Photo by: Charles Ng – Clarion Staff
If you’ve walked through the halls of the Mary Reed Building you’ve probably felt it; that cold spot in an otherwise warm room, a door that seems stuck and then magically opens, or a sound that you can’t find the source of.
Throughout the years there have been numerable “sightings” of the Mary Reed Ghost. These sightings all took place in the Mary Reed Building, the old University of Denver library that was opened in 1932.
One story tells of a girl who was walking around the building while waiting for her boyfriend, who was working after hours. She found her way to the Renaissance Room, located on the second floor, where she proceeded to turn on the light. There she found a woman reading in the dark who stood up and began to approach her. The girl fled the room and, while driving away with her boyfriend, looked up at the room’s window to see the light flicker off.
Pat Kavanaugh from the Payroll Office said that often lights will go on in off in the basements of the Mary Reed building and light bulbs that were just changed will stop working.
“They can blame it on old electricity but I think they [the ghosts] like the dark,” said Kavanagh.
Glenna Leff and Kavanagh shared other stories that they had heard including a custodian who was pushed from behind while she was locking up the building. She supposedly turned around to find no one there and continued walking when she was pushed again. A ghost? Both also recounted reports from custodians who had noted an elderly woman reading in the Renaissance Room late into the night.
The Dupont Room is also a subject of many stories.
“Rumor has it that the door to the Dupont Room sometimes refuses to open, then mysteriously opens by itself,” said Warren Smith, head of the Office of Communications.
Smith added “Last year about this time I was escorting a TV crew through the building on a Saturday afternoon so they could do a feature about DU’s ‘ghost.’ At first the elevator didn’t seem to be working, but after a couple of tries, it arrived at the main floor. As we were riding the elevator to the Renaissance Room, we noticed that the key was turned to the off position.”
Countless stories such as this send a chill up our spines but who is this ghost? Some say it is Mary Reed herself, a wealthy philanthropist who was a huge contributor to the university. Others claim it is Margery Reed, Mary’s daughter, who died at a young age from an illness she contracted in South America.
Nobody is sure, but Mary Reed’s picture hangs in the elevator lobby between the North and South Renaissance Rooms for any readers curious about this possible ghost.
Whether you’re a ghost story fanatic or a complete skeptic the rumors about Mary Reed spread far and wide adding to the allure of an older campus such as DU. Is there really a ghost or do people just have overactive imaginations?
Only the witnesses can tell.
