History & local legend
At the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, stories about Oak Hall include whispered names—Allison and Abby—and the sound of distant drums and chanting. A related version places the drumming along the walk between Oak and nearby Laurel Hall, making that stretch of campus a place some students preferred to avoid after dark.
Laurel had a separate story about an object moving violently inside a room. A knife supposedly flew through the air and lodged in a door. In an October 2008 online recollection, a contributor identified the room as 230.