When students take a tour of campus for the first time, their curiosity can often be sparked when they learn that several buildings on campus and in the surrounding area are said to be haunted. Local author and UNA alumna Debra Glass is known throughout the area for her knowledge of the history surrounding these stories.

For the past several years, Glass has been doing ghost tours in the Shoals. Glass said her interest in the supernatural started at a young age.

“I think it was because my dad let me watch ‘Dark Shadows’ and ‘The Twilight Zone’ and things like that when I was really little,” Glass said. “That was always my favorite thing. I loved Halloween and I loved any kind of paranormal T.V. show or book.”

Glass has been doing ghost tours for 11 years. After growing up in the Shoals area and attending UNA, Glass knows several stories — including a friendly whistling ghost in Bibb-Graves Hall, the spirit of a drowning victim in Wesleyan Hall and the troubled phantom of a young woman in the GUC.

Nicolas Hentz, who owned a school where Willingham now stands, supposedly haunts Willingham Hall. An eccentric fellow, Hentz was known for playing loud piano music late into the night, Glass said.

Stephen Melvin, an English instructor, said he had a strange experience when he went to his office in Willingham to get a book late one night.

“It was several years ago,” Melvin said. “We were redoing this building, in particular the basement, which was already a scary place. I got right into this office and I heard this violent pounding.”

The pounding rang out so loud that he could feel the pulse in his chest, Melvin said.

“It felt like it was coming from underneath,” he said. “I broke rule number one: Don’t investigate the noise in the basement.”

Peering into the illuminated basement, Melvin saw that the area was completely empty, he said.

“There was absolutely nothing,” he said. “I came all the way back up the steps, got into my office and I grabbed the book, and I heard it again.”

Except this time, the spectral pounding was accompanied by what sounded like a muffled male voice, Melvin said.

“I didn’t run,” he said. “I’m very proud of that, but I walked very briskly out of this building, and I don’t like to be in it after it gets dark and there’s nobody else in here.”

Melvin considers himself to be a huge skeptic, he said.

“I don’t know if there was anything to it,” he said. “It was enough to creep me out.”

The stories are interesting, said freshman Ree Strickland.

“I think it’s cool,” Strickland said. “It means the campus has history.”

Molly, the spirit of a little girl, is said to haunt the Off-Campus Bookstore and Mrs. O’Neal, the wife of governor of Alabama Edward O’Neal is said to reside in the white house next door. Glass said it is possible to see the image of a woman in a window of the house.

“A lot of people on my tour have seen that image in the window, especially the daytime tours,” Glass said. “The best time to see it is around noon or so. If it’s lightly cloudy outside, you can see it really well.”

The thought of ghosts on campus is not something that bothers her, said freshman Ashley Sauthard.

“Unless someone’s died in there recently, it’s not going to bother me,” Sauthard said. “As long as it’s nothing like in ‘American Horror Story,’ it doesn’t bother me.”