Dust off your backpacks and sharpen your pencils—these Texas classrooms still hold more than chalk dust. From abandoned campuses where echoes of recess never faded to historic schoolhouses with restless night watchmen, Texas’s haunted schools offer spine-tingling history, local lore, and an education in the uncanny. Whether you crave EVP hunts in creaky gymnasiums or guided twilight tours through century-old halls, this guide will map out the most eerie alma maters across the Lone Star State.
1. ANGELO STATE UNIVERSITY — San Angelo
Founded in 1928, Angelo State University started as San Angelo College, a two-year junior college run through the San Angelo Independent School District. It was elevated to Angelo State College in 1965, and it awarded its first bachelor's degrees in 1967. The university joined the Texas State University System in 1975 and moved under the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents in 2007. Fittingly, the campus building at the center of its most famous ghost story — Hardeman Hall — is named for the same senator who helped create the university.
The Central Ghost Story: Leandra Morales and Hardeman Hall
This one has real documentation behind it, not just campus legend. On the night of April 22, 1978, a student named Robert Mark Wagner called San Angelo police saying he'd found a body in Room 200 of the Hardeman Building (which was once home to the campus photo lab). Upon arrival, police discovered freshman Leandra Morales viciously beaten and stabbed three times. Wagner claimed he'd heard moaning as he was leaving the photo lab and found her struggling to breath. Investigators were doubtful and, by the next morning, Wagner had confessed. He was convicted and sentenced to 25 years.
Employees have since reported a variety of paranormal experiences including footsteps in empty hallways, a man and woman arguing faintly, and a ghostly figure on the staircase. Staff and students in Hardeman Hall have described:
Footsteps in empty hallways
The sounds of arguing between a man and a woman, heard with no one around
A ghostly female figure with dark hair in a white dress, often seen late at night
Radios turning on by themselves (even while unplugged) and elevators moving with no one operating them
Visiting
ASU is a public university campus in San Angelo, open to walk around during the day. Hardeman Hall is a functioning academic building, so you can view it and walk the halls during normal operating hours, though it's an active office/classroom space rather than a tourist stop.
2. SALADO COLLEGE RUINS — Salado
Salado College was founded in February 1860, as one of the coeducational degree-granting school — unusual for the era — and it opened entirely without any church or state funding. Classes started in a temporary building in February 1860 with 75 students; the permanent two-story building had its cornerstone laid July 1865. The Panic of 1873 and the rise of state-funded colleges gutted enrollment, and Colonel Elijah Sterling Clack Robertson Robertson had to personally buy the college in 1877 to save it from foreclosure. He died in 1879, the state charter lapsed in 1880, and the college closed for good in 1885.
The building then became the private school Thomas Arnold High School from 1890 until it closed in 1913, then a public school until 1924. That's when its luck ran out for good: fires in 1901 and 1902 (each time it was rebuilt), then a final fire in 1924 destroyed it. The town couldn't afford to rebuild thereby ending the life and story of the school. Only the west wall and part of the east wall survived. The ruins were later stabilized, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, and the site — Salado College Park — is now open to the public.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
Salado College doesn't have a well-documented, specific ghost story attached to it (no named apparition, no dated incident). I spoke with a couple of locals while out and about who told me they had heard about light anomalies, shadows, and inexplicable sounds coming from among the ruins. What exists is more atmospheric folklore:
The "suspicious" fires — Local legend in Salado has long described the 1901, 1902, and 1924 fires as suspicious, with arson suspected but never proven. That unresolved mystery is the closest thing to a "legend" tied directly to the ruins although locals have since speculated about the cause of the fires.
Salado's broader haunted reputation — The town itself punches well above its weight in Texas ghost lore, most famously around the Stagecoach Inn just across the street. The college ruins get swept into general "Salado is haunted" roundups and ghost-town lists, but without a specific reported apparition or incident tied to the site itself.
Visiting
Kiddo and I visited the ruins easily as we stayed at the Stagecoach Inn across the street. Salado College Park (423 S. Main St., Salado, TX) is free and open to the public, walking distance from the town's shops and restaurants. It's a straightforward daytime stop — no tours needed, just the stabilized ruins on their hilltop setting.
3. SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY (AUSTIN HALL) — Huntsville
Sam Houston State University's roots go back further than its founding year. Its campus was originally home to Austin College, a Presbyterian institution whose main building — Austin Hall — was constructed in 1851, making it the oldest university building still in operation west of the Mississippi. When Austin College relocated to Sherman, Texas in 1876, the vacated campus and building became available, hence the start of SHSU.
Classes began that October with 110 students and four faculty members however the school's first president, Bernard Mallon, died just eleven days after opening. SHSU is now the third-oldest public institution of higher learning in Texas, and Austin Hall — inherited from Austin College — remains its oldest building.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
Austin Hall — The oldest, most storied building on campus has multiple supernatural reports: a maid reportedly seen in a 3rd floor window; a young boy said to appear in the same window; and claims that the spirit of Sam Houston himself walks the halls.
Peabody Library — Widely called the "most haunted" building on campus, reports include seeing an apparition of a woman in a long, high-necked black dress, styled like the early 20th century. Her identity is unknown since her face is never quite visible however she is believed to be one of the school's early librarians.
Belvin-Buchanan Hall and Elliott Hall — Campus lore attaches unverified accounts of a female student's suicide to Belvin-Buchanan, and a young woman's murder to Elliott Hall.
Visiting
SHSU is a public university campus in Huntsville, open to walk around during normal hours. Austin Hall and Peabody are functioning academic buildings rather than tourist stops, so you can view and walk past them, but there's no formal ghost tour. This is more of a "wander campus and admire the oldest building west of the Mississippi" thing.
4. SOUTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY — Georgetown
Southwestern University holds the title of oldest university in Texas, with roots tracing to 1840. The school opened in its permanent home of Georgetown in October 1873, and the Texas Legislature formally chartered it under the Southwestern name in 1875. It's the second-oldest coeducational liberal arts college west of the Mississippi and, at 180-plus years old, it's had plenty of time to accumulate campus ghost lore.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
Mabee Hall (dorm) — Reports include feeling something touching them, and hearing disembodied voices.
