Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a little house. And in this little house, many little scholars would come and dine. Some loved the little house so much that they’d frequent it outside their mealtimes, while others visited less but loved it just the same. All of the children of the land would gather at the little house no less than once every day, rain or shine, beef bowls or boiled broccoli. What the blissful children did not know, however, was the existence of an “other” in their beloved little house …

We have come to share the story of this house. Only, there are a few details we forgot to include. The land is not that far, far away, it’s in Amherst, Massachusetts. The little house is not a little house, but Valentine Dining Hall. And the children … the children are us.

The Beginnings

In order to instill a feeling of true fright for the scariest holiday of the year, we decided to gather ghost stories and supernatural experiences at Amherst College.

When we first began our pursuit of the paranormal at Amherst, we found nothing but an eerie silence. This struck us as odd, especially considering Amherst’s extensive history alongside the abundance of ghost stories at Mount Holyoke, Smith, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

We spoke to those we believed with the greatest knowledge on this matter: the library archivists, the custodial supervisors, and President Michael Elliott — who, in ancient times, roamed these halls as a student — but received no further information besides warm support and the following statement from the president:

“As president of Amherst College, I can neither confirm nor deny any reported incidents of paranormal activity — past, present, or future — on the Amherst campus; nor will I deign to comment on any allegations that either my administration or my predecessors have engaged in covering up evidence of such activity.”

Disappointed, but not disheartened, we sought out the knowledge of the broader community through the Daily Mammoth, as, surely, every individual of the Amherst community reads through the Daily Mammoth every day. We received a single response.

“I speak with Jesus daily. If [that’s] not supernatural I don’t know what is. He’s the best by the way,” an anonymous responder said.

We realized we could no longer wait for the people to come to us. We had to come to the people ourselves.

A few days later, we set up a ghostbusting consultant table in Val. On their way to Late Night, a few students stopped and shared experiences with what they could only imagine as encounters with ghosts and spirits: disappearing backpacks in the Science Center, mysterious scratching noises in a dorm over J-Term, and sinister sensations whilst traversing the First Year Quad. One anonymous senior even reported hearing their professor’s dog barking at something behind a curtain; when they looked, they saw a creepy, humanoid hand coming out from the cloth — but nobody was behind the curtain.

But it was the stories from Val staff, who’d come across our table during their breaks, that unnerved us the most. Indeed, by a strange coincidence, we had unknowingly led ourselves to what we now know as the most haunted place on campus …

The Encounters

The following stories you are about to read are the accounts of real people. It is important to note that the encounters detailed in this article only pertain to the dining areas of Val. We spoke to a few residents living above the dining areas, who mentioned no signs of paranormal activities other than occasional noises that could be dismissed as the average sounds heard in a college dorm.

The three dining hall staff members mentioned in this article each chose a nickname that we will use to preserve their anonymity: DSA, Jester, and Skippy. They shared their stories individually and separately. Though we spoke to just three of the staff members, the existence of paranormal activity is generally believed amongst veteran Val staff.

“Lot of staff here who’ve been here for a long time understand the type of energy that’s in here,” DSA said.

“There [are] only a few people that have been here long enough to know that there [are] situations [here],” Jester said, echoing this sentiment.

The Crash

DSA recalls one particularly haunting night at Lewis-Sebring. It was around 9:45 p.m., and DSA was leading new hires to the kitchen when all of a sudden — CRASH! An unsettling noise came from an area they had just passed. Upon walking back, they discovered cups knocked onto the floor and chairs awkwardly fallen over.

DSA affirmed that the area of the crash could only be accessed by employees with a key. “There was nobody in this side of the building at that point at night,” they explained.

The coffee area of Lewis-Sebring in its usual condition, photo courtesy of Jenny Chan ’28.

The coffee area on the night of the strange crash. Photo courtesy of DSA.

The Grab

Jester spoke of a similarly chilling experience at Lewis-Sebring.

