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Students and faculty of Olivet College have heard stories of piano playing ghosts, trolls, and creepy basements, or even experienced something spooky themselves. And 94% of visitors to the Olivet College page on the website hauntedplaces.org voted the campus a haunted place.
Dole Hall is a large source of that speculation, due largely to its location. Dole sits on top of the same place that the old cemetery once sat and is now next to the new one. According to the article “Ghostbuster Homer” by Dudley Williams, room 307 of the third floor is especially active as it is allegedly inhabited by Eileen Gratiot. Gratiot is believed to have died in the 1950s and may or may not have been a student, according to Williams.
Sarah Cook, a sophomore living on the third floor of Dole for the third semester shared a few odd occurrences during her time living there, including instances of her door opening and slamming on its own, hearing weird noises at one or two in the morning, the feeling of unease in the basement of Dole, as well as things in her room moving unexpectedly to new places especially.
“I tend to sing in my room a lot. I’m a music major, and I feel like they probably got irritated. I was laying in bed one night; my dressers are underneath my bed, and I had my folder of music sitting on top of my dresser, underneath my bed. I was on the other side of my bed and there was no way that I could have moved it or anything, but my folder of music flew out from under my bed and onto my floor,” said Cook during a recorded interview.
Despite Cooks’ experience, not all the ghosts on campus dislike music.
Taylor Wilsey, sophomore, and co-host of the podcast “Shooting False Realities” believes that the Olivet campus is haunted. During the preparation her podcasts fourth episode Wilsey and her co-host, researched paranormal experiences that occurred at Olivet College.
“After doing my research, I found that Dole and the third floor of the Conservatory are the most haunted places on campus,” said Wilsey during a recorded interview. “The recurring story that I’ve always heard is about the piano on the third floor of the Conservatory. It’s Margret Upton. She always goes up to the piano and she’ll play.”
Julia Mellinger, junior, and co-host of the same podcast, had personal experiences with the paranormal on campus.
“I'm a videographer for the upcoming movie "Let Me Out" by Caleb Arthur. One-night while working in the cemetery, around sundown, a big black dog... I'm talking bear size, came busting out of the woods, ran around, then vanished behind a tree. (Ryan could tell you about it too),” said Mellinger in an email.