Haunted stories are legendary among Franklin & Marshall students, faculty and alumni. According to College’s Archives & Special Collections, here are just a few:
Diagnothian Hall
A number of years ago, a music professor was working late in his office in first floor Diagnothian. It was around 2 a.m., and no one else was in the building. He was listening to a recording of a Souza duet called "Red Cross Nurse" that he was to later perform with a soprano. The song is about a nurse bandaging soldiers in WWI. As this song played over his stereo, he began hearing sounds apart from the music—he heard moaning, rattling sounds, and overall, the sounds of a person in intense pain. This came from the other side of his office wall—the area that is now the main lobby. He turned off the music quickly and ran around the wall to see who was there. The lobby was empty. He later realized the connection between his experience and Diagnothian Hall's history as a Civil War hospital.
Wohlsen House
Wohlsen House probably has the best collection of ghostly tales on campus. People have heard doors slamming in the house in the middle of the night when there's no one there. A woman working alone in the basement one night heard a loud bang on the stairs behind her and later heard a legend that a young man may have fallen down stairs and died many years previously. Two women were working in the basement one night and saw a man walk into view, then disappear behind a wall. One woman told the other that her husband was here — but there turned out to be no one there. Sometimes, the lights will all fail at once in Wohlsen House, and someone will yell "Knock it off, Bob!" — and the lights will turn back on.