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Bradford College, Bradford, Massachusetts – 11 March 2000
HAUNTED TUNNELS BENEATH BRADFORD COLLEGE
Our next stop was in the tunnels, which connect several of the main buildings. I think we entered them from the Campus Center, but I don’t know the buildings, and I was still musing over the odd room we’d been in, on the Academy’s fourth floor.
(The Campus Center may have been haunted, probably by something playful, but there were students in the area. A full investigation was impossible.)
As we reached the basement level, I sensed one of those silly green ghosts, like the Slimer from the Ghostbusters movies. The atmosphere was light and playful, and fun.
However, the tunnels–one more level down–were dark and eerie. In one of them, I “saw” a girl running in the darkness, and I sensed that she was afraid of rape. I felt nauseous.
Afterwards, James said that he’d been hit in the gut by the energy in the tunnel, too. He’s generally a skeptic who experiences very little on ghost hunts.
(See my photos at Bradford College – Tunnel Orbs.)
While in the tunnel, we met a couple of people. One of them was a young man who later made a documentary about the Bradford ghost stories before the school closed its doors forever. (Bradford College’s accreditation lapsed, and filed bankruptcy.)
This was our first of two visits to the tunnels that day.
OTHER TUNNELS
Bradford College’s tunnels are famous for their connection to the H.P. Lovecraft stories of the Necronomicon. Although Lovecraft’s book is reportedly fiction, there has been speculation about a real Necronomicon. Lovecraft did have a connection to Bradford College.
According to college lore, Lovecraft was dating a girl from the college, and she helped him find an unused tunnel (beneath Tupelo Pond) in which to bury the evil book called “the Necronomicon.”
Later, that tunnel was sealed off from the maze of tunnels beneath Bradford College.
NEXT STOP: DENWORTH HALL AND THEATRE
We continued to Denworth Theatre, where I was certain we’d find almost no energy beyond normal poltergeist phenomena.
I was about 98% sure that the ghostly girl reported there was just legend, started when someone incorrectly repeated the “Amy and the priest” stories, and placed her in the theatre, not the Academy.
I anticipated a quick visit to the theatre, with little activity. I was anxious to visit Tupelo West, where the pendulum had indicated the most hauntings.
I was very, very mistaken, and I hope I never underestimate a “ghost story” again.
Read that story next: Real Ghosts in Denworth Hall
As a junior when Bradfird closed I am enjoying your account of the campus ghosts & they match up with some of my experiences as an academy resident & theater major.
However – Bradford did NOT loose it’s accreditation. In fact it had just received notice of it’s reneawl before the closing was announced.
Colleges that lose their accreditation don’t make an announcement about their intent to close due to financial issues in late November 1999 & than host a graduation to issue degrees the following May 2000.
The accreditation lapsed when they no longer had a viable campus. They where able to issue degrees (& did for some of the students in my class) atleast until May if 2001 by accepting transfer credits from other colleges.
We have so little left – please correct this unintentional smere. People are still trying to get jobs with their degrees.
I’ll correct the article, and I appreciate that the difference between “lapsed” and “lost” is important to you, but it wasn’t a “smere.” (I’m pretty sure you meant smear.)
The emphasis of this website is haunted places, not the rhetoric used in relation to peripheral topics.
I attended Bradford from 1999-2000. I utterly loathed those creepy tunnels with their creepy demonic graffiti and used to sprint through them every night back to my dorm in Academy Hall after leaving the computer lab when it closed at 11 pm (or was it 11:30? It’s been many years now). This feels utterly bonkers… but is it possible that I could have left that energetic imprint of fear that you saw? If so, it was entirely paranoia on my part, as I was never accosted, though I certainly did fear that possibility as the tunnels were so isolated. I did, however, have a creepy encounter with the priest from the Amy and the priest story. I never had any encounters with the spirit in Denworth, but the few times I went into that building for class-related purposes, it creeped me out. The whole campus was a pile of nasty vibes.
SarahM: Saying that “campus was a pile of nasty vibes” is being very charitable. I went there from 1980 – 1981 and spent a little time in some buildings and a lot of time in Tupelo East (where my dorm room was). that dorm was haunted by something that can’t be told about here (it’s a long story) but for a full account of what myself (and possibly a few others who also lived there) saw there can be sent to your e-mail. there was a room in the Academy building over the dinning hall or maybe the dance room that supposedly was haunted by a person who hung themselves many years before. I remember going there once and you had to walk down a little staircase as the room was “sunken”. bad vibes in that room and I felt them as soon as I entered it and not even knowing what had happened there.
My Bradford College experience was all studies,work (worked in kitchen, flipped burgers at Wendy’s and moved merchandise at Service Merchandise) Since I grew up in Boston many international students (from Carribean, Africa and Japan wanted to get to know the Greater Boston Area) I helped them. I fell for a Japanese exchange study. (she will remain nameless) She did not feel the same towards me. No matter it was the best year of my college experience.