Clamer Hall
Clamer Hall, once a dorm for women before switching to an all men’s, has enjoyed a more romanticized history of its supernatural origins. The tales of why the residency hall is haunted even make it into the brief description of the building proffered in “Of Ghosts and Towers,” a section of the Ursinus Bulletin profiling each of the residency halls [1].
Out of all the incidences and rumors that have started tales of ghosts haunting Ursinus College, the ghosts that haunt Clamer Hall can claim the most dramatic historical origin. As the tale goes, before the building was owned by the college, it was owned by Francis Clamer, and his daughter had a love affair with someone below her societal status and rejected her lover after he father arranged a marriage for her; the lover, not taking her decision well, stabbed her to death in an alcove before ending his own life [2]. In a less outwardly dramatic tale, the ghosts are explained to be the result of a girl dying from an overdose while in her room [3]. The current residents of Clamer claim to see flashes of a figure in a white dress – the students even reportedly brought a psychic with them to the school, all to no avail [4]. Finally, a psychic suggested to one of the residents not to fear the ghosts as they were “friendly, not evil” [5].
In another tale of this haunted building, the ghost lingering about Clamer is that of a “Nellie Bell” who had supposedly attended Ursinus despite no record supporting her existence, and this person had caused several ruckuses within the residency hall [6]. But even then, Nellie Bell may not be to blame; rather, the unsettled ghost of a man who accidently shot himself causes trouble in Clamer. But regardless of whichever of these ghost tales is the correct legend, the presence of so many different ghost rumors has successfully frightened off a member of the cleaning staff [7]. Additionally, the truth behind such rumors seems to matter little to the students who still feel a supernatural presence stalking the halls of Clamer and who seem willing to attach themselves to whichever story they hear first [8].
[1] E. M. R., “Of Ghosts and Towers: The Histories of the Halls,” Ursinus Bulletin (Collegeville, PA), 1990: 16.
[2] Craig Dilouie, “College Ghosts Still a Mystery,” The Grizzly (Collegeville, PA), Feb. 20, 1987.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Kate Prahlad, “Clamer Ghosts at it again,” The Grizzly (Collegeville, PA), Oct. 27, 2005.
[7] Harley Rubin and Sara Jacobson, “The Phantoms of Ursinus,” The Grizzly (Collegeville, PA), Sept. 19, 1990.
[8] Joe Walsh, “Haunted Ursinus: Good Ole’ Ghost Stories,” The Grizzly (Collegeville, PA), Nov. 5, 2009.