Is there a ghost haunting Mary Reed Building?
Maybe.
Enter the red brick building via the aged wooden door framed by a stone archway, walk down a narrow corridor where antique chandeliers hang from vaulted ceilings and you will find the DuPont room. This room, which is currently used for senior board meetings, is adorned with a 1923 portrait of Mary Reed, and her spirit is said to sit in one of the room’s leather chairs.
Mary Reed was born as Mary Dean Johnson in Bucyrus, Ohio, on Oct. 8, 1875 and married Verner Zevola Reed in July 1893. Together they had three children, Joseph, Verner Jr. and Margery, for whom Margery Reed Hall is named. Mr. Reed died in April 1919, leaving Mary $20 million. Mary Reed donated $350,000 to the construction of the new library, and the building was named after her. She died in April 1945.
“I’ve been here early in the morning and late at night, and she never bothers me,” said Teri Coe, executive assistant to Chancellor Robert Coombe. Coe has worked in the building for 19 years. There is skepticism among faculty about the ghost, but rumors still persist among students and faculty regarding Mary’s spirit. However, Mary’s daughter, Margery, may prove to be the apparition that haunts campus.
“I see things out of the corner of my eye and there are lots of noises. Things are misplaced or they disappear altogether,” said alumna Stefanie Schulte.
Margery Reed Hall was dedicated on April 11, 1929. Mary Reed donated $200,000 for its construction. Margery Reed graduated from DU in 1919 and became an assistant professor in the English Department. She died in May 1925.
“[The ghost does] nothing bad or dangerous. There are a lot of sounds and movements which could be anything, but you never know,” said Lisa Capano, head conservator at DU. She is currently working on restoring a 1929 mural with intern Schulte in the Little Theatre in Margery Reed. The Shakespearean mural painted by John Edward Thompson was covered after only two years. When Capano and Schulte began the restorative process, they noticed that the only holes in the mural were where the witches from Macbeth once were.
“We joke around that [the ghost is] the guy that painted this mural, but the Theatre Department says it’s a woman,” Schulte said.
“It’s more of a sense of energy,” said Tricia Stevens, the Theatre and Office Manager. “It feels welcoming most of the time, other times it does not. I was in the building once with another colleague. We both felt this energy and we felt it was time to leave the building. After 13 years here, I have not seen anything, but I would not be surprised.”
The residence halls are not exempt from creepy places. In the basement of Johnson-MacFarlane Hall, you will find a room called A-039. A handmade sign posted on the door calls it the JMAC YMCA room.
“The room is filled with old furniture, cages that look like chicken coops and the souls of old residents,” said resident assistant Erin Shaw. “It is really creepy.”
Resident assistants in the building said the door is normally locked but is mysteriously unlocked at times.
Although there are no rumors of ghosts surrounding the Penrose basement, it can be frightening at night
“It is kind of scary because at night it gets dark. Most of the light down here comes from the street through the window,” said sophomore Ericca McCutcheon who does work-study in the archives department.
So next time you walk into one of these places, don’t just brush aside the cold draft, the eerie noise or the feeling someone’s watching you. There just may be something to it. Boo!
