First there is a strange rumbling that could just be the heater making weird noises. Next there is banging, which could be mistaken for people moving around in surrounding rooms. Then a WHAM, BOOM, and then a swishing noise sounding like something is being dragged across the room.
Sound like a scene from a Halloween haunted house? How about Dolan Hall?
Stephanie DiTerlizzi ’05, who lived in Dolan during the 2001-02 school year, heard these noises.
The first time she heard them she was alone in her room and she ran out into the hall to see if anyone else had heard it. One resident was in the hall looking at her bewildered because she looked so terrified.
“I asked him if he had heard the noises too. He looked at me like I was nuts,” said DiTerlizzi.
After settling down she went back into the room only to have the same thing happen again. Her reaction was the same, she screamed and ran into the hall.
“I had been outside of the room for a while,” said Jay Lambert ’05. “All of a sudden I heard a scream and I saw Steph run out. She asked me if I heard the noises. I hadn’t. It did not make any sense that I would hear her scream but not hear the loud noises that made her scream.”
Lambert also had experiences of his own living in Dolan Hall. While visiting a neighboring room Lambert described what he heard as sounding like someone had taken a sledgehammer and slammed it in the radiator.
“I could feel the vibrations from the noise go through my body,” Lambert said.
The noise was so loud that Lambert, along with Amy Gasiorowski ’05, Rob Garcia ’05, and Erin Gray ’05 were convinced that others would have had to have heard it.
The group was wrong. The girl next door had not heard a thing.
Dolan Hall was formerly a nunnery before Fairfield University became a university in 1942. The story that has been passed down is that there was a nun who one day found out she was pregnant. Obviously this is not allowed, so the nun committed suicide.
The nun moved some furniture into the middle of the room to give her something to jump off of. She prepared a noose and fastened it to the ceiling. Supposedly she did not make the rope short enough causing her to hit the ground when she jumped. She then swung back and forth from the rope until her death.
“I have heard of two hauntings on campus,” said Jim Fitzpatrick, assistant vice president of student services. “One in Dolan Hall where the ghost of a nun who roams the hall … I’ve never seen either.”
“I haven’t heard about any hauntings in Dolan,” said Nancy Habetz, director of media relations in the public relations office, “I used to hear this about McAuliffe, maybe the stories have spread north.”
But students still stick by their stories.
“Why are people moving furniture at three in the morning?” Brian Hess ’05 asked himself while laying in his top bunk trying to go to sleep.
His bunk was close enough to the ceiling that he could touch it. He was awoken one night by something that sounded like furniture being moved. He decided to ignore it and go talk to the students living there the next morning.
“The next morning I walk up there, and the room was vacant. There was no one there at all and there hadn’t been the night before,” said Hess.
That was not the last time he would hear these noises.
Many students who have lived in Dolan have become much more interested in the supernatural. Two weeks ago, the Warrens came to Fairfield to dicuss the most haunted places on earth along with ways to hunt ghosts and what to do if a ghost is haunting you.
During the question and answer portion, Jack Kershaw ’05 raised his hand asking a question about hauntings in Dolan Hall at Fairfield University. Elaine Warren looked a little surprised and responded with, “I am not allowed to talk about that,” and quickly jumped to the next question, said Kershaw.
“The woman told us that they had spent a night in Dolan Hall, but left before the night was over,” said Lambert. “She told us that it was haunted but she had signed an agreement with the Jesuits saying she would not talk about it.” Others such as Hess and David Parrot ’05 were also there and were told the same thing.
“I don’t know any of the stories,” said Rev. James Mayzik, S.J. “Each year I do hear students tell tales, but they seem to be invented anew every year. Haunting stories are always fun to tell and hear, especially late at night when the lights are low and the mood is right for some good scaring! I’m a bit more skeptical than some others when it comes to ghost stories. Ido know that students seem to love them and believe more readily than me!”
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