Brief history of the ghosts at KU

By Katherine Lovelidge

Old Main housed approximately 180 women studying at what was previously Keystone Normal College in 1895, and later became KU.

Among these students was Mary Snyder, a 22-year old senior, who passed away at 3 a.m. the day before she was scheduled to graduate at the top of her class.

According to an old KU Facebook post detailing history about the university as a celebration of it’s 150th anniversary, physicians at the time attributed her death to a swelling of the brain brought on by “overstudying.”

However, KU’s library website details rumors of other possibilities, including that Mary killed herself after discovering she was pregnant. In addition, a former KU librarian’s research points to a Reading Eagle article published in 2006 that dictates her death was due to a “heart ailment.”

Mary is said to haunt the upper floors of Old Main, as is evidenced by mysteriously moving cups, cold rooms in the midst of summer, and music sounding with no apparent source.

Two psychics visited campus in 1991 and confirmed the presence of a ghost, further stating that Mary is likely not the only ghostly presence in the building.