The Library Vault

On the evening of October 31^st, I was in Russell Library after the building had closed. Sounds innocuous, right? What you may not know is that Russell Library has been declared one of the most haunted libraries in Connecticut by the Eastern Connecticut Paranormal Society (ECPS).

ECPS has conducted several investigations in our building and found proof that our library is “spirited”. A spirited building has documented paranormal manifestations. Sometimes startling, but harmless. A haunted building, on the other hand, will send you running for the door.  You can read about some of the ECPS investigations in our previous blog posts: Ghosts at the Library and Eastern Connecticut Paranormal Society: The Second Investigation, and What did the Paranormal Investigators find at Russell Library?

Frankly, I am quite used to the occasional activity, the key word being “occasional”. However, on Halloween night things were a little more spirited than usual.

To begin, the East Haddam Stage Company, the group presenting A Christmas Carol, a theatrical production written especially to be performed in Russell Library, was rehearsing in the Reading Room, which occupies the second floor of what was once an old church. I was downstairs in my office in the basement. Alone.

Let me set the scene. We have automatic lights in our building. When they do not detect any motion, they turn off to save energy. Therefore, the hallway just outside my office was dark. Now most basements at night can be a little creepy, but I honestly wasn’t thinking of anything but getting on with my work. At one point I thought I heard someone moving around just outside my office, but when I got up to poke my head out into the hallway, I didn’t see anyone and didn’t hear anything. But once I was back at my desk the noises returned.

I decided two things: I was thirsty and the lights needed to come back on in the hallway, so I grabbed my mug and stepped into the hallway. It took a few seconds of me waving my arms around for the lights to pop back on. I crossed the now silent hall and fumbled with my mug and my keys, trying to open the staff kitchen door, which had been locked for the night. That was when the handle of one of the nearby closed offices rattled.

Now Russell Library is a composite of four old buildings ranging in age from just over forty years old to nearly two hundred years old. That means that it rattles and groans all the time. But let me make clear that when one is alone in a basement where the lights shut off automatically such things can be a little unnerving.

I managed to get the kitchen door unlocked and bravely entered and filled my mug with water. Everything was silent. When I went back to my office and sat down at my desk, I heard movement again and this time the sounds was clearly footsteps.

Well, I thought, it certainly wasn’t the first time I had heard unidentified footsteps in the library. Our lobby is notorious for after-hours footsteps. I briefly wondered if it was someone from the Christmas Carol cast moving around on the floor above, but quickly realized the floor above was carpeted. These footsteps were clearly echoing on the tile floor of the hallway.

Okay. If that was the way it was going to be, there was nothing I could do about it. It didn’t feel scary, but I will admit I kept glancing at the open door of my office.

Then I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. I would write a blog post about spending Halloween night in the library.

I started typing, but as the blog progressed, I came to a realization. It probably wasn’t such a great idea to write about a night in a haunted library when I was still sitting by myself in the basement with a once again dark hallway. A hallway, moreover, that now had what sounded like two different sets of footsteps patrolling the corridor.

Determined to finish, I kept writing but then I heard a new sound. It was a sound that any librarian would recognize. It was the sound of a library cart with a squeaky wheel.

I stopped typing. “It’s the elevator,” I told myself. However, I knew that no one in the building was using the elevator. “It’s the heating system,” I said out loud, as if that would make it true. But although heat was blowing through the vents, I had to admit I had never, in the eight years that I have worked at Russell, heard it sound like a squeaky cart wheel.

I sat at my desk trying to think of something else it could be. Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling very creative by that point. I simply could not think of anything that would sound like a library cart with a squeaky wheel.

It was time, I thought, to see how the actors were doing. I grabbed my stuff, locked my office, and went upstairs at a faster pace than I usually do.

I managed to finish this blog post on Sunday night (November 1^st) while the cast of A Christmas Carol rehearsed in the Reading Room. Yes, I wrote in my office. Yes, with a dark hallway outside my door. This time there were no rattling door handles, no footsteps, and no squeaky wheels. I even decided that there were probably other explanations for what I had heard on Halloween night, even though I couldn’t think of what they were.

But I doubt that next year I will be spending Halloween night in the library.

Rehearsals are currently underway for A Christmas Carol, Russell Library’s annual fundraiser. Tickets for this popular show are now on sale.

Help us reach our fundraising goals and see a classic ghost story performed in a haunted library. I think Charles Dickens would approve.