Healy Hall Haunts of Georgetown University

Ghosts of Scary DC Blog 13 Healy Hall Haunts of Georgetown University
© 2018 by Dr. Philip Ernest Schoenberg, Ghost with a Blog #ghosts

Healy Hall of Georgetown University at 37th St NW & O St NW has experienced its share of haunting. Healy Hall is the historic flagship building at the main campus of Georgetown University. The building was built during the presidency of Patrick Francis Healy after whom it is named. The construction of the building, from 1877 to 1879, dramatically increased the amount of classroom and living space – at the time it was also used as a dormitory – of what was then a small liberal arts college.

Tales of tormented spirits wandering the mysterious fifth floor of Georgetown University’s Healy Hall have been a part of campus lore for as far back as anyone can remember. The high Victorian design of the building, which was constructed in the late 1870’s during the presidency of Patrick Healy, lends itself to speculation about secret sealed-off floors and ghostly inhabitants. Officially, the fifth floor of Healy Hall does not, and never did, exist. The legends and many past and present students, however, say differently, pointing to the fifth floor as the source of frequent supernatural moaning and wailing.

Two of the most popular Healy Hall legends reach back to the earliest days when Georgetown was a liberal arts college. According to one tale, a young Jesuit student accidentally opened the Gates of the Underworld when reading forbidden chants in a book about exorcism. A second tale involves another Jesuit, who was crushed to death by the hands of the clock while working in the clock tower. Other Georgetown ghost stories tell of trapped spirits lost for eternity in the University’s underground tunnel system.