With Halloween just around the corner, some students and residents of Ottawa are recalling haunted events.
Martin Hall and the Ottawa Municipal Auditorium are said to be haunted.
Martin Hall was built in 1947. It closed in 1993 for extensive renovations and reopened in 1999. Not long after its reopening, Martin Hall was claimed to be haunted.
While any stories leading up to Martin’s haunting are kept quiet, residents who live in Martin have experienced strange occurrences while living there.
Resident Director Lacie Hewett lived in Martin as a student. She says the strangest occurrences that she’s experienced have happened in the summer when no one else is living in the building.
“There’s always strange noises is the summer,” she said. “I’ve heard furniture being moved and no one’s upstairs.”
When she lived upstairs in Martin one summer, the lights and the shower randomly came on. One time a light switch flipped on without being touched.
“It’s just a lot of little things you don’t think about,” Hewett said “After a little while you think about it and think to yourself ‘that was strange.”
After living in Martin, Hewett has just gotten use to it.
“I’ve gotten used to it,” she said. “I try and find excuses for a lot of things.”
Others who have lived in Martin have reported to Hewett seeing someone walk through their room and then no one would be there.
Room 201 in Martin is said to be the most haunted by students. Last year, it was designated a “sick room.” With dorms being at full capacity this year, it is currently being used.
Sophomores Lauren Buckles and Rachel Landrum are residents of room 201 and they have experienced a number of strange occurrences so far this school year. Buckles ads that her faith comes first and she tries not to be scared by the things that happen in their suite.
The occurrences in their suite have happened in the bathroom. A large misty handprint was on one of the walls in the restroom after one of their suitemates had gotten out of the shower. The handprint was too large to be one of the girls’ and no one had entered the restroom while she was in there.
The girls keep an iPod dock in their bathroom and after one of the girls showered the volume dial was turned all the way down when it had been turned up before she got in the shower. No one entered the room while she was there.
“It’s definitely scary sometimes,” Landrum said. “If my roommates are gone I don’t like sleeping in here by myself.”
Buckles often hears knocking in her bedroom. When the knocking occurs it moves all around the room. Buckles says she likes to believe that it is just her suite mates making noise, but it always happens when no one else is in the suite.
Buckles said it has been a while since any other occurrences have happened.
Around town, The Ottawa Municipal Auditorium located at 301 S. Hickory Street is claimed to be haunted by a man named M. E. Whittaker. Whittaker was a salesman for the army surplus. On February 11, 1924 he told his wife he was leaving for the Franklin County Courthouse to collect a bill for the army surplus.
He was not seen again until March when his corpse was discovered in the loft of the auditorium. He had shot himself with a .45 bullet to the head and the revolver was found at the scene.
Shonda Stitt is the Administrative manager of the auditorium. She claims to hear creaks and groans often in the building.
“Occasionally the vacuum will turn off on its own and I have to actually turn it back on to continue,” Stitt said.
Stitt also added that she tries to avoid any strange occurrences in the building.