Mood-Bridwell Hall — Named for Dr. Francis A. Mood, the university's first Regent. Legend tells us that his wife Sue was buried in the cemetery behind campus but his friends believed the couple should be at rest together. So, as the story goes, they secretly moved his remains in the middle of night and reinterred him beside her (although there is no historical record that actually confirms this). Today the nearly 120-plus-year-old building has a reputation for doors that creak open and slam shut on their own.
Brown-Cody Hall — Student reports include seeing shadows and hearing a tennis ball bouncing on the floor above every night at 3 a.m. — the "witching hour" — with no one ever found upstairs.
Clark Hall — A common report is seeing a woman with glowing hair in a white nightgown on the third floor, who who walks silently and vanishes into a wall.
Visiting
Southwestern is a private university campus in Georgetown, open to walk around during the day. The residence halls (Mabee, Brown-Cody, Clark) aren't open to outside visitors, but Mood-Bridwell and other academic buildings are viewable/walkable as part of general campus access.
5. ST. EDWARDS'S UNIVERSITY — Austin
St. Edward's University traces to 1872, when Bishop Claude Dubuis of Galveston learned that a woman by the name of Mary Doyle intended to leave most of her 498-acre South Austin farm to the Catholic Church for an educational institution. He invited Reverend Edward Sorin — the same Holy Cross priest who founded the University of Notre Dame — to Texas, and Sorin established St. Edward's Academy on the farmland in 1877. For its first decade it was a modest, homespun school. That changed in 1885 with an official college charter.
St. Edward’s had a rough run: a major fire destroyed most of it in 1903 (rebuilt by that fall), then it was beaten and battered by a tornado. The university remained an all-male, Holy Cross-run institution for decades before opening to women in 1966 through a separate school, Maryhill College. It subsequently fully merged into St. Edward's in 1970, making the university coeducational. Today it's Austin's only Catholic university and one of the more architecturally striking campuses in the state — no surprise it's accumulated a dense cluster of ghost stories.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
The Falling Monk of Main Building — The most iconic of St. Edward's legends. While painting one of the upper floors of Main, a gust of wind reportedly pulled a monk's canvas out an open third-floor window; it is said he lunged for it and he fell to his death. Students report hearing moans and wailing from the top floor and sometimes describe a shadow figure.
The Trampled Student — This is one of the university's oldest stories dating back to 1877. A student was reportedly struck and killed by a horse-drawn carriage on what is now a campus road. Students driving that stretch at night have described hearing horses followed by a loud thud, as if their wheels just passed over something.
Mary Moody Northern Theatre — One story holds that a female student took her own life in the theater after being assaulted on campus; another story tells of a young man who hanged himself, with witnesses reporting the sound and sight of a body swinging on ropes that aren't actually there. Other experiences reported are shadows walking into walls, and a sense of being watched.
Theresa Hall — A child apparition, described as 10-12 years old with long black hair and a white dress has been reported to approach students and ask if they want to play. Some people believe her name is Danielle. Other reports include hearing whispers and seeing lights flicking on and off.
Doyle/East Hall's Protective Nun — It is believed to be haunted by a nun who reportedly opposed the school's decision to make her all-girls dorm co-ed. It is thought that she turns on showers and generally causes trouble for male residents.
Premont/Dujarie Hall — It is said someone died after slipping in the showers, but his body was not discovered for a week. The ghost is blamed for slamming doors and turning on showers.
Basil Moreau Hall's Shadow Figure — Students report a shadow-person glimpsed only peripherally, and who often becomes hostile if spoken to directly.
Visiting
St. Edward's is a private university campus, open to walk around during the day. Main Building and the Mary Moody Northern Theatre are viewable as part of general campus access, and the theater hosts public performances if you want a legitimate reason to be inside after dark. Residence halls aren't open to outside visitors.
Looking for a ghost tour in Austin? Check out Original Austin Ghost Tours!
6. TOYAH HIGH SCHOOL — Toyah (ghost town)
Toyah began in 1879 when W.T. Youngblood moved his family from Midland and set up a tent trading post. The Texas and Pacific Railway arrived in 1881, transforming Toyah into a boomtown of tents, saloons, and restaurants. In 1885, a drunk Reeves County sheriff was shot dead by Texas Rangers in a saloon gunfight that also resulted in the death of one of the Rangers. In 1896, former seriff George "Bud" Frazer was shotgunned to death mid-card-game by his rival "Killin'" Jim Miller, ending a long feud. In 1906, a Black man named "Slab" Pitts was lynched by a mob for living with/marrying a white woman. In addition, Toyah had barred Black residents from living within 180 miles of town, and this was a hate-driven murder, not folklore. You can find more info at Lynching of “Slab” Pitts.
The town's first school opened in 1894 as a one-room building. A large brick school was subsequently built in 1912 that served as both elementary and high school. By 1914, Toyah had peaked at almost 1,100 residents with churches, banks, and hotel. Toyah then lost its shipping business to nearby Toyahvale, and the Great Depression gutted the population further……down to approximately 500 by 1930, and 150 by 1980. A catastrophic 2004 storm dumped eight inches of rain in two hours, breached the town's dike, and flooded the remaining buildings in town. Today Toyah has roughly 50 residents at the time of this article, with the old high school standing hollow-eyed and roofless.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
Toyah High School's central legend involves "black-eyed children" — entities said to wander Toyah's empty streets at night staring into windows of the town's last few remaining residents. Toyah is one of the specific Texas locations where it's attached to a real, physically decaying building rather than just an anecdote.
Abandoned homes, various deserted businesses, and rusted-out cars give it a post-apocalyptic atmosphere that lands it on Texas "most spooky abandoned places" lists.
Visiting
This one comes with real caveats. Toyah is a nearly-abandoned private town, not a managed historic site — there's no formal tour, no protective fencing, and structures are in active decay (collapsed roofs, broken glass). Photographers who've visited note it's technically accessible from public streets, but urban exploration here carries real risk, and a lot of what remains is still private property.
