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| Shirreff Hall. (Nick Pearce Photo) |
One dark and stormy nightâwell, badly-lit and mildly windy afternoonâI stood in front of Shirreff Hall, looking for a ghost.
For a long time, the only legend Iâd heard about Shirreff Hall was that it had the best cafeteria food on campus. Then somebody told me about Penelopeâthe beautiful, ethereal spirit âin a blue dressâ who haunts Shirreffâs halls.
Penelopeâs tale is simple. A heartbroken young maid hung herself in the Shirreff bell-tower in the 1920s. Being a day student, and not having to share a Shirreff res room with a restless spirit, I didnât pay the story much thought. Then, as Halloween rolled around, I began to wonderâwhat is afoot in Shirreff Hall? I did some sleuthing and, before I knew it, I was marching up Shirreffâs steps, ready to get to the bottom of Penelopeâs tragic tale.
The first person I interviewed was Mateo Yorke, Shirreffâs facilities manager. Heâs an expert on Dalhousieâs most infamous ghost story. âI was a student here at Dal, originally. Even then, I heard stories of the ghost of Shirreff Hall.â
Who was Penelope before she took to haunting Shirreffâs halls? âMost versions (of the story) have it taking place in the 1920s, pretty soon after the building was opened,â Mr. Yorke says. â(Penelope) was a staff member⊠a young woman who had a tryst of some sort with a professor, and upon finding herself pregnant and him unwilling to help her, she hung herself in the bell tower.â He pauses. âWhich isnât really a bell tower,â he adds. âItâs part of the attic.â
Mr. Yorke is a skeptic. âThereâs different versions of the story, which is your first clue that there might not be a whole lot of substance to them.â So whatâs Dalhousieâs official public-relations policy on Penelope? âThe official story is that none of this actually took place. No person. No storyâŠI was hoping that there was a historical person named Penelope, and at least the story behind the ghost had some credibility, but Iâm told no.â
Among Shirreffâs students, however, Penelope has plenty of followers. âShe hung herself in the tower, because her boyfriend was out to sea and she never heard from him, and blah blah blah,â is how Ashley Stead, a first-year sciences student and Shirreff resident, relates the tale. Donât be deceived by Ms. Steadâs flippant adaptation of the legendâshe knows somethingâs strange about Shirreff Hall. She had a brush with the supernatural just last week. âI was waking up a couple of times throughout the night, and it was really warm even though the heat was off and my window was open, and my phone (was) making a hideous noise,â she relates breathlessly. âI hear something fall on the floor⊠my phone charger fell out of the socket! The charger just physically fell on the floor.â
Her friends have also had close calls with Shirreff spirits. âMy friend Nicole was telling me that she woke up in the middle of the night â sheâd had her computer turned off and flipped down â she woke up, and her computer was on⊠she didnât sleep for the rest of the night, because she knew something was going on.â Another of Ashleyâs friends had problems with a shaky window. âThe window had fallen out of the frame onto her desk. The windâs blowing right in â it shut her laptop completely!â
As Halloween creeps up, Shirreffâs clearly getting jittery. But Mr. Yorke says no one needs to sleep with one eye open. âPenelope is benevolent,â he explains. âSheâs not here to scare or intimidate or frighten anyone.â
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âI donât think sheâs very harmful,â Ms. Stead agreesâthen pauses. âBut if you think about it⊠if she hung herself because of her boyfriend, or whatever, she must be a little bit hating on the world, right?â
Mr. Yorke does agree that there is at least one very serious side-effect attached to encountering Penelope. âOne person told me that seeing Penelope was kind of a warning that you were going to have your heart broken.â The ghost canât be too opposed to romance, howeverâShirreff went co-ed four years ago, with nary a peep from its ghostly resident. âShe didnât strike up a band, and kick the boys out, or anything.â
In fact, Mr. Yorke says Penelope hasnât been very active lately at all; he hasnât heard any recent stories. Despite all Ashleyâs ghostly tales, it seems that Penelope is the invention of youthful imaginations.
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âOn my first day, when I arrived at Shirreff Hall as facilities manager,â begins Mr. Yorke quietly, leaning forward, âI heard something. I heard this voice say âhelloâ that I couldnât explain.â He laughs uneasily. âI just kind of stopped in my tracks for a minute and then just⊠didnât say anything for half an hour.â
You be the judge.