History & local legend
At Allegheny College in Meadville, Brooks Hall’s ghost story grew around a romantic campus ritual called pinning. A fraternity member presented his badge to a woman, accompanied by a procession of brothers carrying torches. Former student Chris Hallam remembered watching a successful ceremony as a freshman: the men serenaded the woman and lifted their brother toward her balcony.
The legend gives a similar ceremony a tragic ending. A young man climbing toward the terrace supposedly fell to his death. The woman awaiting him then returned to her third-floor room and jumped from its window.
In the story collected by The Shadowlands, her presence remained in that room. Residents experienced moving furniture, falling pictures and a window that opened on its own.