I encourage you to take photos from the outside rather than enter the school. This site is dangerous. PLEASE EXERCISE CAUTION AND COMMON SENSE IF YOU CHOOSE TO DO ANYTHING MORE THAN PHOTOS FROM THE OUTSIDE!
7. STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY — Nacogdoches
Stephen F. Austin State University was created by the Texas Legislature on March 2, 1915, designated to honor Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas." The campus sits on part of the homestead of Thomas Jefferson Rusk, another Texas founding father, adding another layer of Texas history to the ground itself.
The school opened on September 18, 1923, with 158 students, initially using Nacogdoches public school facilities until its own campus was ready in May 1924. Today SFA is one of only four public universities in Texas that remains independent of the state's larger university systems.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
Chester of Griffith Theatre — SFA's most famous and most affectionately regarded ghost. Chester haunts the Turner Fine Arts Auditorium in the Griffith Theatre Building, with sightings going back to 1967. Some say Chester was a construction worker who fell to his death while Griffith was being built. Theater students describe him as a mischievous prankster, blaming him for lights and equipment malfunctioning mid-rehearsal. Other reported experiences include cold spots, unexplained footsteps, a light anomalies appearing in the darkened auditorium.
Griffith Hall (dorm) — Campus legend holds that a female student died by suicide, jumping from a third-floor window after using a Ouija board. Residents report the shower room lights flickering, her apparition appearing at the end of the hall, and disembodied footsteps running down the south wing in the wee hours of the morning. The building's elevator is said to reliably skip the third floor — the floor where the incident is said to have occurred.
Mays Hall — It is said this building was once a hospital with a morgue in the basement (when the campus operated as a military training site) before it became a residence hall, although some sources dispute whether the morgue claim is accurate. Reports here are cold spots and an intense sense of unease tied to the building's institutional past. There is also a rumored 1940s-era ruined bomb shelter onsite.
Visiting
SFA is a public university campus in Nacogdoches, open to walk around during the day. Griffith Theatre hosts public performances, so you can actually have a chance at experiencing Chester's pranks by attending a show. The residence halls (Griffith Hall, Mays Hall) aren't open to outside visitors, but they're viewable from the outside as part of normal campus access.
8. TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY (OLD MAIN) — San Marcos
Old Main is Texas State's founding building, and until 1908 it was the entire campus. Construction began in 1902 on Chautauqua Hill (now the heart of the university), with Governor Sayers on hand to lay the cornerstone. The building opened for the first classes on September 9, 1903, with a faculty of 18 and 300 students enrolled.
The second floor originally held a large auditorium with an ornate cathedral ceiling, and a stage used for assemblies, plays, and presentations. Old Main was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and a 1993–94 restoration returned its distinctive red-gabled roof to its original color and style. Today students know it as the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the College of Fine Arts.
The Ghost Story: The Lady in White
Campus legend holds that in 1908, a young woman fell — or jumped — from the then-open third-floor balcony. One story says she discovered her boyfriend was killed while serving in World War I and she couldn’t handle her grief. Another version of the story says she was a student who died by suicide after failing her classes. Regardless, whether she jumped or fell has never been settled or proven.
Students todayreport seeing a woman in a white on the third floor — the same floor where the fall reportedly happened. Sightings and unexplained sounds around that floor are common enough that the "Lady in White" has become a fixture of Texas State's campus ghost stories.
Visiting
Old Main sits on a public university campus and is viewable and walkable anytime.
9. OLDE PARK HOTEL — Ballinger
The Olde Park Hotel has worn nearly every hat a small Texas building can wear. Built in the 1880’s, it is believed it served as a bunkhouse/lodging for railroad workers and cowboys. It later became the Three Sisters Hotel followed by becoming a general store, meeting hall, courthouse, boarding house, saloon, medical facility, funeral parlor, and a brothel over the years. It may have also served as a bootlegging site during Prohibition. Local legend even places outlaw John Wesley Hardin spending some time in its saloon, though that has yet to be proven or validated.
The Keel family purchased the property in 1922 and gave it the name it carries today: Olde Park Hotel. In more recent years it passed to owners Dan and Connie Lafave, who opened it to the public for ghost tours and overnight stays, and as of 2025 ownership shifted again to Chad and Leslie Wandel, who've taken on restoring the building.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
The Lady in White / Phantom Lady — The hotel's signature apparition, seen drifting through hallways in a Victorian-style gown. Some people believe she was a guest who met an untimely end, others believe her to be a part of the hotel's brothel past.
Room 4 — Guests report a sudden temperature drop, an overwhelming sense of being watched, unexplained knocking on the door and walls, and electromagnetic field (EMF) readings that spike without cause or explanation.
The Doll Room — The hotel boasts a number of "haunted" dolls that appear to move on their own. The room is often described as one of the most unsettling rooms in the building.
Sounds and physical activity — Heavy footsteps described as sounding like cowboy boots, men voices, women's voices, doors that open, close, and lock on their own, and reports of guests being touched.
Visiting
Unlike most of the sites on this list, the Olde Park Hotel operates as a working paranormal attraction offering public ghost tours and overnight stays. It's been featured on multiple paranormal shows, so it's a legitimate location. My team and I have been there multiple times and I imagine we will stay there again.
10. BAYLOR UNIVERSITY (CARROLL SCIENCE HALL) — Waco
Baylor University is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas, chartered by the Republic of Texas on February 1, 1845 — signed into law by President Anson Jones. It grew out of an 1841 push by Robert E. B. Baylor, James Huckins, and William Milton Tryon to establish a Baptist university in Texas. The school opened in 1846 in Independence, Texas, with preparatory classes starting that May and full college coursework following in June. Baylor subsequently relocated to Waco in 1886. Main Building (1887) and Georgia Burleson Hall (1888) were the first two structures raised on the new Waco campus and remain today.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
Carroll Science Hall — The Ghost of Rufus Burleson — President Rufus C. Burleson oversaw construction of Carroll Science Hall, but died before it was completed. Students have reported seeing his apparition on the building's staircase.
