A Haunting in Gore

Before the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business was built, its location was home to another building: Ferry Hall. In 1902, Colonel William M. Ferry, a Civil War veteran, and his wife Jeanette Ferry, donated the land that Westminster College sits on today. At the turn of the century, it was believed that respectable families would not send their daughters to the college unless there were proper accommodations for women, so the Ferrys insisted that a women’s dormitory be built.

As the story goes, a young man was once caught sneaking into that women’s dormitory, named Ferry Hall after the colonel and his wife. No one knows what happened to the young man after he was caught, but his spirit was said to linger in Ferry Hall. Students who attended Westminster while Ferry Hall still stood would often report seeing frightening sights, including statues moving from window to window and spectral figures pacing the halls.

After Ferry Hall was demolished in 1989, it seems that the ghosts who once lingered there were happy to move into the brand-new Gore School of Business upon its construction.

Today, students report seeing a young man pacing along the glass windows in the front of Gore late at night—perhaps the same spirit that was said to haunt Ferry Hall.

The elevator near the Gore Auditorium has also been known to travel from floor to floor all by itself. During the building’s dedication, Westminster’s then-president, Dr. Charles H. Dick, was in the middle of his dedication speech when the elevator doors opened behind him. With an audience full of people watching, there was no way anyone could have called for the elevator.

Former President Stephen Morgan, who was in the audience that day, later said it could have been the ghost of Jeanette Ferry, making her presence known and putting her stamp of approval on the building that had replaced the one she had helped build.

Whether it’s the kindly spirit of Jeanette Ferry or the specter of a student from long ago, even a relatively new building like Gore has its share of haunted tales.

Thanks for listening to the Westminster Haunted Tour, presented by the Westminster College Alumni Office. Check out our other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts, and visit westminstercollege.edu/alumni for upcoming events and alumni resources.

This production was made possible through the idea of Trey Hansen, class of 2016, the research and journalism of Graham Kennedy, class of 2020, and Westminster’s student newspaper, The Forum.

Disclaimer: These tales of legends and spirits are just for fun!

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