This is the third segment of a fairly comprehensive list of allegedly haunted libraries, or at least ones where patrons, staff, or local folklorists have associated with paranormal happenings. Bleak mansions and somber castles usually spring to mind when we think of haunted places, but ghostly phenomena—whatever the cause—can manifest in well-lit, modern offices as well as crumbling Carnegies. Of course, it helps if you inadvertently build your library on top of a graveyard. If I’ve missed anything, or my lists need correction and even updating, please send along your comments and suggestions. The paranormal demands precision!

Massachusetts

• Boston Athenaeum Library. One of the oldest private libraries in the United States, the Athenaeum was founded in 1807 by the editors of the Monthly Anthology and Boston Review. Nathaniel Hawthorne used to read and write here in the 1840s when the Athenaeum resided in the James Perkins Mansion on Pearl Street (no longer standing). Hawthorne wrote a short story about seeing the ghost of Thaddeus Mason Harris (1768–1842) in the library, always reading the Boston Post as he used to do in life, on the day he died (April 3) and for several weeks thereafter (“The Ghost of Dr. Harris,” written in 1856 but not published until 1900). Harris was pastor of the First Unitarian Church in Dorchester, but prior to that served as Harvard University librarian from 1791 to 1793.
• Boston Public Library, East Boston Branch. The first branch library in the United States, the East Boston Branch opened in 1870. People have sensed movements and heard talking in the basement where the restrooms are located.
• Danvers, Peabody Institute Library. The ghost of an old man sits in a reading room of this 1892 building. Some say he has shushed people talking loudly.
• Fairhaven, Millicent Library. The library’s founder, Standard Oil magnate Henry Huttleston Rogers (1840–1909), had a daughter named Millicent who died of heart failure in 1890 at the age of 17. The 1893 library was named after her. Patrons sometimes see her walking the halls, outlined in bright blue light. At night, passersby have reported seeing a girl standing in the window of the turret in front. A woman dressed in black who runs her fingers along the shelved books has been reported from the upper floors, while a man dressed in a tweed jacket, purple bow tie, and small circular glasses has been seen mopping the basement floor.
• Lowell, Dr. An Wang Middle School. The library is said to have a cold spot.
• New Bedford Free Public Library. This Greek and Egyptian Revival building has been home to the library since 1910. An employee saw the apparition of an older woman with dark, gray-streaked hair and wearing a navy-blue coat in the lower-level children’s room in 1999. A tall man with reddish-brown hair and a long tan coat has been observed on the second floor near the microfilm.
• Norton, Wheaton College, Madeleine Clark Wallace Library. People have noted the unseen presence of a former librarian at night around the card catalog and stacks in this 1923 building.
• Oxford Free Public Library. Books fall from the shelves and organ music is heard at night.

Michigan

• Belding, Alvah N. Belding Memorial Library. In the children’s room people have heard a girl laughing and felt a disturbing presence.
• Dearborn Heights, Berwyn Senior Center. This former elementary school became a senior center in 1979. Seniors and neighborhood children say they’ve heard rattling, tapping, and moaning in the center’s library. A school janitor is said to have hung himself in that location.
• Detroit Public Library, Skillman Branch. The site of a former jailhouse where executions took place in the early 19th century, the library stacks sometimes reverberate with moans, rumblings, and other strange noises.
• Muskegon, Hackley Public Library. Built in 1890 with funding from lumber baron Charles Hackley, whose ghost is accused of moving objects around and making noises.
• Ypsilanti, Starkweather Home. This Italianate-style home was built in 1858 by local merchant Edwin Mills. It was later occupied by Maryanne Starkweather, who donated it upon her death to the Ladies Library Association in 1890. It was used as a library until 1964. Some claim to have seen Maryanne in the upper halls of the building or heard footsteps above them when working after hours.

Minnesota

• St. Cloud State University, James W. Miller Learning Resources Center. A 19th-century burial site was found in 1997 when the Miller Center’s foundation was dug. The figure of a soldier has been seen wandering in the halls.

Mississippi

• Tupelo, Lee-Itawamba Library System. This 1971 building was built on the site of the home of John Mills Allen (1846–1917), known as “Private John Allen,” U.S. Congressman from 1885 to 1901. The doors and glass panels in the Mississippi Room are from his original dwelling. Allen’s ghost is blamed for taking books off the shelf and putting them on the floor, as well as stealing items from the book drop.

Missouri  

 

 

• Mountain View, Southwest Baptist University, Mountain View Center Library. The Myrtle Glass Learning Center building was a warehouse of the Sharp Lumber Company, which went out of business in the 1970s. Books sometimes fall from the shelves and people have heard a knocking on the floor.
• St. Charles, Lindenwood University, Butler Library. Built in 1929, the library is one of the spots on campus said to be haunted by the ghost of college cofounder Mary Easton Sibley (1801–1878).
• St. Joseph Public Library, Carnegie Library. Footsteps of the ghost of a former librarian, nicknamed Rose, can be heard at closing time on the second floor. Whispers, giggles, and shushes have also been reported, and books taunt the staff by reshelving themselves in the wrong spot.
• St. Louis, University of Missouri, Thomas Jefferson Library. Basement Level One has a reputation for spooky goings-on. Former Director Dick Miller had a weird experience there on the first day of his job—phantom footsteps and a clear voice that spoke two words: “Hello, boy.” The elevators go up and down frequently after hours, as noted by campus police.