Armstrong Browning Library — The library holds personal possessions of poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and her ghost is said to appear at various points on the second floor. Legend says, an electrician was crushed to death when an elevator he was working on plunged from an upper floor. He is the one blamed for the elevator's persistent malfunctions and reported activity in the basement.
Brooks Residence Hall — In the early 20th century, a student who regularly played violin on the fifth floor reportedly died of the flu. Afterward, students in the hall repeatedly heard violin music with no legitimate cause.
Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — Located near campus in Waco, this museum houses Bonnie and Clyde's actual guns alongside the weapon of the Texas Ranger who helped ambush them. Staff have reported hearing disembodied footsteps, seeing shadows, and hearing the sound of firearms clicking at night.
Visiting
Baylor is a private university campus in Waco, open to walk around during the day. The historic Quadrangle (including Georgia Burleson Hall and the area around Carroll Science) is publicly accessible, and Armstrong Browning Library operates as a public research library and museum with regular visiting hours. Brooks Residence Hall remains an active dorm and isn't open to outside visitors. The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum is a separate public attraction that requires ticket purchase if you want to round out a Waco haunted-history trip.
11. UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN (LITTLEFIELD HOUSE) — Austin
The University of Texas was created by the Texas Constitution of 1876 but didn't open until 1883. The cornerstone of the original Main Building was laid in November 1882, and the university formally opened September 15, 1883.
One somber chapter belongs in any honest chronology of the campus: on August 1, 1966, a gunman opened fire from the observation deck of the UT Tower killing more than a dozen people in what's considered one of the first mass campus shootings in U.S. history. It remains a defining, tragic event in the university's story, and it's worth acknowledging with the respect and gravity it deserves rather than folding into ghost-story content.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
The Littlefield House — Built in 1893/1894 for cattle baron and Confederate veteran George Littlefield, the Victorian mansion sits on the northern edge of UT's campus and now houses university offices. UT's most enduringly "haunted" building, and unlike Old Main, this one isn't debunked. After George's death, Alice lived in the house another 15 years before bequeathing it to the university.
The hauntings attributed to it are extensive: unexplained piano music and singing (believed to be Alice, who was an accomplished pianist), objects moving on their own, an apparition believed to be a former housekeeper, and faces have been observed in various windows. Alice reportedly suffered severe anxiety and paranoid episodes later in life. Legend says she was confined to her home for her own safety, although there is nothing that validates or confirms it. Staff and visitors report seeing her apparition on the second floor and hearing disembodied footsteps on the stairs. The house is closed to the public today, used only for offices and university events.
The UT Tower — The Tower opened in 1937, standing just oveer 300 feet tall. On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman climbed to the 28th-floor observation deck and opened fire on the people below, killing 16 (later counted as 17 when a victim died decades on from his wounds, plus an unborn child) and wounding more than 32 — one of the first mass shootings on an American campus. He was killed by Austin police officers Houston McCoy and Ramiro Martinez.
The deck closed for a period of time for repairs, then it reopened. Sadly, the tower would see a string of suicides before the university closed the observation deck to the public permanently in 1974, citing both the shooting's legacy and the suicides. It stayed closed for almost 25 years until President Larry Faulkner reopened it in 1999 with the deck now enclosed by a webbed safety barrier. A memorial garden near the turtle pond lists the victims' names.
The haunted claims.
They're modest compared to other UT Austin sites you've covered. There have been reports that security guards stationed on the deck describe lights flickering and fading with no cause……..some guards allege they've had encounters with Whitman's spirit.
Visiting
UT Austin is a large public university campus, open to walk around during the day,. The Littlefield House sits at the northwest edge of campus at Whitis Avenue and West 24th Street — you can view its exterior and famous Himalayan cedar tree, but it's closed to public entry, used strictly for offices and events.
12. UNIVERSITY OF THE INCARNATE WORD — San Antonio
History
The University of the Incarnate Word traces back to 1869, when the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word came to San Antonio to help treat an ongoing cholera outbreak. The order chartered a Catholic women's college in 1881, and in 1897 purchased land from the George W. Brackenridge estate near the headwaters of the San Antonio River. The campus moved to its current Alamo Heights-area site around 1900, and the current Administration Building — the one at the center of the ghost stories — was completed in 1922. It's still the university's signature building and houses classrooms, and offices.
Ghost Stories
The Ghost Boy — On the third floor, people have long reported the sound and sight of a young boy playing with a ball, the sound of disembodied footsteps, and a man's voice talking and/or laughing.
The TB Quarantine Floor — The fourth floor once served as a tuberculosis quarantine ward. Students and staff describe it as noticeably colder than the rest of the building, flickering lights, and unpredictable elevators all attributed to patients who died there.
The Nun of Dubuis Hall — The most dramatic legend involves a nun said to have died by suicide in a fourth floor room. Some versions say she was distraught after becoming pregnant by a student. Her room was reportedly blessed by priests and sealed with cement, never reopened although the story has never been verified or confirmed. Reports of paranormal activity include hearing a woman’s cries, the feeling of being watched, unexplained scratching closet doors, and the feeling of someone sitting on the bed.
Visiting
UIW is a working university campus, open to the public during the day. The Administration Building and Dubuis Hall are visible/walkable as part of general campus access, though interiors (dorm floors especially) aren't open to outside visitors — this one's more of a "look, don't wander the halls uninvited" haunt than a tour.
Ghost and Historical Tours
San Antonio's Ultimate Ghost and Murder Walking Guided Tour
San Antonio Haunted Ghost Bus Tour
Small-Group World Heritage San Antonio Missions Guided Tour
13. SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY (DALLAS HALL) — Dallas
History
Southern Methodist University was chartered on April 17, 1911. Historians have since ranked SMU's founding among the most pivotal events in Dallas history. More than a century later, Dallas Hall remains the architectural and symbolic heart of campus, and it's also ground zero for SMU's best-known ghost lore.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
The Abandoned Room atop Dallas Hall — This is SMU's most enduring piece of campus mythology. High above the rotunda, reached by an elevated ramp circling the building's dome, sits a small room that once served as housing for a few male students in the university's earliest years. It has become something of a rite of passage with generations of students sneaking up to it over the years. Officially, the space is off-limits and genuinely unsafe but that hasn't stopped the tradition, or the persistent hope among some student ghost-hunters that something more is up there.
