History & local legend
Cochran Auditorium is the theater retained and renovated when Greater Johnstown opened its new high school in 2003. Its student ghost story centers on a janitor said to have fallen from the auditorium balcony. Students connected him with seats that creaked as though someone had sat down, footsteps moving through the room, and doors that closed when nobody seemed to be there.
The rooms beneath the stage had their own unsettling sounds. People described footsteps coming up the stairs from below, followed by a door slamming. These reports formed part of the same janitor legend, although two former users of the auditorium who joined an online discussion said they had never experienced anything unusual there.
Sources
- StrangeUSA, specific story of the balcony and understage rooms at Greater Johnstown High School, with student responses in 2007 and 2009
- Johnstown Redevelopment Authority, original Cochran Auditorium retained in high school redevelopment
- Greater Johnstown School District, official high school address
- Esri, school address point