Ghost in the stacks?

It's time for a Halloween ghost story. Through the years, certain legends have come and gone on campus, but one persists throughout the decades: a haunting in the Archives and Rare Books Department at Blegen Library.

Among the books is the spirit of a UC Classics professor who was killed in an auto accident in the 1950s.

The rare book stacks on the ninth floor of Blegen are the perfect setting for a ghost story. Light ruins old books, so the room is lit only by small incandescent bulbs. The stacks are full of shadows. In certain recesses, it's so dark nothing can be seen.

When the lights are on, books, some from as far back as the 1500s, some older, line the shelves. Spines of old tomes are decorated in gold gilt, and some have titles in German or Latin. In some cases, the binding on the spines has rotted away.

Plus, it's chilly. The rare book stacks are kept at 66 degrees Fahrenheit to help with preservation. Not exactly bone-chilling, but cold.

University Archivist Kevin Grace spends a lot of time with the rare books. "There have been times when I've turned quickly to see who's there," he said, "and I haven't seen anyone."

Though sightings of the ghost have been scarce, Grace has heard reports of a man around 5-feet-8, wearing a tweed jacket and cap. This professor is thought to have been in his 40s at the time of his death, making his passing untimely.

"That would cause you to come back and try and finish your work," Grace said with a laugh.

He said most people report hearing footsteps, the sound of books being moved about or slammed on the metal shelves. Sometimes air current will rush by and "it feels like somebody's walking behind you," he said. There are times archivists expect to find a book in one location, but find it somewhere else.

"When you're up there working by yourself, it's very easy to think that somebody's watching you," Grace said.

Still, Grace doesn't want any ghosts to scare people away from using the resources available at the University Archives. Though the stacks themselves are not physically open to the public, the archivists will be happy to retrieve books for anyone interested. "We've never seen ourselves as a museum," Grace said. "If you can't use these books, there's no point in having them."

Ghost hunters from around the country have called the archivists at Blegen wanting to investigate, but Grace and his co-workers tell them it's just a story.

But couldn't people be making something out of nothing? Couldn't the metallic noises come from the air conditioning ducts hanging from the low ceiling, the footsteps merely imagined?

But what if there really is a ghost haunting the rare books?

It's that slim possibility that keeps people telling this story and others like it.

For years, rumors have circulated about Crosley Tower. Greg Hand, UC spokesman, tells of one urban legend about the single cement pour forming the building. During the pouring, someone fell in. Unable to save him, workers were forced to encase the man within the walls of the tower. No one has actually seen his ghost - because it never happened.

French Hall, which was built in the 1950s as UC's second dormitory, has its own legend.

"It was built in a hurry," Hand said.

For years, students reported strange noises, but once the building completed renovations in 1996, the reports stopped. Hand says one theory is that the old building had shoddy windows that rattled in the wind.

In the 1940s, an astronomer at the Cincinnati Observatory, which is owned by UC, committed suicide by hanging himself from the telescope. Though it might sound like the makings of a ghost story, Hand says that no one has ever reported any paranormal goings-on.

Hand also has first-hand experience with a grisly rumor from 10 years ago. For months, students called him wanting to know why no one was talking about the murder of a young woman on campus.

At first they wanted to know about the young woman killed in Lot 1, a parking area that used to cover what is now Sigma Sigma Commons. A month later, the rumor spread and students were talking about the woman that was killed in the Library Garage. Then the same woman was killed in Zimmer Hall.

Within a year, the rumor worked its way across campus, and the woman was killed in Teacher's College.

"Most of the time she was stabbed with a knife, sometimes it was a screwdriver," Hand said. "This poor girl was getting killed everywhere."

There was never any murder. But even without any evidence, this urban legend spread. It spread for the same reason people still talk about Crosley Tower, about a ghost at the top of Blegen Library: because it's fun. Proof isn't needed to back these stories up, only a few fertile imaginations and the ability to suspend belief.

"People like a good mystery," Grace said, "and they like a good scare."

And that's true on Halloween or any other day of the year.