Many incoming freshmen have fears: hard classes, difficult roommates, social pressures. But one thing Mayo Hall residents don’t seem too fearful of is ghosts.

Not that they should, but many are familiar with the legends of the residence hall. Details change from person to person, but residents have heard of Mary Mayo herself haunting the hall, suicides in the basement and the always-locked fourth floor and occult practices in various rooms of the hall in decades past.

The Mayo Hall Ghost Hunting Squad

Geography senior Corey Becker, a former Mayo resident, along with his friends in the “Mayo Hall Ghost Hunting Squad,” went looking for signs of the supernatural during their time at Mayo. “We never saw anything we thought was supernatural,” he said with disappointment.

“We did get access to every room in the basement one night,” he said. “A manager let us into all of them. Most of them are just dusty storage rooms.”

(Note: Some photos were taken with a night filter. No futher alterations were made. The photos are presented to give the reader a sense of how the atmosphere of the hall can perpetuate legends of ghosts and is in no way intended to suggest photographic evidence of anything supernatural.)

As for the fourth floor, Becker said that it was always “the biggest mystery for us.” However, like the basement, “It was kind of disappointing. […] We had always heard something crazy about how someone hung themselves up there. It was an attic with catwalks, fans, some writing on the walls about partying during Halloween,” he said.

Former night receptionist and recent English and Linguistics graduate Ayla Zachary agrees. “I’ve heard that a girl was murdered up there, behind the door, and that now she haunts that room,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Of course, I have […] been in that room, and it’s a big empty attic full of insulation.”

The legends of Mayo Hall’s haunted past is nothing new. Both The State News and The Big Green have reported on ghost stories in the hall and most students’ accounts tend to have a lot in common. Doors and windows opening of their own accord or a general eerie feeling are both often heard tales.

“A lot of people who have lived in Mayo have reported hearing things like knocking coming from the walls or the closets and not being able to figure out where the noises are coming from,” said Zachary. “These sorts of noises are probably why the legend got started in the first place.”

Zachary also points out one big logical flaw in the legend that Mayo herself haunts the hall: “Mary Mayo died about thirty years before the construction of the building named after her.”

Will the real Mary Mayo please stand up?

Mary Anne Mayo was born in 1845 on a farm near Battle Creek. As a leading member of the Michigan State Grange, Mary became a popular lecturer in Michigan, encouraging women throughout the state to fight for better education for their daughters.

In 1896 Mary was elected to the Michigan Agriculture College Committee, where she played a major role in the college’s decision to hire its first woman professor of Domestic Economy and Household Science.

“Thinking parents today are anxious that their daughters shall be as thoroughly trained for the practical work of their lives as are their sons,” she wrote.

In addition, Mayo advocated for a women’s dormitory to be built.

The college responded, kicking out the men of Abbott Hall and converting the building into classrooms and housing for the women’s program. The college also built a new building for the program, Morrill Hall, in 1899.

It wasn’t until 1931 that Mary’s dream of a standalone women’s dorm was realized. Michigan State College, as it was then called, named the building after Mary.

Unfortunately, Mary had died 28 years earlier.

“Thus has recognition been made, 28 years after her death of the services of the first Grange woman to go up and down this state teaching that education, refinement and spiritual culture in family and social relations are not incompatible with the practical tasks of the farm and the farm home,”wrote close friend Jennie Buell in 1931.

Spartysecrets was unable to locate a death certificate for Mary Mayo, but confirmed from three sources that Mary died in 1903, 28 years before Mary Mayo Hall was built and occupied.

Hanging in the first floor of the dorm, a photograph of Mary reminds would-be ghost theorists that Mary died in 1903.

In his 1963 book, “The Grange in Michigan,” Fred Trump writes that Mary Mayo died on April 21, 1903 after contracting an “incurable disease.”

Finally, and perhaps most convincing, is a family history written in 1948 by Violet Hall Price, an in-law. In the book, which is housed in the university’s archive collection, Price writes that Mary died on April 24, 1903 and is buried with her husband at Austin Cemetery in Calhoun County, Mich.

The metaphysical community weighs in

The fact that Mary’s death predates the hall’s construction doesn’t stop students from sharing stories with one another about some otherworldly presence in the residence hall. “People are trying to understand the unknown,” explained Lansing medium Angela Chapko, who says she can communicate with spirits. “[People] say, ‘I can’t see it, but it creeps the hell out of me.’”

Chapko has been performing what she calls “ghostbusting” and other spirit-related visits to area buildings for about ten years. She’s quick to point out the difference in the metaphysical community between “ghosts” and “spirits.” “Ghosts are the energy of a human being that has left a human body and has chosen not to cross over. It’s restless,” she said. “Spirits transition to the other side and come back with energy to make you feel comfortable.”

Students like Becker and the rest of his Squad weren’t looking for comfort, though. They were looking for a scare.

In addition to the rumors, they were also inspired by seeing Las Vegas-based supernatural web site theshadowlands.net, which provides listings of places throughout the country that people claim are haunted, including Mayo Hall.

Site co-director Tina Carlson explained, that “most people who have a belief in the interest or field have experienced something,” and that groups like hers exist to validate people’s feelings. “This is an unknown and unproven science,” she said. “There’s no hard evidence.”

Evidence or no, the legends persist more for entertainment than anything else. Residents seem to take it in stride as a part of the hall’s culture. “It definitely made Mayo a cool place to be during Halloween,” said Becker.