'I Saw a Ghost in My Common Room'

Weld Hall's reputation as the center of Harvard's occult has been revived by the sighting of a ghost in one of its rooms.

"We were sitting in a circle around a little red candle left over from Hurricane Gloria. The windows were open, there was a full moon and we were feeling deeply relaxed," said Audris S. Wong '89 a resident of Weld North. "My eyes were transfixed at the space between my two roommates, when I saw an old woman with a dark cloak and grayish hair."

And it's not as if Wong has been watching too many late night movies.

"It wasn't like the mist that you see in the movies," she said, "but it was very vague--like an impression. I couldn't see any of her features. She was just leaning against the wall, listening to our conversation."

Theresa M. McCarthy '89 didn't get a chance to see the ghost since she was sitting with her back to the mysterious woman, but she agreed with Wong's account of the night. "It was a really mellow atmosphere. Audris suddenly stopped the conversation and told us, in a calm voice, that the ghost was there."

Wong said, "I don't think it was something of my imagination, but I don't want to be known as the resident flake on campus."

Her roommates certainly aren't calling her a flake.

"She's not a crackpot or anything," said Ellen L. Cox '89, who was not present when the ghost was spotted. "Audris is really level-headed. If she says she saw a ghost, she saw a ghost."

Others are not sure. One resident of Weld North said, "There are no such things as ghosts. I'd say they were probably intoxicated."

According to legend, Weld has long been plagued by the super-natural. "The story goes that when Weld was rebuilt after burning down in the 1960's, a spirit was bricked in between the walls," said Margaret John, a Weld proctor. "Students often hear mysterious knocking on the walls."

Although Associate Dean of Freshman Burris Young declined to comment on Weld's ghostly residents, he said, "There is no doubt that there are ghosts everywhere."