Students and faculty who have occasion to work in Lisser Hall theater all report the same ghostly goings-on: heavy footsteps that walk back and forth across the stage.
Is it a frustrated actress, endlessly auditioning for a part in the historical performance venue? Is it a lecturer, still trying to get her point across after a century? Or is it something more sinister…
Why might the Ghost of Lisser Hall be female? Mills was an exclusively female college until fairly recently. And its co-founder, Susan Mills was a woman.
In fact, if one delves a bit into the history and lore of this venue, Mills is the most likely specter. The Lisser Hall stage was once used as a viewing platform for deceased dignitaries to lie in state, including Mills. So the theory is that maybe she doesn’t know that she’s dead, and never moved on.
One student who practically grew up in the theater (his father was a professor), remembers that the alleged ghost was always known as “Susan.”
Visitors describe a very uncomfortable, heavy feeling when they are in the theater alone. The footsteps can be heard clearly from the prop shop, located directly underneath the stage. When students come upstairs to investigate, of course no one is there.
Since Mills and Lisser (for whom the hall is named) argued into the wee hours over whether the new college would be an arts conservatory or a liberal arts university, Lisser is also a likely suspect for the spook.
Or perhaps they both quarrel eternally late into the night, crisscrossing the stage in unison…
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