Bizzare things about Eastern: Eastern Ghosts

It’s dark. It’s dusty. It’s private. It is no wonder we speculate about it.

Rumors have been floating around that the fourth floor of the original Walmarthon is haunted. Walmarthon is the present Walton Hall, the original mansion built by Charles Walton and completed in 1914, according to The Main Line Country Houses by William Morrison.

Fabrications of Suzy Walton’s ghost have been passed down between the generations of Eastern students.

Some stories say Suzy threw herself out of a window, committing suicide. Others state Suzy was hanged by a support beam in the bell tower, according to Bruce Miller, former Eastern student, in his research paper dated to 1977.

In the same paper, Miller mentions Sgt. William Reynolds, a former security guard at Eastern. He recalled that one night he let two male students onto the fourth floor while making his rounds. He heard a scream and returned to find one of the students being choked by his own necklace by invisible hands. Multiple other suspicious accounts were reported by the security guard.

Yet other sources offer contradicting information.

A Web site, Delcoghosts.com, claims that Suzy was not born at Walmathon and did not die in the mansion. Other sources conclude this also.

Suzy’s cause of death was the disease lupus, according to multiple sources.

More than one ghost is rumored to have residence on campus.

Doane Hall is also one of the original buildings on campus, built a few years after Walton in the 1910s, according to multiple sources. The original section is now known as “B.” The top floor is said to have a spooky past.

A bathroom on the third floor is said to be the scene of a female student who hung herself.

Strangehappenings.org claims that students have seen feet dangling below stall doors.

In contrast, spiritsofthemist.com claims that if a chair is placed in the middle of the room and the door is closed, the chair will fall over and gasping for air can be heard.

Senior psychology major Brittany Smith and Doane B3rd resident decided to test this. Smith and a friend went to each of the bathrooms on the 3rd floor and placed chairs in mid-September 2007.

“We got ourselves freaked out because what if it does happen?” Smith said. “We started with our bathroom to make sure it wasn’t ours.”

Still, Smith reports no occurrence of gasping or falling chairs.

Whether or not there are spirits haunting Eastern’s campus, one thing is known for sure. There are potentially dozens of versions of the stories concerning the ghost of Suzy Walton and the ghost of Doane Hall.

What is behind the locked doors of the fourth floor of Walton?

There’s not much but dusty storage, holes in the floor and messages on walls.

Student Development and Sodexho store items there. Each room has a number of things from bicycle wheels to old yearbooks to the unplugged bell tower bells. Even one Chuck Taylor is floating around up there.

The floor was closed off in the early sixties, according to multiple sources. Electricians and other maintenance workers have cut holes in the floor to do work. Because it is uninhabited, they have not patched the holes and piping is above the floor in some places.

Scribbled on one wall is “Suzie,” among other words. Whether these messages are the result of pranks or current students is unknown.

Also of interest is a handprint located above the bathtub. The questionable color and clarity of the print may lead to speculation of ghosts.

“If I ever wasn’t able to get housing, I was going to try and live up there,” Kendra Book, senior missions and anthropology major, said. “Secret hideout and all. It would be sweet.”