Bruce Hall - Denton, TX
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member QuarrellaDeVil
N 33° 12.707 W 097° 09.014
14S E 672395 N 3676289
Bruce Hall is on the campus of the University of North Texas, and they've got a few ghost stories, the best known of which involves "Wanda."
Waymark Code: WM130E7
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 08/20/2020
Published By:Groundspeak Charter Member neoc1
Views: 3

The main story involves sightings of Wanda, but there's also an "elevator ghost", who rides the elevator after being killed while riding atop it, and a ghost in the basement, occupying the boiler room. There's not much to be found about the elevator surfer, but there's enough about the other two to tell some good tales.

Wanda's story is about a putative student here who disobeyed the social mores of the 1950s. "Back in the day", the school was very strait-laced, and Bruce Hall is said to have had a series of matrons who ran a tight ship. After discovering that she had become pregnant, and fearing the school's wrath, Wanda took to hiding and living in the attic on the fourth floor of the A-wing. The stories diverge at this point, with some accounts indicating that she died when trying to self-terminate the pregnancy, some claiming that she and her child died together in the process of birth, or that Wanda just wasted away in depression, and others suggesting a suicide. Of course, the obvious place one would expect to see her ghost is in the attic itself, but some students claim to have seen her in the pool hall. A light fixture there notes it as "Wanda's Pool Hall", with an accompanying mural of her ghost playing pool. Her antics involve opening and closing doors and windows, knocking down window blinds, and turning on showers. Some claim to have seen her peering out the attic window.

The boiler room ghost, a.k.a. "Boiler Room Bill", stays in the hall's basement and also likes to open and close doors. There's the proverbial "murdered Black man" type of verbiage -- probably "The Other" at work, reminiscent of the old "Sit, Whitey!" story that has gone around for years -- to explain just why he does what he does, but Bruce Hall wasn't integrated until 1970. It was also women-only into the 1970s. Some accounts say that he was a janitor in the 1960s who ran afoul of angry white students. It's 50/50 as to whether Boiler Room Bill is an angry spirit, or whether he's a benign ghost who helps students move into Bruce Hall every year before vanishing into thin air.

Interestingly, the guys at TexPart Paranormal say on their website that they did some research into a possible candidate for the identities of Boiler Room Bill and Wanda. While overcoming segregation was a rocky road for students in the 1950s and 1960s in Texas, they found no indication that there had been any race-related violence towards students or employees to account for Boiler Room Bill.

They also mention that the Wanda story occasionally notes that Wanda suffered her fate in the 1930s, at a time when Bruce Hall wasn't even here. They did find two women who experienced physical problems that involved bleeding, but one took place in 1964, and the other in 1941 (again, before Bruce Hall was even constructed). Neither was named "Wanda", and they cite at least one account from an alumna who lived at Bruce Hall in the 1950s. She had heard the ghost stories, but "Wanda" meant nothing to her.

Wanda, flying out of the attic, is represented on a poster -- later incorporated into a mural inside Bruce Hall -- created by Matthew McGarity in 1997 in observation of the hall's 50th anniversary. He also relates his take on Wanda at the link below.

Public access?:
This is a residence hall, so please respect the privacy of students here. Given the times, it's probably best to check with the University -- or know someone living here very well -- before just walking on in.


Visting hours:
Daylight hours for your best photos; see "Public access" for considerations if you're planning to go inside.


Website about the location and/or story: [Web Link]

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Einstienium99 visited Bruce Hall - Denton, TX 02/02/2022 Einstienium99 visited it