Huntingdon College

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Huntingdon College
Image:Huntingdon College emblem.png
Established	1854
Type	Private college
President	J. Cameron West
Faculty	47
Students	700
Location	Montgomery, Alabama, United States
Campus	Suburban
Athletics	11 Varsity Sports, NCAA Division III
Mascot	Hawk
Affiliations	United Methodist Church
Website	www.huntingdon.edu

Huntingdon College, founded in 1854, is a coeducational liberal arts college in Montgomery, Alabama. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church, the college is known for its music, business, and science programs. The college has recently restructured and now includes a football team. The college remains very small in size with fewer than 1,000 students and is known for having a high quality faculty.

All students to the college receive a personal laptop for their use while at the college and junior and senior students are eligible for a trip abroad with most expenses covered by tuition.

Contents 1 History 2 Accreditation 3 Societies, Organizations, and Clubs 4 Various Hauntings, Ghosts, and Poltergeists around Campus 4.1 Pratt Hall 4.2 Houghton Memorial Library 4.3 Searcy Hall 4.4 Massey Hall 4.5 Hanson Hall 4.6 The Green 5 Trivia 6 References

[edit] History

Huntingdon College was chartered on February 2, 1854 as Tuskegee Female College by the Alabama State Legislature and Governor John A. Winston. In 1872 the name was changed to Alabama Conference Female College as it was now under the auspices of the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. A decision was made in the late 19th century to move the campus to a larger city. The college, renamed the Women's College of Alabama relocated in 1910 to a 58 acre (235,000 m²) parcel in the Cloverdale section of Montgomery. A campus plan was commissioned from the Olmsted Brothers and several new buildings were constructed to complement the "collegiate Gothic" style of the main college building, Flowers Memorial Hall.

The college admitted its first male student in 1934 and changed its name the next year to Huntingdon College in honor of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, a notable supporter of Methodism.

[edit] Accreditation

The college is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada.

[edit] Societies, Organizations, and Clubs

There are five Greek organizations on campus, three for women and two for men. There are no fraternity or sorority houses for residential purposes, but each organization has a chapter room located on campus. Women's fraternities include Alpha Omicron Pi (chapter established 1975), Chi Omega (chapter established 1976), and Alpha Kappa Alpha (chapter established 1999). The first men's fraternity was established in 1977 with a chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon, and which was followed in 1981 by a chapter of Kappa Sigma.

Other organizations focus on political interests, including College Republicans and College Democrats. Service organizations include the Women's Center and Circle K International, while other organizations, such as the Natural Sciences Club and Business Club, have an academic interest as their foundation. Other groups include the Outdoor Recreation Club and the International Students Association.

Campus publications are student-run and include The Prelude (literary magazine), Bells and Pomegranates (yearbook), and The Gargoyle (newspaper).

[edit] Various Hauntings, Ghosts, and Poltergeists around Campus

[edit] Pratt Hall

Pratt Hall is perhaps the most famous haunted dorm in Alabama. The Red Lady as she has been called was a former student who committed suicide. The young lady was rather anti-social and is known for her obsession with the color red. Martha is still known to haunt these halls. Students report seeing flashes of red coming from under the doors and through the windows of the building. Strange moaning and whimpers have also been reported by students of the college consistently for more than eighty years. All three sororities have their chapter rooms in this building, and one night in October, both the Chi Omega and the Alpha Omicron Pi sororities take part in "The Red Lady Run," painting their faces, wearing all black, and running around campus.

The real individual on which this myth is based came to the Alabama Woman's College at the bequest of her father's will. He wished his daughter to go to his mother's alma mater. Despite the fact that the real incident of her death occurred at the former Tuskegee campus, the legend continues unabated with the move to Montgomery.

Martha, 'The Red Lady' is featured in Kathryn Tucker Windham's famous book "Thirteen Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey"

[edit] Houghton Memorial Library

Frank the Library Ghost was perhaps a natural addition to the group of hauntings on campus. Looked on with amusement by Huntingdon's library faculty and staff, Frank is known to reverse entire book shelves overnight. The Library faculty and staff also report hearing the old and rarely used dumbwaiter rising up and down the stacks on its own. Frank is particularly active on the fourth floor of the stacks. Students report hearing someone walking around on that level of the stacks outside their field of vision, when they go to investigate they find nothing but a blast of chilling air and a distant sounding maniacal giggling.

