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Colby-Sawyer College is located in New London, NH and was established in 1837. At the time it was called The New London Academy. The Academy was co-ed until 1928 when it became a women only college. This was due to the financial hardships during that time. Because of these issues and an educational gender shift, the Academy decided to make the college women only and became the Colby Junior College for Women. In 1975, the Academy was renamed to what it is today, Colby-Sawyer College. In 1990 it became co-ed again. Over the last one-hundred and eighty-six years, many students have walked the halls and many have claimed to see some paranormal occurrences that are not covered in their academia.
One would think most colleges would shy away and scoff at the idea of the supernatural, but Colby-Sawyer College seems to embrace it, whether for scientific reasons or fun. Students, especially those who have experienced a haunting or two, have shown interest in conducting investigations as well as ouija board sessions at the college to try and find answers for these paranormal experiences. In fact, some have said that they were skeptics until attending Colby-Sawyer, but all it took was one experience to change their minds. Some would say it’s hard to be a skeptic when every building has a ghost story. Here is the haunted history of Colby-Sawyer College in New London, NH.
We’re going to start with the most popular spirit at Colby-Sawyer. He is known as the Ghost with the Large Brimmed Hat or also referred to as The Ghost with the Top Hat. A specter so popular that Dartmouth Film & Media Studies made a short documentary where they interviewed students and faculty about the Hat Ghost. I will be using some footage from this documentary as a visual reference. If you’re interested in watching the full short documentary, I will link it in the description below. It’s only 11 minutes long, so perfect for those with short attention spans. Like me.
Colgate Hall is the main building at the school and where our first and most popular spirit seems to reside the most, though he has been spotted in other areas. Our first story is from the article I wrote about Colby-Sawyer around ten years ago. I tried re-finding the resources for this story, but came up short, and it appears the websites I found this story originally are no longer around. Keep in mind, a lot of these videos are influenced by old articles I wrote over ten years ago and most websites I used as references back then are no longer active, so I can’t find the website I originally found this story, but it’s a spine-tingling tale, so I will tell it.
We will start with the true account of a young lady, who was a student at Colby-Sawyer at the time. She was in her dorm room when she looked outside her window and saw a rather peculiar man she never saw before. He was wearing a stylish coat and a top hat that covered his facial features. Granted, she knew that Colby-Sawyer tended to attract outside people due to the theater and some of these outsiders the students thought were odd, but she felt this guy was different. There was just something about him that intrigued her and had to get a closer look.
To give the illusion that she wasn’t spying on this guy, she grabbed a notebook to pass herself off as a student going from building to building, but in reality was going to go out to get a better look at this strange man in a top hat. When she looked outside, he was still leaning against the rail of the back door stairs of the Colgate building and looked like he had no plans on leaving. She kneeled down to put on her shoes, but when she looked up, the mysterious man was gone. She went out and spent twenty minutes trying to look for him, but eventually gave up. I guess he was just that odd of a person to spend that much time looking for him. However, this was not going to be the last time she saw the mysterious man with the top hat, but after this next experience, she probably wished she only saw him once.
A week later he appeared again. Wearing the same hat, but this time, according to the story, he was wearing a suit instead of the flowing coat he was wearing the last time. The day was fading away and the student was determined to see who this person was, so; she approached from the library, she turned her head to look both ways of the road that separated the buildings, she looked up and he was still there, but she was about to see something startling.
He was evaporating. Vanishing before her very own startled eyes. This experience baffled the young woman so much that she got glasses, because she actually thought her vision was going bad. That was the last time she saw the Man in the Large Brimmed Hat. She should be thankful though, as according to most accounts, most people who have seen the Top Hat Ghost has said they didn’t feel threatened by him. However, I did read one or two stories that said he did get violent. We’ll get to that later.
As for the identity of the mysterious Ghost with the Top Hat. Some say he looks to be anywhere between his 30s and 40s. Some say it is the spirit of Anthony Colby, one of the founder’s of the college. Others say it is a student from Dartmouth, looking to be a part of the school play. For those familiar with this ghost story, who do you think the Ghost with the Top Hat is?
