History & local legend
Students at Cedar Crest College in Allentown call Butz Hall’s reputed ghost Wanda. In the dormitory legend, she was a student who died by suicide on a staircase in 1956. The stairs became the setting for later reports of a woman appearing near the railing.
In September 2014, The Crestiad published freshman Aiyana Allanson’s account of exploring her new residence hall. At the top of the middle staircase, she said, she abruptly felt cold and saw a figure go over the railing. When the figure repeated the movement, Allanson fled to her room.
Reporter Abigail Ormiston also spoke with hall director Arielle “AJ” Brent, who recalled another student reporting a sighting. Ormiston could not find a college record of the supposed 1956–57 death, so Wanda’s biography remains part of the campus legend rather than an identified student’s history.