Fondren Library and the Ghost of Umphrey Lee — Legend holds that former SMU President Umphrey Lee died of a heart attack while working in his third-floor office at Fondren Library, and that his spirit now haunts the library's west stacks. A former SMU English professor confirmed in 2008 that Lee genuinely did die in the library while working on a book — so unlike some campus ghost stories, the death itself is documented fact. Whether his spirit lingers is, naturally, unconfirmed; skeptical students tend to chalk up "Fondren ghost" sightings to late-night sleep deprivation and finals-week stress rather than the supernatural.
The Campus Tunnels — The tunnels — a steam heating and venting tunnel system running mostly beneath the older, northern part of campus — have accumulated their own legend, including a story from a former HVAC technician who claimed to have found a skeleton down there — and, upon shining his flashlight closer, realized the "walls around him were moving," reportedly covered in ants. He supposedly grabbed the skull as evidence before fleeing. Students who've snuck into the tunnels describe them as narrow, damp, and catacomb-like, requiring crawling in some stretches.
Visiting
SMU is a private university campus in Dallas, open to walk around during the day, and Dallas Hall's ground floor and rotunda are publicly accessible as one of the campus's architectural centerpieces. The abandoned attic room and the steam tunnels are both officially off-limits and genuinely hazardous — not recommended, and explicitly discouraged by university staff — so this one's better suited to a "look, don't trespass" write-up unless you want to lean on secondhand student accounts rather than firsthand exploration.
Ghost and Historical Tours:
JFK Assassination Tour with Oswald's Rooming House
A True Crime Walking Tour Through Downtown Dallas
Haunted Dallas Booze and Boos Ghost Walking Tour
14. TERLINUA SCHOOL HOUSE RUINS — Terlingua (ghost town)
History
Perry School takes its name from Howard E. Perry, the Maine businessman who founded the Chisos Mining Company in 1903 and built Terlingua into one of the most productive mercury (quicksilver) mining operations in the country. Brewster County organized the town's first public school in 1907, with classes initially held in a makeshift tent-house structure. Terlingua's population hit around 1,000 to 2,000 residents by the 1910s, with a company store, hotel, doctor, and even erratic telephone service. The school could no longer serve the community so the company replaced the tent school with the permanent Perry School building in 1930.
Terlingua was a segregated company town: Mexican families lived east of the company store, while Anglo residents, including Perry himself in his Moorish-inspired mansion, lived on the west side. Quicksilver production peaked during World War I, and by 1922 Terlingua accounted for 40% of all U.S. mercury output. But the market crashed after the war, and the Chisos Mining Company filed for bankruptcy on October 1, 1942. Most residents scattered, leaving Terlingua — and Perry School with it — to the desert. The school building has been crumbling ever since; remnants of its old playground are still visible among the ruins. Tourism revived the town starting in the late 1960s, largely thanks to its now-famous chili cook-off, which earned Terlingua the title "Chili Capital of the World" in 1967.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
There isn’t a specific, documented ghost story attached to Perry School the way there is for the nearby Perry Mansion (where Howard Perry's own apparition is reportedly seen on the verandah and in the Great Room). What exists instead is broader Terlingua ghost-town lore that folds the schoolhouse ruins into its overall haunted reputation:
Visitors and paranormal enthusiasts report shadow figures moving among the ruins throughout the ghost town generally, including around structures like the old school and mining company buildings.
The spirits of miners who died from mercury exposure, accidents, or harsh conditions are said to still walk Terlingua's dusty streets, particularly near the Terlingua Cemetery ("Boot Hill"), often cited as the epicenter of the town's paranormal reputation given how many miners, children, and early settlers are buried there.
Local legend also places La Llorona along the nearby banks of the Rio Grande, wandering and crying for her lost children — a well-known Southwest folklore figure rather than a Terlingua-specific ghost, but one residents and visitors frequently invoke as part of the area's haunted atmosphere.
For your blog, Perry School's honest hook is less "here's the specific haunting" and more "here's a real, crumbling monument to a company town that vanished almost overnight" — a genuinely dark-tourism-worthy site (child mortality, toxic mercury exposure, a vanished segregated mining community) even without a named ghost attached to it specifically.
Visiting
Terlingua Ghost Town is open to the public during daylight hours and is a genuine, walkable tourist destination near Big Bend National Park — one of the most visited and photographed ghost towns in the country. Perry School's ruins and playground remnants are part of the scattered site you can walk through, though some structures nearby (including the Perry Mansion) are privately owned. As with any ruin site, watch your footing around unstable structures.
15. TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY — College Station
History
Texas A&M is Texas's oldest public university, opening October 4, 1876 as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas — the state's land-grant institution created under the Morrill Act of 1862. It began as an all-male military school with mandatory participation in the Corps of Cadets. The surrounding community, designated "College Station" by the Postal Service in 1877, took its name from the train depot that served the campus. The school adopted its current name, Texas A&M University, in 1963 to reflect its growth beyond agriculture and mechanics into a full research university.
Any honest account of A&M's history has to include November 18, 1999, when the massive Aggie Bonfire — a century-old tradition of stacked logs built each year ahead of the Texas-A&M football rivalry game — collapsed during construction, killing twelve students and injuring 27 others. It remains one of the defining tragedies in the university's history, and it reshaped campus culture profoundly: the Bonfire Memorial now stands on the site, and existing A&M traditions like Silver Taps (a solemn ceremony honoring students who died while enrolled) and Aggie Muster (an annual roll call where "Here" is answered for the living and silence stands in for the dead) carry that same weight of remembrance. These are treated by the A&M community with real reverence rather than spooky campus lore, and worth approaching that way in your own writing.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
Roy Simms and the Animal Industries Building — A&M's best-documented campus haunting, and unlike most "ghost" stories, this one starts with a verified death certificate. Roy Lee Simms joined A&M's staff in 1938, served in the Navy during WWII, returned in 1946, and by 1948 became Meat Locker Room Foreman in the basement animal laboratory of the Animal Industries Building. On the morning of Saturday, November 14, 1959, while his assistant briefly stepped outside, Simms was cutting a slab of bacon when his knife slipped and severed his femoral artery. He reportedly tried to crawl to the building's freight elevator for help and died before he could escape or reach the elevator. He was buried at Wellborn Cemetery two days later.