When I did more research on Colby-Sawyer College, I found out some things I didn’t know ten years ago when I originally wrote the article and that is a lot of people have ghost stories pertaining to this college. I’ve found information on the college’s website devoted to the ghost stories, Tumblr posts, a Creepypasta was written about the Ghost with the Top Hat. Meaning this may be the longest video I’ve ever done. For those who are still watching, thank you.
One of the better resources of stories for more ghost legends at Colby-Sawyer are first hand accounts from students of the college. I won’t read all of them, but have picked the ones I found interesting. These talk about the other spirits said to haunt Colby-Sawyer. For those interested in reading all of them, it will be listed in the references section of the article that will accompany this video. You can find the link to that in the video’s description.
Ghost Children of Colgate Hall
From Jocelyn
On October 29th, 2009 Paranormal Experts came to Colby-Sawyer to take students on a ghosthunt. We sat in the fourth floor of Colgate Hall, and were surrounded by children ghosts, who said that at one time the building was an orphanage. The man with the hat was present, and the experts told him they did not like his smoking, they hated it. The man with the hat gained enough energy he punched the male expert in the head, slamming his head so hard against the hall, leaving a crack and a welt on his head, not to mention causing him to black out.
Knock, Knock
From Jovana Stojanova
"My friends and I were watching a horror movie in the Honors Suite last night (5/8/13) and had all the lights turned off, as well as the doors closed. All of the sudden, we heard someone knocking on the door. We asked who is was, but there was no answer. We heard a second knock, but still there was no answer. The lights were turned off and we didn’t hear any footsteps. If you’ve ever been in the Honors Suite, you know how you can hear everything because the floor is wooden. Then there were three more knocks, but no one said anything.
A minute later, the smaller door next to the regular one just opened by itself (?). At this point, all of us are screaming and hiding under under the blankets, and THEN we heard footsteps next to us. Someone was definitely walking next to me, and then the thing started knocking on the table behind us. At first you could barely hear the knocks, but they were becoming louder and louder. None of us dared to turn back, so I guess we’ll try to repress last night deep, deep into our memories and hopefully we’ll forget one day."
The Blank Stare
This story did not have a name, but is creepy regardless.
"It was a weekday, middle of September in 2011. I am a freshman here at Colby-Sawyer, and I live in Danforth. One night I was sleeping soundly and dreaming, when suddenly I abruptly woke up, it was 3:30 in the morning. I sat up, and looked around. In the corner of my room, there was a man who had a top hat, he was wearing a suit, and wore a long coat over it. He was just there staring. His whole body was present. The look on his face wasn’t menacing, he was just looking blankly at me. He looked to be around his 30’s in age. I was so scared because he didn’t look like a ghost, he looked like a man. I thought a man had broken into our room! So I hid under my covers freaking out, for about an hour before I had the guts to look again. The second time I looked, he was still here. He was in the same spot, just looking at me blankly. This time he was holding a white poster, and it looked like it had some kind of scribbly writing on it, but I couldn’t understand what it said. I went back under the covers until about 6:00 am, and when I checked again, he was gone. I never felt that he was mean, or a bad presence was in the room, it just was. I told my roommates and friends about a few days later, and my friend who is a senior here said that I saw the “top hat man.” When I looked him up online, the description matched the man that I saw."
That’s all the stories I’ll share from Colby-Sawyer’s Tumblr page, however, there are a few more stories available for those who are interested. As said before, look for the link to the article version. It will be listed in the resources section.
I tried looking for additional information for subjects that were briefly covered in this video already, but came up short. Such things as Colby Sawyer apparently being an orphanage at one point. Remember that part with the ghost children from Colgate Hall. They claim it was an orphanage at one point. I could not find any resources saying it ever was an orphanage. There was also a bit about a student killing themselves by leaping out a window, and the window was bricked up. I couldn’t find anything more on that. It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, but I just couldn’t find any additional information on these topics.
Regardless, there’s plenty of colleges in New Hampshire, however, I think it’s safe to say Colby-Sawyer College could very well be the most haunted college in the Granite State. If you don’t think so, and know of another that beats Colby-Sawyer, let me know in the comments by sending me an email and I may make a video on it in the future. Until next time, Graveyard Disciples, keep it scary.
Videos resources:
A New Home for the School of Nursing & Health Sciences
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