Jennings Hall

A Brief History: Jenning’s Hall is located at 59 Orchard Loop North Bennington, Vermont. The building itself is actually part of the Bennington College campus, and is currently used as the school’s music building. Originally the structure was a mansion that was built in 1903 by New York architects, Renwick, Aspinwall & Owen. They constructed the mansion out of locally sourced granite where it sits amongst twisted trees at the top of a hill. The first inhabitants of the house were Frederic & Laura Jennings. Eventually when Laura died, the mansion was donated to the college. There has also been a lot of speculation that Jenning’s Hall was used as the inspiration for the novel “The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson. Shirley and her husband moved to the area in 1945 because her husband began teaching at Bennington College. It’s said the similarities between Jenning’s Hall and the description of Hill House are uncanny although it has never been confirmed. Hill House still remains one of the most iconic “haunted houses'' to this day. The story has been adapted into 2 films and an original TV series.

Haunted History: Not only does this spooky, stone and ivy-covered mansion inspire chilling stories, it has a few tales of its own. Many students use this building for their music classes while attending Bennington College. Faculty and students have both had their fair share of strange occurrences. They say that there isn’t really a presence of an individual spirit, but unexplainable things will happen in the building. Many claim to hear the floors creak as if someone were walking down the halls, doors will slam closed, and windows will also fly open with no evidence of a draft or any sort of wind. Some people have also reported random cold spots in the building. Students who practice their instruments there late at night sometimes experience hearing footsteps while knowing they’re the only one in the building at the time. One professor actually fell asleep in the lobby of Jenning’s Hall and allegedly awoke to the sound of loud banging which started on one end of the mansion and moved all the way through to the other end of the building. It frightened him so severely he ended up running out of the building. The students also say the basement of Jenning’s Hall gives them a very uneasy and “creeped-out” feeling. There are caged areas and lots of little locked storage rooms in the basement. Many say that’s one place they won’t go even during the daytime.