The hauntings began soon after: custodians and students working late report screaming voices in empty hallways, footsteps and slamming doors with no one visible, and objects moving near the freight elevator where Simms bled out. The legend grew enough that in the 1980s, a custodian named Henry Turner convinced a faculty member to leave the basement freight elevator open overnight specifically so "Simms' spirit" would have somewhere to rest — the idea being that if he didn't, he'd go rummaging through the meat lab's equipment instead. That practice reportedly continues among cleaning staff to this day. The actual room where Simms died is now a men's restroom, still lined with the original steel meat hooks and drain from its slaughterhouse-lab days.
Corps of Cadets Dining Hall (Duncan/Sbisa) — Less documented but frequently mentioned by current and former students, who describe general poltergeist-style activity — unexplained noises and disturbances — in the dining facilities historically used by the Corps of Cadets.
Visiting
Texas A&M is a large public university campus in College Station, open to walk around during the day. The Animal Industries Building remains an active academic building, so you can view it and walk its halls during normal hours, restroom included, if you're feeling brave. The Bonfire Memorial is a public, outdoor memorial site open for quiet visitation and reflection — worth treating as a solemn stop rather than folding into "haunted campus" content, given what it commemorates.
16. OLD BAYOLOR PARK (BAYLOR FEMALE COLLEGE RUINS) — Independence
History
Old Baylor Park preserves the ruins of Baylor University's original campus in Independence, Texas — the town where Baylor actually began, decades before Waco. The Republic of Texas Congress chartered Baylor on February 1, 1845 at Washington-on-the-Brazos. Classes began May 18, 1846, at Academy Hill (the former Independence Academy campus) but that was only temporary.
The women's campus, known as Academy Hill, was completed in 1856,with four stone columns…..those four columns are the famous ruins still standing today. Meanwhile, the men's campus at Windmill Hill was comprised of Graves Hall (1849–50), Tryon Hall (1860 - 1882), and Houston Hall (1859–62). There was also a bell tower (1882) and the Burleson Domicile (1856), which served as the dining hall, dorm, and residence for the president. Judge R.E.B. Baylor himself, the university's namesake, was buried on the east side of the men's campus in 1873 but his remains were moved in 1917 to Belton to what is now the campus of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
Independence's fortunes soured when the railroad bypassed the town, and in 1886 Baylor's trustees merged with Waco University and relocated the whole operation to Waco — the school's current, much larger home. The Baylor Female College trustees moved their institution to Belton, where it became the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Independence deteriorated into what's now basically a ghost town. Today Old Baylor Park is jointly maintained by Baylor University and UMHB, and the Male Department site was added to the National Register of Historic Places as recently as 2024.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
As with a couple of the other Texas ruins we've covered, Old Baylor Park doesn't carry a single named, documented ghost story the way a haunted hotel or dorm might. What it has instead is a broader reputation woven into Independence's identity as a "forgotten ghost town":
There have been claims that the land around Independence sits on a convergence of electromagnetic fields, which has been blamed for causing insomnis, headaches, and even hallucinations in visitors and residents.
One account describes a man who got lost near the ruins and experienced vivid visions of long-dead loved ones while there.
More generally, Independence is grouped with Texas's classic "haunted ghost town" roundups — its abandoned homes, dilapidated buildings, and old cemetery lending it an atmosphere that visitors and paranormal writers describe as unsettling, even without a specific named apparition tied to the four columns themselves.
Visiting
Old Baylor Park is open to the public and free to visit, located in Independence near Brenham. It's a popular stop during Texas wildflower season and is still used by Baylor for freshman orientation retreats (Baylor Line Camp), so it's very much an active, welcoming historic site rather than an off-limits ruin. The nearby Independence Visitor Center (10270 T.S. Saul Road, Brenham) can provide additional context, and both Academy Hill (the four columns) and Windmill Hill (the men's campus outlines) are walkable.
17. TEXAS WOMEN'S UNIVERSITY (OLD MAIN) — Denton
History
Texas Woman's University began as the Girls Industrial College in 1901. The school opened that year with 186 students and 14 faculty. It went through several names — becoming Texas State College for Women in 1934 before settling on Texas Woman's University in 1957. Men were admitted at the graduate level starting in 1972, and subsequently undergraduate admission in 1994.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
Old Main — The very first building on campus (opened 1903) and still home to its most talked-about haunting: moaning voices, said to belong to former faculty, reportedly heard wandering the halls. Its portico is also guarded by a headless "Winged Victory" statue, a detail that adds to the building's eerie reputation even before you get to the ghost stories.
The Music Building — Students and staff report unexplained melodies drifting through the building with no player to be found.
Hubbard Hall — Known for reports of figures or spirits that appear briefly and then vanish.
Stoddard Hall — Home to a reported "phantom" that's stalked students and staff over the years, though details of its identity are thin.
Guinn Hall — The Spirit of Dr. John — A named haunting, said to be the ghost of a "Dr. John," reported by both students and staff.
Little Chapel in the Woods — The Hooded/Weeping Bride — Perhaps TWU's most atmospheric legend: a hooded, weeping female figure reportedly seen roaming the grounds near this small, architecturally beloved chapel, often described in local lore as a bride in mourning.
