Willard Library

 

I live in Evansville Indiana and we have a relitvlivly well known haunted location here. Willard Library is a very old building that dates back to 1885 it gets its name from a wealthy businessman named Willard Carpenter. 

In the 1930's a custodian reported seeing what he said was the ghost of a young woman. Ever since then there have been many reports of this ghost many have described her as grey  and dressed in 1800's  style  clothes and some have reported her shoes having buttons down the side. 

The Grey Lady is thought to be Louise Carpenter, daughter of the founder of the library, appropriately named after him, Willard Carpenter. When Willard Carpenter passed away, he left the entirety of his estate to his businesses and the library. Louise Carpenter sued the library board for what she thought was hers, claiming that her father was not in a sound state of mind when he wrote his last will and testament.

Louise Carpenter lost the case, and is believed to haunt the library until she gets what is owed.

Since I live close to the Library I have been there plenty of times, and it's a beautiful old Gothic style building. I have never had any experiences there but I've spoken to several of the librarians who have. One told me that she's known to play with the faucet in the upstairs bathroom, in the Genealogy department. Another librarian told me that she had seen Louise on the security monitor for the hallway in the basement, near the Children's reading room. 

  I remember a story in the local newspaper back in the 70's when thay were doing some renovations to the building. I believe that's when they built the children's room. One of the librarians reported that she had actually followed them home, presumably because she didn't like all the commotion going on. After the renovations were done and over with,, she went back to Library.

These are just a few of the stories about Willard Library. The library is fairly well known, there have been at least one or two documentaries on popular cable networks about haunted places around the country, and the ghost hunters tv series did an episode/investigation at Willard. 

        D.L.Garvin