Apparently a love of books isn’t reserved for the living. Some of the most haunted places in America happen to be libraries. Here are three of the most notorious library hauntings – something to think about the next time you’re alone in the stacks at your local library.
Willard Library (Evansville, IN)
Housed in a gothic Victorian building built in 1885, the Willard Library is the haunt of one of America’s most famous ghosts. A ghostly apparition known as the Grey Lady has been seen over 1,000 times since the first recorded sighting by a janitor in 1937. Paranormal investigators also claim to have discovered the spirit of a male child that haunts the children’s reading room. Both visitors and library workers have reported manifestations that include floating books, water mysteriously turning on and off, the smell of ladies’ perfume, and the feeling of having hair and earrings stroked by an unseen hand.
Peoria Public Library (Peoria, IL)
Legend has it that the land on which the Peoria Public Library stands once belonged to a Mrs. Andrew Gray, who cursed the property and any of its future owners after a foreclosure on the property led to the tragic death of her nephew. After the library was subsequently built in 1894, three library directors met mysterious and untimely ends. The library was torn down and replaced with a modern building in the 1960s, but employees still report hearing disembodied voices calling their names and feeling cold drafts. Some even claim to have seen the floating face of one of the deceased directors.
Parmly Billings Library (Billings, MT)
In her book Haunted Montana, Acquisitions Librarian Karen Stevens devoted an entire chapter to the Parmly Billings Library. Reported paranormal activity at the library includes the sound of strange whistling, sightings of various male and female ghosts, a mysterious white shape seen moving past windows, and unexplained movement of books in the stacks of the Montana Room.
