History & local legend
Rowan Hall, formerly the Main Building at Williamson's trade school near Media, is associated with a late-night shadow tradition. Someone standing alone near the building was said to cast four shadows extending in different directions.
The building has a direct connection to founder Isaiah Williamson, who endowed the school so young men could learn trades without tuition but died before it opened in 1891. His friend John Wanamaker described the entrance corridor where visitors could see Williamson's grave and memorial tablet.
A separate campus story concerned Longstreth dormitory: a handprint on a window supposedly returned whenever it was wiped away.
Sources
- StrangeUSA, archived campus folklore about the shadows at Main and the mark on the Longstreth window
- John Wanamaker, Life of Isaiah V. Williamson, chapter 8, the entrance corridor, grave, tablet and 1891 completion
- Philanthropy Roundtable, 2011 visit and reporting on the founder, entryway grave and October 1891 opening
- Williamson College of the Trades, campus map showing Rowan Hall as building 1 and Longstreth dormitory separately
- USDA imagery of the original campus buildings
