Gettysburg College - Pennsylvania Hall

A Brief History: Built in 1837, Pennsylvania Hall is Gettysburg College’s oldest building. Formerly known as the Old Dorm, it was renamed in 1898. It is used now as the college’s central administrative building. It was used as a hospital for the wounded soldiers during the Civil War and had been at one point taken over by each army. It is said that General Robert E. Lee used the cupola as a lookout point during wartime.

Haunted History: There was a strange encounter by two college administrators in the 1980’s in Pennsylvania Hall. Taking the elevator to the main level, they pressed the button. It bypassed the command and continued down into the basement. When the doors opened there was no sound, but an operating civil war hospital before them. They claimed to have seen medical staff working on soldiers, limbs being amputated and many bodies of the fallen. As the doors closed once again, one of the passengers said a doctor looked up at them. They found a security officer and brought them to the scene but there was no trace of anything they had just witnessed. That basement was used for storage and there was no trace of anyone having been there.

The building’s Cupola is known for its sightings. Students have claimed to see soldiers atop the cupola, taking aim at them. In one case they had gone to security about it, thinking it was a real person. The security officer went up to check but found no one there. The door was locked with no sign of entrance.