Virginia Carpenter and the site of Brackenridge Hall — In June 1948, 21-year-old Mary Virginia Carpenter arrived in Denton to attend what was then Texas State College for Women. A taxi driver, Edgar Ray “Jack” Zachary, dropped her off at Brackenridge Hall around 9 p.m., where witnesses saw her walk over and speak with two unidentified men in a light-colored convertible parked outside — she never checked into her dorm room and was never seen again. It remains one of Texas's oldest unsolved missing-persons cases, still discussed by true-crime researchers today. Brackenridge Hall was later demolished and replaced by the Student Union, and campus legend holds that Virginia's spirit still lingers around the site of her disappearance — a case where the "haunting" grew directly out of a real, unresolved human tragedy rather than pure invented folklore. (Zachary cooperated with investigators but a decade or so later his ex-wife said he convinced her to lie about his whereabouts on the night Virginia disappeared. He died in 1984.)
Visiting
TWU is a public university campus in Denton, open to walk around during the day. Old Main, Guinn Hall, and the Little Chapel in the Woods (a genuinely beautiful, historic chapel worth seeing on its own merits) are all publicly accessible. Residence halls like Hubbard and Stoddard aren't open to outside visitors. TWU has run its own "Ghost Stories Tour" for incoming freshmen during Pioneer Camp, and Denton's Historic Square also offers commercial ghost tours if you want to pair a TWU visit with the town's broader haunted history — just note that neighboring University of North Texas has its own separate, sometimes-confused-with-TWU ghost lore (like the "Wanda" legend tied to UNT's Bruce Hall), so it's worth double-checking which campus a given Denton ghost story actually belongs to before publishing.
18. BRENHAM SCHOOLHOUSE HOTEL— Brenham
History
The Brenham Schoolhouse Hotel occupies an 1883 Italianate building that claims to be the first free public school in Texas established under the Landmark School Law of 1875 (historians can confirm it was among the earliest, though the "first" claim couldn't be definitively proven when the Washington County Historical Commission sought a state marker in 1969). Built with 15-inch brick walls made with plaster mixed with cow hair, the building welcomed schoolchildren January 20, 1884.
The Independent School District sold the property in 1909 to N.A. Gallagher, Bishop of Galveston, and it immediately became St. Agnes, Sacred Heart Convent, staffed by Dominican Sisters who came from Galveston to teach. The convent couldn't sustain itself financially and closed by 1916, sending the nuns back to Galveston. From there the building was converted into apartments. That lasted into the 1970s, then it sat abandoned for decades and in a state of severe disrepair.
The Gumm Family from Refugio, Texas, bought the building in 2018 and began renovations. The hotel officially opened in February 2024 with 3 one-room suites and 4 two-room suites, and leans hard into its schoolhouse-turned-convent history: old school desks as nightstands, salvaged law-office books, and globes.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
While there isn’t a verified, documented ghost story specifically tied to the Brenham Schoolhouse Hotel, I have heard a couple of rumors. While it may not have well known ghost stories, it does have is exactly the kind of backstory that tends to grow into ghost lore over time: a schoolhouse, a convent, years of abandonment and neglect, squatters, and a fire.
If you want documented haunted history in Brenham itself, the town has several well-established spots: the 1895 F.W. Schuerenberg House, with reports of a young girl in old-fashioned dress and a tragic nursery suicide; and The Citadel, a 1920s building where 1990s renovation crews repeatedly reported a woman in expensive jewelry and old-fashioned white clothing who vanished before they could approach her.
Visiting
The Brenham Schoolhouse Hotel operates as a boutique hotel at 600 E. Alamo St. in downtown Brenham genuinely bookable for an overnight stay if you want firsthand time in the building. It has no on-site staff or food service, so guests largely have the historic space to themselves after check-in, which honestly might be the best setup for noticing anything unusual, if there's anything to notice yet.
19.SUL ROSS UNIVERSITY — Alpine
History
Sul Ross State University traces to the Alpine Summer Normal School, which starting in 1910 brought teachers to Alpine's mild climate each summer to earn their teaching certificates. The Texas Legislature formalized this into Sul Ross State Normal College in 1917, named for Lawrence Sullivan Ross — Texas governor from 1887 to 1891 and later president of Texas A&M. Doors opened on June 14, 1920, with 77 students enrolled that first summer. The school became a full university in 1969. Today Sul Ross is the primary higher-education institution in far West Texas, sitting in the dramatic high-desert landscape of the Big Bend region — a genuinely remote, atmospheric setting for any ghost-story collection.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
You may hear a rumor or two of paranormal activity but, honestly, there is no well-documented, building-specific ghost stories tied to Sul Ross's own campus buildings or dorms. What Sul Ross does have is a genuinely notable role in the region's ghost lore — its Fine Arts Department once co-produced the award-winning Historic Alpine Ghost Tours alongside the Historic Alpine Association, and Sul Ross theater students actually perform as the ghosts.
The tours, launched in 2021 as a semiannual (spring and fall) event through downtown Alpine, however I don’t see evidence of those tours after 2023. Here are some of the stops at real historic sites tied to real, documented tragedies:
The Brewster County Courthouse, where the ghost of Harvey Hughes appears — he was hanged on the courthouse lawn in 1923, one of the last legal hangings in Texas.
The Historic Holland Hotel, where Crystal Holland was murdered in front of the building in 1916 by her jealous husband; the Holland regularly shows up on national "most haunted hotels" lists.
The Hotel Ritchey and historic Murphy Street, tied to additional local folklore spirits.
A deserted stretch of track near the Alpine Train Station.
An appearance (sometimes) by La Llorona, the well-known Southwest folklore figure.
Visiting
Sul Ross's campus is public and walkable during the day, set against striking Big Bend scenery. For the ghost content specifically, the Historic Alpine Ghost Tours run seasonally (spring and fall) through downtown Alpine — worth checking the Historic Alpine Association or Sul Ross's own site for current dates, since these are limited-run theatrical events rather than a standing attraction. Pairing a Sul Ross visit with the tour, and a nightcap afterward at the Holland Hotel, would make for a strong feature if you want firsthand material.
20. OLD TOWN COLDSPRING SCHOOLHOUSE — Spring
History
The "Old Town Coldspring Schoolhouse" sits within Old Town Coldspring, a recreated historic village next to the Old San Jacinto County Jail. Coldspring became the county seat of San Jacinto County in 1870. It all sits on the site of Coldspring's original 19th-century town square which burned in a fire in March 1915 that destroyed the wooden courthouse and other buildings.
