Franklin Pierce College , Rindge New Hampshire

I attended FPC from 1977-1979 and can vouch that The Manor is indeed haunted. On nights coming back from The Raven's Nest, our local campus pub , we'd have to pass by the Manor on the way back to the dorms. On many occasion we'd hear noises coming from the small gameroom in one of the wings on the first floor. Peering in the windows we'd see and hear the pinball machines being played ... bells ringing and lights flashing, used to scare the hell out of us. Also it was known that on the top floor you could hear furniture being moved although there was no office up there... at the time it was basically storage. Not only was the Manor haunted but so were a few of the dorms. I lived in New Hampshire Hall at the time and it was rumored that back in the 60's when FPC was in it's druggie hayday and known even by Playboy Magazine as one of the top "party" schools in the country... that someone had lept to their death from one of the 3rd floor windows into the parking lot. Many times my dorm mates and I held sceances.

Once in my room , with the aid of a Ouija board, we came upon the spirit of a young man named Slater who claimed that he'd lived there back in the early 1800's. We contacted him on many occasions and he seemed a friendly spirit. Another time in a room down the hall we had a sceance and during it the desk lamps starting going on and off wildly, there was a burst of ice cold air in the room and then the windows flung open. We got up and checked the lamps which happened to have dial knobs on their bases. They had indeed been turned to the 'on' position even though we had turned them all off before we had commenced summoning any spirits.

There were always areas where you felt as if you were being "watched" and it was particularly creepy to walk the campus at night. There are also rumors about " The Lady of the Lake " .. ie Pearly Pond, that late at night you could hear a woman screaming that echoed across the lake and you could see a light floating along the shore opposite the campus. Supposedly this woman had drowned long ago when she fell into the lake. I"m not sure when this occurred. From what I had heard at the time , at one time the "Manor" was a stopping point on the Underground Railroad and there were many strange "happenings" that occured on that campus.

By: sm.connors@gmail.com