Hollins Digital Commons

Hauntings at Hollins: The Social Impact of Ghost Lore and Legends at Hollins University

Janney Lounge

The purpose of this project is to delve into the popular ghost stories present on Hollins University’s campus, looking at them through a historical and social lens. Through this research, I want to see how these stories affect students. I expect to successfully trace three of the school’s most well-known ghost stories as far back as possible: the ghost of Presser Hall, the ghost of the Hollins Little Theatre, and the ghost of Main Building. I plan to gather my research by looking into the history of Hollins and its buildings, reading personal accounts of people who have encountered ghosts and scholarly work done on college ghosts. I hope to draw universal conclusions about college ghosts by looking at Hollins stories and comparing them to the scholarly findings of previous ghostlore research. After gathering all my findings, I plan to compile the Hollins history, the personal accounts, and the scholarly research into a book that could be displayed on campus.