From Advertiser-Tribune.com: Things to go bump at the ’Berg
Enter if you dare.
Trick-or-treaters brave enough can participate in activities Thursday in Heidelberg University's France Hall, which is believed to be haunted by several ghosts.
Rebecca Dickinson, a sophomore from Middleburg Heights studying history, has helped organize the fundraiser, which is to be 7:30-10 p.m. Thursday at the residence hall. The resident assistants of Brown and France halls are putting on the event with the help of other organizations.
"We worked hard on trying to get campus organizations involved with the project," she said.
Dickinson said the family-friendly event is to have activities and candy for children and also areas geared more toward adults.
There is no cost, although any donations are to go toward the renovation of France Hall's basement, she said.
"It's a haunted house, but we do have an area designated for kids," she said.
A couple of months ago, a Heidelberg class went ghost-hunting in France Hall.
April Beisaw, assistant professor of anthropology at Heidelberg, taught an honors class titled "Science or Pseudoscience?" that focused on testing methods and whether ghost-hunting is a science. She said she purchased ghost-hunting equipment, and students broke into small groups to go hunting in the attics of France and Pfleiderer halls and the basement of Founders Hall.
She said France Hall is the only place where something that could be considered paranormal happened, and unfortunately, it happened to her.
"I did research afterwards," she said.
Beisaw recalled preparing to take her students into France Hall and securing two keys, one for each side of the attic. She explored the attic before taking her students up, closed the door and went downstairs to get the students. She then returned to the attic with them.
"I went to open the door, and the door wouldn't open," she said.
Beisaw said she had been given the keys to a padlock, which she was holding. The door had locked with the old mechanism, which staff wasn't using anymore.
"We couldn't get the door open," she said.
She and the students went downstairs and returned to the attic through the other entrance. After the ghost hunt, she did research and learned the female ghost who is supposed to be in the attic is known for locking doors.
"I didn't know that when that happened," she said.
Beisaw said some students believed the experience because they wanted to, while others weren't sure.
"It was fully locked, so that was really the main thing that happened up there," she said.
Wednesday, Beisaw is taking students ghost-hunting in an octagonal house the university owns on Perry Street. She said the class is going to be giving a report about the history of the house and what the class thinks should be done to it to President Robert Huntington.
"It's just falling apart sitting there by itself. ... We'll see how (the ghost-hunting) goes," she said.
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