Ghost seekers should get particular joy out of being in the Houghton Memorial Library at Halloween, due to the festive decorations in honor of Frank. It has also been said that there is a vampire on the faculty/staff of the Library. Tallulah, a skeleton who appears at Halloween, is said to be a librarian emerita.

[edit] Searcy Hall

- What now is an all male dorm, it is fitting that the ghost that stalks the halls is female. Dressed only in a towel, this temptress seems to appear, smile, and then vanish before one's very eyes. There is no background story since no one has been able to stop her long enough to ask her a question, or for that matter close their mouth upon seeing her majestic and transparent beauty. Lights turn on and off in unused rooms of the building and unexplainable noises have been reported by resident assistants and other staff who at times are required to stay in Searcy alone. Penguin

[edit] Massey Hall

If someone asks you to walk the fourth floor at midnight, don't bring a flashlight... just trust me on that. A feeling of being watched that can only be described as "searching" is reported by those who dare go down the hall at night alone. The top floors of this building have been condemned and are blocked off. Crafty students have been known to find ways around the blocked off stairways to explore the top floors at night. Massey, one of the oldest buildings on campus is also one of the creepiest, especially because most of it has gone unused for decades.

[edit] Hanson Hall

Hanson Hall houses the Kappa Sigma Chapter room. Several brothers of the fraternity have noted hearing footsteps in the closed floor above them, lights suddenly turned off, and other strange noises. The third and fourth floors of Hanson are completely closed off to everyone. Crafty students have been known to remove the chained and locked door from its hinges to gain access to some of the creepiest places on campus. The third floor is an unused and long abandoned dormitory covered in spray painted curses and threats to the administration written by the angry students who were being forced out of the hall when it closed after an incident. All furniture on the hall remains in place since the hall closed decades ago, beds with mattresses, desks covered in old assignments and notes... People left this dormitory very quickly. The fourth floor of Hanson is partially demolished but offers an excellent view of campus. Students who have been to the top two floors of Hanson note the feeling of being watched and strange stains on the mattresses and recent looking trash that indicate that they are not the only people who have been on these floors since the closing. There have been reports (some confirmed by campus security) of the homeless taking shelter in abandoned spaces on campus.

[edit] The Green

There are supposedly three ghosts that frequent the Green, all of whom died at an early age.

"Billy" was a little boy who was visiting his older sister in the 1970s. Rumour has it that while playing the wind blew his ball into the pond. Apparently he drowned trying to retrieve his toy. This is just an assumption because the ball was never found. Sometimes while walking along the green students have reported seeing a glowing figure like a young child looking around in the bushes near the pond late at night. Some rationalize this as the President's children sneaking out at night, but freshmen frequently report talking to a boy wearing out-of-style clothes about his missing ball. Only later do they realize what actually happened.

A second story involves the brutal assault and murder of an unnamed young girl in the early 1960s. After studying one night at the library she left for her dorm room at Ligon, but never made it. Sometime during the night she was strangled to death and dragged into the forest where the assaulter proceeded to mangle her body. Her friends thought they knew who the assaulter was, but even after months of investigation no one was charged. It is said that, if you stay out on the right night, you can hear her calling out the name of her assaulter.

A young male student committed suicide on the green in the early 1990s in the area down by where the pond is now. It has been said that if you lie on the grass by the pond at night to look at the stars with your boyfriend/girlfriend you can feel this disturbed young ghost lie down next to you to watch. Girls note the feeling of having their hair stroked while sitting in the gazebo alone. The girls have also reported hearing a soft whisper like that of a penguin squawking in their ear. "That's what she said."

[edit] Trivia

• Huntingdon can be seen in the Tim Burton movie Big Fish where the campus is used to portray Auburn University.
• Notable former students include U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions and Harper Lee.

[edit] References

• Ellison, Rhoda Coleman (2004). History of Huntingdon College, 1854-1954 (sesquicentennial edition). Montgomery, Alabama, New South Books. ISBN 1-58838-171-4. 
• Windham, Kathryn Tucker (1969). Thirteen Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey. Huntsville, Alabama, Strode Publishers. ISBN 0-87397-008-X.