Architect Gibson gave this building a genuinely Neoclassical entrance, with a pair of two storey smooth columns supporting a classical portico. The door frame is of heavy stone with triple keystones surrounding a wood and glass door with a glass transom window above.
This enduring landmark was the fifth and final contribution to the campus by renowned Missoula architect A. J. Gibson. A work of exquisite craftsmanship and the university’s only example of Neo-classical architecture, the dramatic classical portico on the front of the building is typical of this style, which peaked during the early twentieth century. The interior was extensively remodeled in 1923 to accommodate the University Law School, and again in 1961 to house the Psychology Department. In 1983, the building was renamed Rankin Hall after 1902 graduate Jeannette Rankin, the first United States congresswoman.
The old building has, for many years, been the subject of "ghost stories", stories wherein a whole class of ghosts is said to attend a lecture.
RANKIN HALL
Rankin Hall has a reported class of twenty ghostly students; their voices and that of the lecturer, restless shuffling, and chairs moving are heard coming from the second floor. In the video above, the custodian explains how windows are open again after she closes them.
Late one night, Sanders, who has cleaned Rankin Hall for a year and half, heard two people walking around above him. Positive he was alone in the building, Sanders went upstairs to check on the noise.
“I heard an entire class in one of the rooms I had already cleaned and locked,” Sanders said. “Then I heard all the chairs move back like everyone was getting up to leave the classroom; but nobody left and when I went in, there was nobody in there.”
“That night I just locked the place up and left,” he said.
Though he was creeped out by the odd noises, Sanders said he doesn’t mind working in a building that might be haunted. He’s since heard stories about windows opening and slamming shut, chairs miraculously stacking themselves and lights turning on and off, but nothing has ever moved on his watch.
“They like me. They don’t want to spook me too much,” Sanders said with a laugh.
From the Paranormal Montana