Western Courier

Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Steve Scapardine

An instructor working late jumps at the whoosh of a door slamming. A supervisor leaving the building breaks into a trot as the shadow of a little girl passes over the glass panels in the door. A student in a night class hears the sound of a typewriter coming from a locked closet.

In Simpkins Hall, the second-oldest building on the Western Illinois University-Macomb campus, there is no telling what will pop up around the next dark corner. For decades, a drafty structure and unexplained giggles have turned into supernatural rumors, leaving students and staff alike to wonder if the ghost stories have a real basis.

Macomb has a history as a haunted hotspot. Books have included the Macomb Poltergeist, spooky country structures and even residence hall rooms with paranormal visitors.

Simpkins Hall, on the other hand, does not have much of a supernatural following. Instead, the rumors are fairly contained within a small community that wonders if the detailed history of the building is what creates the imaginative atmosphere, or if benevolent "visitors" just like to keep things interesting.

Meet the ghosts

Simpkins, which used to be the Lab School, opened as a teachers' training school in 1938, and students from kindergarten through high school levels were taught on all four floors. In 1968, when the Lab School moved to Horrabin Hall, Simpkins was adapted for the English department and has since housed only college students.

Regarding Simpkins, only one book, published in 1996, mentions the hall as supernatural. "Haunted Places: The National Directory" states nighttime "poltergeist effects" such as doors and windows opening and closing, lights going on and off and typewriters operating by themselves have occurred for years.

Broad speculation has only led to a few definitive clues. If they do exist, there are probably two ghosts. One, who is known as Harold, occupies the third floor and is thought to be either a former janitor or graduate assistant. The other is a young boy or girl who visits the bottom floor of the building.

Randy Smith, instructor at Western for more than 31 years, said, "If there is a Harold or Haroldine, it certainly is benevolent."

In searching for evidence, stories and beliefs have filtered in and out of the system, and many relate to Simpkins' close neighbor, Lake Ruth. Penny Rigg, composition instructor at Western for more than seven years, remembers a story she heard in 1999 from Pauline Wear, a woman who graduated from the training school in 1938 and 1944.

Continued...

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