Built in the 1960s, the auditorium seems too young to be haunted. Despite its youth, there are rumors concerning ghosts and how they came to haunt the halls of Dana Auditorium.
There is speculation around one of the ghosts, a soldier, and how he came to haunt the auditorium. Some believe that the ghost died in a nearby battle. Others believe that Dana Auditorium is built over a war hospital where the soldier died.
Faculty and students alike have come across this ghost, whom they refer to as Lucas. Senior James Lyons spoke of Lucas’ mischievous, but harmless nature, “He likes messing with the locks on closet doors, especially in the choir room.”
John Martin, who works for Public Safety, has had an incident with Lucas. He said: “I turned out all the lights, locked all the doors, and left. When I came back a little later someone had turned the lights on in the Moon room, but the door was still locked. So I unlocked the door, shut out the lights and said, ‘Lucas, goodnight.'”
Several other Public Safety officers have experienced lights turning back on too.
Martin also spoke of a less friendly ghost in the building, a little girl with a malicious streak. “My coworkers have felt cold spots, and one of them felt like she had walked into a spider web where there wasn’t one,” he said.
Public Safety officers aren’t the only people who are frequently alone in Dana at night. Music majors can be heard practicing in the auditorium, and just like Public Safety, these students have had incidents with the ghosts as well.
Guilford alumnus Jeremy Velardez believes he had an incident with a ghost, specifically with the mean-spirited little girl’s ghost. “I was playing piano in the choir room late one night and this little girl came in and just watched me,” Velardez said. “It was a little sketchy, so I left.”
Dana Auditorium is a spooky place at night. The main performance hall is large, dark and makes strange noises. The solitary light left on stage shines eerily. An atmosphere like this could easily trick the mind into seeing and hearing things which may or may not be there. But there are those who believe that these paranormal events are not just tricks, and make it a point to prove it.
A known pastime amongst Guilford students is to sneak into Dana Auditorium in hunt of Lucas and this malicious girl-ghost. According to the book “Triad Haunting,” by Burt Calloway and Jennifer FitzSimmon, most of the paranormal activity takes place around 2 a.m., so it’s no wonder students sneak in to catch a glimpse.
Jen, a Guilford student, broke into Dana late one night last year with some friends and attempted to contact the auditorium’s spirits: “When we broke in we played the piano because we heard that rounds the ghosts up. Then (we) sat on the stage where the one light they leave on is. It was around maybe 3 or 4 a.m. – wicked late.
“We sat in a circle on the stage. We had all our sance equipment: candles, silver and I don’t even know what, and we asked some questions and we kind of stared off into the seats. We looked around and I saw a little girl with no face and dark hair in a white dress in the second row. Then she was in the back right, and then the left of the balcony. I saw a black man in army-type clothes in the second row and then he disappeared.
“Each time I saw something they would appear for a second as my eyes were scanning the room and then once you’d look back they’d be gone.”
She continued, “At one point, I felt a hand on my lower back – not a hit or a tap, but like when someone places their hand on your shoulder to say it’s OK.”
Jen said the encounter was more disturbing than it was frightening. She isn’t the only person who has seen ghostly figures in Dana Auditorium, however. Sophomore Tory Mallet has also witnessed spectral apparitions.
“I walked in and George, a Public Safety officer, turned off the light in the foyer,” Mallet said. “I then saw an outline of a tall thin man made out of light standing right by Nathan Ellis. I thought I was just seeing things but then I found out that it fit the description of one of the ghosts that people have said they saw there.”
However, some say they’ve never experienced anything creepy. Jim Hood, associate professor of English and a Guilford alumnus, said he never experienced anything creepy in Dana Auditorium while he was a Guilford student. “I spent a lot of time in Dana practicing piano and going to movies on Friday nights while I was a student,” he said. “I never saw anything nor heard any stories about the haunting of Dana.”
Whether Dana Auditorium is haunted or not is speculation, but there’s no doubt that the ambiguous truth regarding the spectral state of Dana Auditorium, with all its creaks and cold drafts, make it that much more frightening.