The building most likely referred to as "the schoolhouse" is the Old Waverly schoolhouse, built in 1921 and relocated to Old Town Coldspring in the mid-1980s. It now stands alongside several other relocated historic structures the San Jacinto County Historical Commission has assembled into the Old Town museum complex: the Old Jackson Store (1890), the 1930s Camilla Post Office, a 1890s log cabin/crib, the restored Urbana Depot, and a replica of the county's first general store, all clustered around the 1887 San Jacinto County Jail, now the Old Jail Museum, listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1980) and recognized as a Texas landmark (1982).
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
The haunted reputation here centers overwhelmingly on the jail itself and the grounds it shares with the relocated schoolhouse and other buildings, rather than the schoolhouse having its own distinct, separately documented legend. Paranormal investigators have reported disembodied voices, and footsteps, strange sounds, EVPs, bangs, and shadow figures throughout the jail and surrounding structures. The most dramatic element of the site's dark history is the old hanging tree on the jail grounds — while no executions took place inside the jail building itself, local lore holds that the tree once standing on the property was the site of over 300 hangings historically. The tree has since been cut down, but investigators say the "energy" of the site remains a focal point of overnight ghost hunts, with vigils specifically held there.
Given how the schoolhouse and other buildings were physically relocated to this site decades after their original construction, any paranormal activity reported in that specific structure tends to get folded into the broader "Old Town Coldspring" haunted reputation rather than treated as its own separate case.
Visiting
Old Town Coldspring and the Old Jail Museum are operated by the San Jacinto County Historical Commission. For the paranormal angle specifically, you can book your paranormal group/team for an overnight that includes access to the jail and the historic Old Town buildings. There’s plenty of space for groups if you spread out amongst all of the buildings.
21. THE SCHOOLHOUSE DALLAS— Dallas
History
The SchoolHouse Dallas occupies the former Eagle Ford School, built in 1923 in West Dallas. Its most striking claim to fame is who sat in its classrooms. From 1923 to 1959, hundreds of students passed through Eagle Ford School, including a young Bonnie Parker — yes, that Bonnie, of Bonnie and Clyde. This connection to one of the most notorious criminal duos in American history, decades before Bonnie's outlaw life began, gives it a unique twist.
The 102-year old school closed in 1965, and the building eventually fell out of educational use. It underwent a full restoration in 2024 then reopened as The SchoolHouse Dallas, a wedding and event venue. The renovation preserved original architectural details typical of early-20th-century schoolhouses.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
While there isn’t an abundance of documented ghost stories (there’s a rumor or two) or reported hauntings tied specifically to Eagle Ford School, what it does have is a genuinely compelling historical hook without needing an invented haunting: a 100-year-old schoolhouse from a vanished company town, standing as one of DISD's rarest surviving structures, where a future half of America's most infamous crime duo once sat in a classroom desk. That's a strong dark-tourism angle in its own right — the "ghost" here is really the shadow of Bonnie Parker's later legend hanging over an otherwise unremarkable childhood, rather than a reported apparition.
Visiting
The School House Dallas operates as a private event and wedding venue at 1601 Chalk Hill Rd, Dallas, TX 75212, in West Dallas. It's not generally open for casual walk-in visits, but the venue offers scheduled tours (Tuesday–Sunday, per their booking system) for prospective clients, which would be your best way to see the restored interior and original architectural details firsthand.
22. TRINITY UNIVERSITY — San Antonio
History
Trinity University has had three different homes before landing in San Antonio. Cumberland Presbyterians founded Trinity in 1869 in Tehuacana, Texas, consolidating the remnants of three small antebellum Presbyterian colleges (Ewing College, Chapel Hill College, and Larissa College) that had all lost enrollment during the Civil War. Trustees moved Trinity to Waxahachie in 1902 where it remained for four decades later. On February 25, 1942, the Synod of Texas accepted an invitation from the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce to relocate again — and on May 13, 1952, Trinity moved permanently to its current Skyline Campus in San Antonio.
Ghost Stories and Hauntings
The William Knox Holt Center — This is Trinity's most notoriously haunted building, and one where campus legend and documented history diverge in an interesting way. The popular rumor holds that an abortion doctor once lived in the house, that there's an incinerator in the basement, and that if you burn a fire in the fireplace you can supposedly see the faces of babies in the flames. A very different and better-documented history: the house was owned by a woman who ran a pecan company employing a large, primarily Latinx workforce, with real labor tensions tied to that history.
Coates Library — Students and staff describe the space as unusually dark, prone to lights turning off on their own, disembodied voices and footsteps, and sudden unexplained cold spots on a regular basis.
The Marrs McLean Hall Elevator — Located near the Center for Sciences and Innovation, this elevator has its own small unsettling detail baked into the architecture itself: it has a button for a fourth floor that doesn't actually exist. Combined with dim fluorescent lighting, rattling operation, and stained carpet, students describe avoiding it outright.
Jack the Prankster Ghost — A more lighthearted, dorm-focused legend: alumni have nicknamed a mischievous spirit "Jack," blamed generally for flickering lights, missing items, and unexplained pranks in the residence halls, alongside vaguer lore about "long-dead nuns" said to roam parts of campus.
Visiting
Trinity is a private university campus in San Antonio, open to walk around during the day. Coates Library and Laurie Auditorium are public-facing campus buildings you can visit during normal hours, and the Center for Sciences and Innovation (including the Marrs McLean elevator) is part of general academic building access. The Holt Center has reportedly been slated for renovation, so its specific haunted ambiance — real or rumored — may not last in its current form.
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Step into corridors where history whispers between lockers and chalk dust holds secrets—our haunted schools are classrooms of the uncanny, perfect for curious minds and brave hearts. Explore aged auditoriums, creaky stairwells, and forgotten classrooms where stories of restless students and lingering lessons come alive after dusk. Come for the architecture and history, stay for the spine-tingling tales that turn every desk into a portal to the past. Bring your camera, your courage, and an appetite for the eerily educational—these schoolyards of spirits are waiting to teach you something unforgettable.
