We love a good, old fashioned ghost story here at I Love Libraries, especially if it involves libraries! And there are plenty.
The U.S. is full of haunted libraries, from the famed Grey Lady who haunts Evansville (Ind.) Public Library and the ghostly nun who appears in the library of Ramona Convent Secondary School in Alhambra, California, to the plethora of spirits who've made Peoria (Ill.) Public Library their afterlife home. (Learn more about the Peoria Public Library haunts in Call Number with American Libraries spectacular Halloween episode from a few years back.) We always have our eyes peeled throughout the year looking for more haunted libraries to obsess over and research, so we were particularly jazzed when Samantha Larned, a reporter from KTTZ radio station at Texas Tech University, contacted us to tell us about the supernatural happenings at George and Helen Mahon Public Library in Lubbock, Texas.
Larned recently produced a fascinating feature for KTTZ about the Mahon Public Library hauntings, and it gave us goosebumps. The 50-year-old library is host to a myriad of spooky occurrences: disembodied whistling, footsteps, and voices; books that fling to the floor by themselves; and the ghosts of a former volunteer whose seen in the horror lit section and a dark-haired woman in a red dress. The freakiest, however, is "The Forbidden Corner."
As Larned reports:
"In addition to a cold spot in front of the library's only occult section, staff and volunteers tend to avoid a section of the basement known as 'The Forbidden Corner,' where towering bookcases and light that doesn't quite reach the edge create a feeling of claustrophobia, as well as reports of scratching coming from the concrete wall.
The library does not have any pests."
Mahon Public Library leans into its hauntings, hosting sold-out ghost tours every Halloween season. These tours have also produced some unexplained phenomena.
"After the haunted tour in 2021, library staff was sent a tour photo from a couple who attended," reports Larned. "[Director of Lubbock Public Libraries Hannah] Stewart described the photo as containing what is both a small glowing orb and a child. Children are not allowed in the ghost tour, and there were none at the library that night."
Spooky!
Listen to Larned's full story on the Mahon Public Library hauntings, and explore other library hauntings courtesy of our friends at American Libraries.
Is your library haunted? Tell us all about it! Email pmorehart@ala.org with your haunted library story-it may be featured here at I Love Libraries.