“I was locking up Lewis like we do at night. It was probably about 9:30, 10 p.m., and I was just going through all the kitchen appliances, making sure that they’re all off,” Jester said. “And as I bent down to kind of look at the lower stove, something grabbed me and pulled me back about a step and a half. That was a little concerning because I was the only one in that whole side of the building.”

Lewis-Sebring seems to top the list of the most active areas of Val, alongside other contenders.

“The most haunted spots [are] definitely Lewis-Sebring, more or less in the kitchen area,” Skippy said. “The other most haunted spot[s are] the dish room, upstairs, and downstairs in the back storeroom.”

The Face in the Window

Indeed, it was in the dish room, over a decade ago, that Skippy experienced their most chilling encounter yet. “Look at the hair [on my arm] sticking up by just telling that story, freaks me out a little bit,” they said.

Proud of how shiny they had cleaned the dish room window one night, Skippy took out their flip phone to snap a photo. But when they looked at the picture on their phone, it seemed to have captured a face not previously seen in the window …

“It looked like a ghost … it really looked like a face, it was scary,” Skippy said.

Alarmed, Skippy showed the photo to about three or four other people, who all believed they had “caught something.” Then, two hours later, the phone’s battery mysteriously exploded. No data, including the photo, was able to be retrieved. The phone completely died, and Skippy was forced to purchase a new one.

The Elevator

One night, around 1 a.m., DSA and their supervisor were cleaning the mezzanine. Suddenly, they heard the sound of the elevator coming up to the second floor. The door opened, revealing — nothing inside. There was nobody else in the building except them.

The Whisper

It was 11:30 p.m. at night, and Jester was working late with another individual in one of the basement offices. During their conversation, a strange voice whispered, “Why are you here?” They were alone in the building.

“[We] both heard it,” Jester said. “We looked down the hall, but the three offices that were down there were all shut and locked, and there was nobody here.”

The Unexplained

Besides these stories, the staff also collectively reported hearing and seeing other unexplainable phenomena: rattling gates, mop buckets moving towards someone by themselves, secured items suddenly falling over, and flickering lights that followed them around the dining hall. These experiences all occurred at night when nobody else was in the building.

The Interpretations

But what makes Val the ideal place for souls and spirits to wander? Skippy suggested one idea as an explanation — the concept of energies, and the dense movement of bodies in Val. They compared Val to an airport, having constant traffic of people coming and going, to and from all different locations.

“There [are] so many people in and out [of airports] all the time that they’re not really haunted, but [there is] lots of energy, lots of frequencies and vibration. It [is] similar here [at Val],” Skippy said. “Sometimes it’s residual energies — just a combination of everything, positive or negative.”

DSA also explains that an individual’s familial background and personal beliefs may play a part in their encounters. Spirits may be drawn to certain individuals due to identities or traits both have in common, and DSA considers themselves one of these people. For them, though, they feel at peace with these experiences. They even believe that the spirits possess their own distinctive personalities.

“There’s at least one that’s a trickster,” said DSA. “I think that’s the one that did [the knocking of the cups].”

Worry not: It’s apparent that the spirits do not have evil intentions.

“They just like to be left alone,” Jester said. “I don’t think there’s any maliciousness to it. I think it’s probably just privacy that they like.”

“They’re here during the day, too; you just don’t notice it. I think they’re here all the time … what I sense is they just wanted me to know they’re there. They’ve never purposely scared me, harmed me, touched me,” Skippy said. They make a point to acknowledge the spirits’ presence, treating them with humanity and respect. “I just say ‘Hello, I know you’re here,’ and just keep going about my business. Then it just leaves me alone.”

Perhaps it is more comforting to know that the spirits of Valentine are neither seeking to haunt you, nor are they wishing ten thousand fleas upon you. In many ways, their desires are not too far from those of our own — to be left in peace and never forgotten.

The Bottom Line

We may never know the true nature of who the ghosts are, and why they have chosen to be here. But these questions are not really that important. What, then, is most valuable? It is to know that they seek the same human connection that we crave, to understand that the spirits of Valentine share much more in common with us than in difference.

Jenny Chan '28

Ghosts of Valentine: Paranormal Activity on Campus