scared and spent
the night on Brad's couch. No questions asked, he understood.
Sometimes when it came I would simply tell it to go away and it usually did. That
summer I had to work early mornings, which meant I got up at 4am. If it came and I
had to sleep I would say "I'm tired, I have to get up early, this is not a good
time." It would just go away.
I stayed in that
room through the coming fall term. Hell, It was quiet and, like I said before, I was
burnt out on the noise of drunken freshman running through the halls at 3am. Things
continued as normal. Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night and if it
was there, I'd ask it to leave and that was that. Other times it would creep in and
I would ignore it and continue whatever I was doing. When my terms were up (We were
only required to physically live in the house for 6 terms) I moved out to an apartment
like most older guys. I even said goodbye to it. It was kind of sad.
Almost like I was moving out on a roommate.
I mentioned my summer to the next person who 'inherited' the room and he didn't believe
me. However, about 2 months later he was more than willing to hear ALL of my
stories. The thing visited' him too. He claims he actually saw it once.
Said it was a distinct black shape that drifted across the room and disappeared.
What was
it? I honestly don't know. There were rumors that a girl hung herself in our
basement when it was a sorority in the 1950's, but I think that's a legend made up to
explain the existence of the 'thing.' I have a different theory on what it is.
You see, we practice our initiation rituals in that basement. I'm pretty sure every
chapter that rented the mansion did theirs down there too. I know our ritual is
based on Christianity, and I'm pretty sure the others were too. However, I
think somewhere along the way, at some point in time, something was 'invited' into the
house. It's not necessarily evil, I don't even know for sure if it's human. It
mostly just likes to watch. It's moody. Sometimes it's simply just there, and
other times it goes out of it's way to let you know it's there. It would
occasionally throw stuff and open/close doors elsewhere in the basement (although it NEVER
flung anything IN my room or slammed my door). I think it just liked to pop in
and see what I was up to sometimes. Maybe it liked to watch TV? Maybe It was
just curious. It's still there today. Although I've been out of school for
almost 3 years, I still know people there, and every now and then you hear about something
that happened to someone in the basement.
THE
MAN ON THE 3RD FLOOR
First thing, I
NEVER SAW HIM, but my girlfriend did. Just not on the 3rd floor. Weird,
huh. See, the 'Man in the Brown Suit' as he's called, was always seen on the 3rd
floor, wandering the hallway. Over the years I guess people would see him dart
around the corner and disappear. Kevin, for example, SWEARS that one night he was
sleeping on the sleeping porch with the door open. He said he was trying to go to
sleep when he saw the man walking towards him from down the hall. He said the guy
simply vanished into thin air before he hit the doorway. Another brother, let's call
him 'Chuck', would practice his guitar in the 3rd floor TV room and saw him pass by the
door several times. He said the first time he actually ran after him (out of
sheer disbelief to what he was seeing) only to find an empty hall around the corner. He is
described as wearing an all-brown suit with a brown hat. Kinda looks like a reporter
from the 1950's. I never had an 'experience' with him until after graduation, when I
came back for a visit.
It was
June I think. I had finally graduated the previous winter term and moved back
home. My girlfriend and I had driven down for the weekend to party and see some old
friends. She had gone to U of O, too. I had NEVER told her about anything that
happened in that house. I didn't want her to think I was crazy or weird. So,
we drove down and stayed there that weekend. I mean, hey, the place was half empty
and I was too cheap for a hotel. On Saturday night we were hanging out by the pool
drinking with some folks. Trish's allergies were bugging her bad (anyone who's ever
lived in Eugene, OR will tell you it's bad there) and she went to bed early. I
stayed outside till about 2am or so with Brian and Tim. I went up to the
second floor room we were staying in to pass out and Trish woke up and asked if there was
anything to eat. I went back down to the kitchen and found a box of frozen
corndogs. I nuked a couple and went back upstairs. I walked into the room and
Trish (half asleep) got mad. "Baby, I'm in my nightclothes!" I was
like "So? it's nothin' I haven't seen before." She grumbled and ate
the corndog and went back to sleep.
The next morning on the drive back to Portland she said "Who was that with you
last night!" "When?" I asked. "When you brought the
corndog! I was in my bra and panties!" "There was no one with
me!" I retorted. I was right, me and Brian and Tim we're the only ones still up
and they had stayed out by the pool. "There was, too!" She
insisted. I said "Who, Brian? Tim?" "No! Some
guy!" "What did he look like?" "He was wearing an old
funny hat and standing right behind you!..." My heart stopped, I couldn't hear
the rest of what she was saying. I think I turned white. She knew NOTHING
about the ghost. I'm sure of it. I then told her the story and we had a long,
quiet ride back home. She swears what she saw was real. She had only had one
beer that night and she had no allergy pills with her.
The weird thing
is that the brown man has only been seen on the 3rd floor. She saw him on the
second. Maybe because there's always so much noise and people on the 2nd floor, no
one noticed him there before. I don't know.
I'm pretty
sure that the brown man and the thing in the basement are two separate ghosts. I
think if the basement thing was in the room with me and Trish that night, I would have
felt my hair stand up. I ALWAYS felt my hair stand up when it came before. I
also don't know a whole lot about the house itself. I know what I mentioned above,
but I don't know who built it or exactly how many frats/sororities rented it, etc. I
Know they are real. I'm a believer now. I think about them every now and
then. I wonder who/what they are and why they are in that house. Maybe
somebody else who reads this also has lived there in Eugene Oregon and knows what I'm
talking about. If you do, send this newsletter your story, but please don't give the
name or address of the house.
I don't want to see it on Hard Copy next Halloween.
-Unsigned-
