Do you ever get scared of the dark? Do you ever feel like you're not alone even though you are the only one home? Residents of St. Mary's Hall can empathize with these feelings.
One night at the beginning of the school year, Mary Black, '11, asked her roommate, Teresa Penetar, '08, if she believed in the ghost said to haunt the place. She replied, "no." The next morning, when the roommates woke up, there was a startling sight on the wall. Eight feet from the ground, a cross was drawn on the wall directly above Penetar's bed. The cross was in what looked like pencil and appeared to be six inches by six inches. A perfectly straight cross. It was up too high for someone to reach easily without waking Penetar.
The women lock their door at night even though they are friends with most of the other residents. Even if the door were open, it would be nearly impossible for someone to reach so high and to draw a cross with a perfect intersection.
There are many local legends and ghost stories surrounding St. Mary's. Most know about "the ghost" through word of mouth. Black heard the ghost story from a Hawk Host on her tour of the campus.
All the stories seem to be a variation of this: a female nun was sleeping with a man. The nun got pregnant and hung herself.
It is easy to imagine the nun racing up the grand staircase in the central part of the house and flinging herself from the top balcony. It is easy to imagine her body dangling in the common area of the house that resembles a chapel. The walls meet in a sharp triangle plated with stained glass. Clunky lights hang down, chandelier-style, dimly lighting the dull and brown room. There are kneeling benches which seem to be left behind with no purpose other than to evoke the memory of a church.
Crucifixes on the wall bow their heads in prayer. A picture owned by Michael Matulewicz, '09, reveals that these are original artifacts put into the house by the nuns in the 1960s.
Matulewicz is investigating the history of some buildings on the Saint Joseph's campus. He is doing the research because he specializes in the history of Philadelphia. Much of his information was obtained through library archives in Maryland.
The land on which Saint Joseph's University is built used to be called Overbrook Farms and was developed just after the Civil War. St. Mary's was built by Horace Trumbauer, who was a famous architect in Philadelphia. He worked on projects such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Many of the houses in Overbrook Farms were created to resemble English country houses, including St. Mary's. All of the houses had names. St. Mary's was called "Dunroven."
St. Mary's used to be a nursing home for the Sisters of the Bon Secour after it was privately inhabited. An old brochure advertises St. Mary's with a picture of the front of the building, showing it in its full beauty that can no longer be seen today because it is blocked by McShain Hall. It was called "Our Lady Help of Christians Convalescent Home." It was leased by Saint Joseph's University in 1981 from the Sisters because they could not afford to keep it running. The building was purchased in 1985. In an attempt to get additional information about the building from the Sisters, they kept insisting the wrong number was called.
Matulewicz says that he found nothing in his search to verify that a nun hung herself. He found a few obituaries about people who had died while living in the house but not many. He believes that a suicide would have been in the news. This does not mean the story is not possible. The house holds the stories of many people and many lives.
Matulewicz also said, "Every time you go into that house you kind of feel something."
He also recounts some stories he has heard from friends. Someone once told him that her radio randomly came on and was tuned to a religious station. Another resident described all of her furniture being moved around all the drawers of her dressers being mysteriously opened.
Pat McAvinue, archives technician, has a small collection of information related to St. Mary's in the Drexel Library archives. Most of the documents are about money logistics from when Saint Joseph's bought the building.
In the archives, there is a correspondence between a person named Carmen and a woman named Josephine Savaro.
The note is on old Saint Joseph's University stationary and is browned around the edges. Savaro writes to Carmen asking her for more information on St. Mary's hall.
Carmen responds to that on Nov. 29, 1983, saying "We have no historical information on St. Mary's Hall."
Maureen Carroll is a public relations coordinator for South Jersey Ghost Research, an organization that investigates paranormal activity. Carroll wrote in an e-mail that the history of a supposedly haunted building is not necessarily important. Her team does not usually investigate the history of homes because spirits may be around for many reasons including physical objects and relative of past residents.
Carroll was ready and willing to bring her team to Saint Joseph's University to investigate. Requests for an investigation were denied because Student Life officials on campus did not want to "sensationalize the building."
Hot chocolate is the topic of the next story. Penetar was drinking hot chocolate one day in her room. She put the cup down on the bed frame while she was doing homework. Suddenly she moved slightly and the cup of hot chocolate sprung from the bed and splattered monumentally over the entirety of the bedroom.
"It was a huge force even though I only tapped it," Penetar said.
Black stands up on her bed across the room and points to the blinds. She said she cleaned hot chocolate off the wall on her side of the bedroom, and the shades. There were splatters where she could not reach.
In addition to the hot chocolate, Black and Penetar explained that things have been falling off the walls unexpectedly and abruptly since the women moved in. Black said her wooden sculpture has fallen from the wall in the middle of the night even though it is secure.
When the roommates finished with their experiences, they urged Sarah King, '11, another resident of the house, to tell her story.
A week after King moved into St. Mary's Hall, she started having strange nightmares. Most of her dreams involved being in Saint Mary's or around it.
The nightmares were so bad that she thought that a Native-American dream catcher would help. A dream catcher is a round frame with a web in the center of it to catch bad dreams, and with a feather or other ornament hanging from the bottom. As soon as she hung the dream catcher up in her room, the nightmares stopped.
"I'm not superstitious or anything but I thought that was weird," King says.
Black and Penetar also have a dream catcher in their room.
Alex Iannucci, '08, was a Resident Assistant at St. Mary's during her sophomore year. She had heard stories of a ghost living in the building. She suggested that the ghost lived and haunted the third floor. None of her residents ever left because they were afraid, but they did complain about strange noises.
The stairway up to the third floor is winding, narrow, and hidden between the walls. Everything is a dark wooden color and looks as though it has not been touched for as long as the building has been around. There are also many mysteriously locked doors.
Current residents on the third floor do not seem amused by the idea of a ghost. One resident responded with a blunt "no" when asked if St. Mary's is haunted. Another woman said she has had no experience with the ghost.
A former resident, Megan Kernan, '09, brings hope to the legend. She lived in St. Mary's during her sophomore year.
Kernan had friends that lived in a room on the second floor. The room had a balcony attached to it. One night the women from this room went out briefly. They were diligent about locking all the doors, especially because they did not want intruders to come in from the balcony. When the girls returned all the doors were unlocked and wide open.
"People on the third floor were really scared," Kernan said.
McAvinue seemed weary of the superstition as well.
McAvinue recalled a security guard came to the archives last year asking for ghost story information. McAvinue cannot remember which house she was referring to, and thinks it was St. Albert's and not St. Mary's. St. Albert's is a neighboring all-female Saint Joseph's University residence.
When questioned, no one in security knew anything about a ghost and laughed at this inquiry.
A receptionist in the Office of Facilities Management had her hand over the receiver as she called back to her co-workers, asking if anyone has heard about any ghosts in St. Mary's. She laughed and said she has never heard that story before. Neither has anyone else in her office.
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