Spirits Of Saint Mary's

This is just a little collection of experiences from Saint Mary's University in Winona, MN. I went here for a year in a half (dropped out for financial reasons, sigh) but I still collected some stories.

The first experience I had is actually the only full bodied apparition I've seen. I was in the theatre for class (I was a theatre major) and we were sitting in the seats. The curtains on the side of the stage were pulled up so you could see backstage on the sides. Stage left (where no living people were) I see a bright white figure walk upstage toward the stairs to go up to the catwalk. It was a woman, wearing an old fashioned dress. Later on in the green room I went over to get a look at the portrait that hung there, of Dorothy Magnus who had funded the building of the theatre. The figure had looked just like her! I figure it was her, checking up on her dear theatre. It was wonderful and I feel special that even though there were a ton of other students in there, she only appeared to me.

My other personal experience was in Heffron Hall. If you Google Heffron Hall, it will come right up, within the last 10 years I believe that it was declared one of the most haunted dorms in the country. You can go read the stories, including a series from our local paper The Winona Daily News and it's an interesting read. Anyways, for my last semester there I lived in Heffron Hall, on the third floor. I hadn't been in to see what the rooms were like so the summer prior to moving in I wandered into the unlocked second floor. They had been painting and doing some remodelling so the carpet was all ripped up but I went in anyway! It looked like no one was there. I went down the hall a bit and down near the end of the hall in one room there was suddenly a huge racket, like things being tossed around like crazy! I was like, uh oh; I hope I don't get in trouble for being in here! I'm not sure why but I went on down the hall to see who was in the room down there. The room was totally empty, except for the empty bed and desk. I was startled but was like YES I had an experience in Heffron! That fall when I moved in, nothing really happened. Several times when I was up late I would start feeling very uneasy, but it was probably just me working myself up from reading stories about the hall online.

The next experiences are ones my close friend had. Her freshman year she lived in Skemp Hall on the third floor. In this room a girl had died. I think it was suicide, but I'm not certain. Every Wednesday night, in the closet they could hear a girl crying. They were scared at first, and then would try to talk to it and calm it down, and when it wouldn't respond to anything it ended up just becoming kind of annoying so they would leave the room at that time every week. My friend has talked to other girls who lived in this room and they all had the same experience.

One night my friend was up in St. Mary's hall on the third floor, playing hide and seek in the dark with friends. (She loves having childlike fun!) She ran to a far room at the end of the hall and waited to be found. Suddenly something grabs her ponytail and jerks her head back and she hears an angry man's voice sneer, "Get out!" Needless to say, she got out! She refused to ever go up there at night after that.

My sister stayed with me several times while I was there, and once she had to leave my dorm and go get a snack late at night. She passed this one wall in Saint Mary's and there was a really creepy knocking on the wall. She asked me what was in this particular room and I didn't know, but the building was locked up and empty at the time. She said she wouldn't have thought anything of it but it made her feel uncomfortable hearing it.