History & local legend
Two neighboring buildings at Penn State's University Park campus share a ghost story connected with the university's seventh president, George Atherton. He served from 1882 until his death in 1906 and is buried beside Schwab Auditorium on Pollock Road.
Across the road, Frances Atherton is said to appear at an upstairs window of Old Botany, looking toward her husband's grave. Penn State's own accounts of campus folklore preserve the image of a wife continuing to watch over him. Knowing where the buildings and grave sit makes the story easier to picture: her supposed vantage point faces the place where the family chose to bury him.
Schwab Auditorium has its own collection of supposed occupants, affectionately called Schwaboo. Campus storytellers have suggested Atherton, the building's namesake Charles Schwab, and even a figure dressed as a Revolutionary War soldier.
