Enter Dow Hall and you’ll see a large fireplace and a grand staircase with paintings of an old woman—allegedly Mrs. Dow— seen on either side as you’re walking up to the second floor.

Many Dow Hall residents and other Pace students have heard legends of Mrs. Dow and her hauntings. There was an alleged fire on the fourth floor in the early 1900s, and the people who died in the fire, including Dow herself, still haunt the old mansion. The fourth floor is off limits to students.

Many don’t believe the legends, or at least don’t believe that hauntings still occur.

“I don’t think Dow Hall is still haunted. Maybe shortly after the fire happened, but not anymore,” sophomore business major Mercedes Williams said.

Several other students I spoke to did not believe that there are or ever were any spirits in Dow Hall.

But I scoured Dow Hall searching for haunting accounts from students, and I found what I was looking for. The stories ranged from innocent, friendly spirits sightings to feelings of dark energy.

“Acknowledge Mrs. Dow, and you’re safe. Say ‘hi’ and ‘bye,’” said senior biological psychology major Tyler Duncan as a word of advice to those living in Dow.

Apparently Mrs. Dow doesn’t like it when people disrespect her. Junior communications major Cookie Cudoco shared her sister’s story.

“When my sister was a freshman at Pace in about 2006 or 2007, she insulted the portrait of Mrs. Dow. She then fell down two steps in the main lobby. It was only two steps. She broke her ankle. She went to the hospital and the doctor said it looked like she fell down the whole flight of stairs. But it was only two steps,” said Cudoco, whose sister is convinced Mrs. Dow was the cause of the injury.

There are more recent accounts of hauntings if that one doesn’t spook you.

“Sometimes me and my roommate hear knocking on the outside facing walls,” freshman nursing major Tiphany Cruz said.

The residents of the room believe it is spirits that knock on the walls. The knocking is just the first of several haunting occurrences in Cruz’s suite on the second floor of Dow Hall.

“I was taking a shower. My soap case was on the corner of the shower. I turned around. It wasn’t there. It was on the back of the toilet seat. Mrs. Dow definitely moved it. She was probably just saying hey,” said Cruz, who doesn’t believe the spirits in her room are malicious.

Cruz and her friends also spoke of things such as closet doors randomly opening, and possible chairs moving. Her suitemate shared more haunting experiences.

“The closed closet door would randomly open,” freshman nursing major Valerie Baltsevych said.

I looked at the closet door, and it wasn’t in a position where any wind from the windows would cause it to open,” Baltsevych continued.

“My boyfriend feels an energy every time he’s here. People come into my room and start to feel sick and lightheaded. I first just thought maybe all college dorms feel like this.”

Once Baltsevych mentioned the light-headedness people allegedly feel in her room, I began to feel it too. The room felt heavy and my head did feel light. Perhaps there is some kind of pipe running through her wall that makes the room’s air a bit different than the rest of the building. And, I’m not sure I would have even noticed the difference in the room’s air and in my head unless it had been brought to my attention. But, after standing in the room with my friend, who also claimed that her head felt a bit light and the air heavy, I am convinced a spirit exists there. Baltsevych had one more haunting account from the same shower where Cruz claimed her soap case moved.
“In the shower, you will feel someone open the door, but no one is there,” said Baltsevych.

It is notable to mention here that there is not one but two locked doors to get through to access the shower…it’s not an easy task to open both unnoticed.

Another tale of haunting also came from the second floor of Dow Hall.

“There were four or five of us, and we were sitting facing the door. It was cracked open. We saw a five or six foot dark figure, all black, walk by. Everything in Dow hall echoes. But there were no echoes, and there was no one outside. But me and a few other people saw it. I think it was something worse than Mrs. Dow, I think it was a dark spirit,” freshman criminal justice major Travis Rivera said.

Sophomore information systems major Rich Gordon also claims to have had encounters with unfriendly spirits, but he may have provoked them.

Remember when I mentioned the fourth floor is off limits?

“I’ve had experiences where it feels weird. Last year, I had an old picture from the fourth floor in my room. The picture was of an old lady with faces in the background. It would just fall on the ground. This happened about four or five times. No windows or doors were open or anything. It would just fall,” said Gordon, who also mentioned that the picture was not in a position where it could easily fall or be shaken by wind.

Gordon went on to say he left the picture behind in his old room, for the next resident. He doesn’t know what became of it. He just didn’t want it anymore.

A lesson from Gordon might be to refrain from disrupting spirits.
“I think old buildings have spirits. I try not to piss off the spirits by leaving trash in the halls and things like that,” Cudoco said.

After hearing all of these accounts of ghosts, and having a ghostly experience of my own, I believe that Dow Hall is full of spirits.

But, haunted or not, residents of Dow Hall need to remember that we must respect the historic old building. It does not belong to us…. and the spirits might just remind you of that.