Looking for a Spooky place? You might want to go to the library.

Back in May of this year, my husband and I took a day trip up to northwestern Missouri. We pick a historic little town we’ve never been to about twice a year, hop in the car, and just go. This trip took us through Trenton, Missouri, which is not only a lovely little town, it is also home to North Central Missouri College. As we drove through the 19th-century gem with iconic triangular corners and stately Bedford stone courthouse, something caught my eye… I break for beautiful old buildings. I ran (seriously) to the red brick, 2 ½ story Romanesque Revival and up the two sets of wide limestone stairs to the arched entrance.. This… was a library. Styled after Carnegie libraries, construction of the Jewett Norris Library was completed in 1891. The inside was even more awe-inspiring than the outside. Stained glass windows, a freestanding staircase to the second floor, inlaid tile with red and blue accents, an arched interior entrance to the stacks, fireplaces, an antique wall clock, and everything oak. Libraries are magical places. They have a soul about them, maybe it would be more appropriate to say they have a collection of souls equal to the collection of books. The written words themselves seem to create an energy of their own, an animism of wavelengths bursting into reality. 

Jewett Norris Library in Trenton, Missouri Photo: Violet Wisdom

I don’t know if this particular library is haunted. Of all the questions I bombarded the poor librarian with, I wasn’t able to get to the question of spirits. Possibly because, in full disclosure, I was not there to borrow a book, only breathe in the air of the living past and the quiet magnitude of unsaid things that flowed between the stacks. 

While this particular atheneum has no known stories to tell, there are plenty out there that do.

According to Mental Floss’s “6 Supposedly Haunted Libraries” by Jane Alexander, these repositories have known ghosts, sightings, and stories. A collection of supernatural materials added to the University of London Senate House Library set off a series of supernatural occurrences and ghost sightings. The ghost of a librarian at the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University is said to continue her work, even assisting students when they need help. The Willard Public Library in Evansville, Indiana is haunted by The Grey Lady Ghost. She has been seen by visitors, librarians, and even police after alarms went off in the building. The 1881 Deep River Public Library in Connecticut harbors strange sounds and voices to go with the sense that visitors are far from alone. In Sweetwater, Wyoming, the 1892 County Library is unsurprisingly haunted. That can happen when you build on top of a former cemetery. 

All libraries give me the sensation of being among more than living people and pages. In fact, I even worked in a library and could feel the presence of someone watching me as I pressed the books into their correct places according to Dewey Decimal. I would catch a shadow moving where no shadows could be as I straightened the books flush to the edges of the shelves. Of all the ways to seek a spirit, sitting quietly in a comfortable little nook surrounded by books is my go-to. Let us know if you feel the same! Do you have a haunted library in your own neck of the woods? Comment below or on our social media posts!

Violet Wisdom