The Rossborough Inn
Campus legend says that the old Rossborough Inn is haunted. In fact, there have been numerous sightings of ghostly figures.
Larry Donnelly saw them. He had an office in the Rossborough back in 1981 while it was being renovated. The now retired dining services manager was in his office early one morning when a gust of wind blew through an open window. He looked out the door to see what he says was the smiling face of a young girl. Later he saw the same child in a bonnet and yellow dress, as did another employee at a later time.
A story in the Diamondback student newspaper back in October, 2002, reported a specialist in the paranormal claimed to see two "good natured" spirits sitting on stools in the adjacent Carriage House restaurant on the first floor.Photograph by Matthew Brady, from the collections of the Library of Congress, courtesy of the Riversdale Historical Society.
The Rossborough Inn was built between 1804 and 1812 by speculator John Ross. Times were hard and by 1835, the inn had become a farmhouse and barn. In 1858, Charles Benedict Calvert (right) donated 420 acres of his Riverdale Plantation, including the farmhouse, to help found what was then called the Maryland Agricultural College. The Rossborough has served various functions for the university over the years. It was last used for alumni and faculty events.
Morrill Hall
Morrill Hall is one of the oldest buildings on campus and perhaps the most haunted. Students love to visit it for that reason. Over the years it housed everything from the Departments of Agriculture to Veterinary Science. But its source of spirits may come from the many cadavers - brought into the basement more than 80 years ago - for dissection by medical students.
The psychic energy here is overwhelming say investigators. A few years back , workers in Morrill Hall found human remains under a sink while the building was undergoing renovation. Additionally, the staff in Morrill has heard noises late at night. They say people trip and fall for no apparent reason.
There have also been mysterious smells. A few years ago workers were installing a new air conditioner and called firefighters in to check on strange odors. It was determined that drilling had released fumes and ashes left over from the disastrous Thanksgiving fire of 1912.
Morrill Hall was constructed in 1898 and is the oldest campus building with its original facade intact. It was named after U. S. Senator Justin Morrill, who sponsored the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862. That act established federal land grant colleges, including the Maryland Agricultural College (later to become the University of Maryland.
Marie Mount Hall
Marie Mount loved Maryland so much she didn't want to leave - even in death. So tradition has it the first dean of the College of Home Economics stayed - ultimately to haunt a building named after her. A few of her friends may have joined her.
Campus employees claim to have seen Mount's ghost and heard her playing the piano on dark, stormy nights. An expert in the paranormal reported feeling the spirits of Mount and others in that 2002 Diamondback article. Marie Mount HallConstructed in 1940 as an addition to Silvester Hall, the building's corridors and ceilings are a mixture of ashen, concrete walls and yellow floors. They slant strangely to merge with the old construction.
The building was first called, simply, the Home Economics Building. In 1959 it became Margaret Brent Hall after a colonial businesswoman considered the first American woman to request the right to vote.
Finally, in 1969, the Board of Regents renamed it Marie Mount Hall in appreciation of Marie Mount's innovations in home economics at the Marie Mountuniversity. Under her guidance, the "Department of Home and Institution Management" became its own division and later the College of Home Economics. Today the building appropriately houses the Department of Family Studies, the Department of Nutrition and Food Science and other offices.
Marie Mount Hall used to house student dormitories as well as classrooms. There are still signatures of students who wrote their names on the walls of their old rooms. Perhaps a few of those former students have joined Mount to hear her play the piano on stormy nights.
H.J. Patterson Hall
Less well known than "haunted" Marie Mount and Morrill Halls, H.J. Patterson Hall is allegedly spooked. Once, a facilities management employee saw a shadow move across the wall while working alone in the building. He does not believe the shadow belonged to another worker.
Nicknamed "Steinberg Castle," the building is named after Maryland Agricultural College President Henry Jacob Patterson (1913-1917). It was built in 1931 and houses the Department of Plant Biology, the Department of Natural Resources, a soil testing lab and the Center for Agricultural Biology.
Kappa Delta Sorority
Former University Registrar Alma Preinkert was much beloved on campus. That's why her brutal murder at her home in 1954 was so devastating at the time. Oh, and did we mention that the murder was never solved?
Preinkert's soul may still be unsettled, because members of the campus sorority she helped found, Kappa Delta, say she haunts their sorority house. Members of the sorority told The Diamondback in 2002 that there are other spirits too. They described "crazy paranormal things" that included "girls in white dresses dancing on the KD sundeck over the summer" when the house is closed.
Another Maryland sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi, says their members have seen or heard the ghost of Julie Renee Peace - a sorority sister who died in a tragic 1995 car accident.
See this feature online at: http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/culture/release.cfm?ArticleID=1143
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