GA’s original capital holds within its streets the history of America as far back as the Revolutionary War. Milledgeville houses several historic sites and landmarks, such as the Governor’s Mansion, the former Baldwin County Courthouse, stretches the Trail of Tears, Memory Hill cemetery and Central State Hospital.

The buildings of GC’s main campus once acted as a penitentiary that burned down several times before reconstruction for the woman’s college in 1922. Survivors of Sherman’s March through the south, the homes that surround the campus are some of the oldest buildings in GA’s history.

With all of this history, it is no surprise that many people have experienced some elements of the supernatural here on our campus.

One of the most famous hauntings every freshman learns about when moving into the dorms is the story of ‘Cookie’ in Sanford Hall.

Many years ago, Cookie was a student living in Sanford Hall. She committed suicide in her third-floor room, and she is said to haunt the residents of Sanford. The third floor is now closed to the public and any future residences. However, the rest of the dormitory remains open for new GC students each year.

“There weren’t any specific experiences with the hauntings,”  said Kayla Holmes, junior psychology major. “When I went through recruitment, only two of us lived there besides the CA’s, and that was crazy. The basement area had such a dark vibe to it and it made a lot of my friends feel anxious; same thing with the hallways. It was weird walking around at night. It felt like you weren’t supposed to be out of your room.”

Holmes’s family has a unique connection to the dormitory of Stanford Hall, as her Grandmother lived there as well.

“My Grandmother lived in the room where Cookie died,” Holmes said. “She claimed that there wasn’t really any type of hauntings in the traditional sense. It was all just weird feelings you got in certain parts of the building.”

The pattern of these bad energies and feelings passed through two generations in Kayla’s family.

“I don’t know if the bad feelings came from ‘Cookie’ or something else,” Holmes said. “I’m not very superstitious, and I normally don’t really believe things about hauntings. However, I don’t know what or how to describe the energy and the vibe in there.”

Another famous building on campus known to History Majors and the Honors College is The Humber- White House.  This building is known for its resident that never left, Katy.

“Katy was a little girl, probably eight or nine when she died of tuberculosis that had been spreading throughout Milledgeville at the time,” said Claire Remley, senior history major. “Katy died in her bedroom which was Dr. Stephen Auerbach’s office. Although Dr. Auerbach never heard or saw anything, others had encounters with Katy. Katy was a troublemaker and would enjoy scaring Amy Mimes by setting off the electronic paper towel dispenser. There was also a time where history majors were studying in the house, and they heard screaming coming from upstairs. The problem was no one was upstairs at the time. The house often had the air conditioning break, causing the house to be uncomfortable, too hot or cold. Yet you couldn’t help but feel a presence in the house. History majors knew not to upset Katy because we didn’t want to upset her.”

A little farther down the street off of the main campus residence is the Alpha Gamma Delta house. Many of its residents say they have experienced several hauntings from the previous inhabitants.

“One night, I had just gotten home from work and was sitting in the parking lot when I looked up and saw a tall shadowy figure on the back porch standing right by the kitchen door,” said Emma Thublin, senior psychology major. “I stared at it for a while until it saw me, and then it just vanished. My room was known to be the most haunted room in the house, but besides the tv randomly turning on in the middle of the night, I had never experienced anything in the room.

Thublins’ roommate also experienced a similar haunting while living in the home.

“My roommate would have things happen to her all the time,” Thublin said. “She watched her alarm clock slide across her desk and be knocked onto the floor. She also used to hear knocking and tapping footsteps in our room late at night. She would get up to go see what was making the noise, and it would immediately stop. She also used to hear heavy breathing at the foot of her bed at night, but only on nights when she was the only person at the house. One night she even heard it right by her ear.”

Before its reconstruction into the Alpha Gamma Delta House, it was considered to be one of the oldest houses in Milledgeville. Holding its original foundation and past residents’ history along with it.

“The house itself used to be a homestead, and I’m pretty sure our basement used to be the living quarters for the enslaved,” Thublin said. “I think it also the people that used to live in the house that haunt it as well because girls see a woman in white in the garden walking around. Once, one of my sisters saw her in the foyer. My old room also has the most activity because a man jumped out of one of the windows after being chained to one of the beds for some sort of illness by the previous residents of the house.”

Even in light of all these hauntings, the girls of Alpha Gamma Delta have a unique bonding experience as sisters living in the house. They even gave the woman in white the nickname ‘Edith’ which is named after one of their founding members.

These are only a few of the hauntings here in our lovely Milledgeville. Some of these haunted places are open to the public every Halloween. For instance, in past years, Sanford Hall has opened its third hall for a tour if you donate a canned good.

However, there are other ways to see haunted sites here in Milledgeville. Every October, the Milledgeville Visitor Information Center does a special Ghost tour every Saturday at 10 am. Historians take you on a tour through the haunted history and historic sites telling of the spirits that remain.

Memory Hill is also a famous Cemetery here in Milledgeville as a final resting place of many of its residents and history throughout the years and is free to access throughout the day.

These are a few places around campus to be able to see the interesting history and haunted location of our college town just in time to get into the spirit of Halloween.