Haunted Bowdoin College

Bowdoin College boasts two centuries in higher education, and that rich history is laden with curious tales and ghostly happenings. Eerie legends about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Joshua Chamberlain and other distinguished graduates are still whispered in the halls of their alma mater. A dungeon complete with skulls and skeletons hidden beneath Appleton Hall plays to society's darkest fears about secret college societies. The many untimely deaths at Hubbard Hall lend credence to its haunted reputation. Misfortunes of Coleman Hall residents might have a connection with the building's site atop the remnants of the long-closed Medical School of Maine. Author David Francis reveals Bowdoin's spooky and maybe even ghostly history.

Bowdoin College IT developer David Francis started leading tours of Bowdoin's hauntings in 2005. He researched in archives, newspapers and books, and asked employees for historical ghostly information. Just in time for Halloween 2005, David had amassed enough information to give his first tour. David created a mobile version of the tour and he has worked with the local Pejepscot Historical Society to build their Joshua L. Chamberlain's Bowdoin online tour. Erica Ostermann attended one of the first ghost tours of Bowdoin College as a student in 2005. She graduated from Bowdoin in 2006 and now serves as assistant dean of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.