The Ghost of Wanda
True Story
When I moved to Denton in 1977 I lived in Bruce Hall while attending Art School at UNT (back then it was NTSU). My room was on the bottom floor of the A-wing next to the small laundry room.
Late one night I decided to do a load of laundry and dozed off in my room while waiting for the clothes to dry. I was awakened by a tap on my door. I opened the door and no one was there and the long hallway was empty. Strange.
Realizing I had forgotten my laundry I went to check on it. There stacked on top of the dryer was my clothes all neatly folded. Weird.
When I casually mentioned to someone later he said “Oh, that must have been Wanda. She is a ghost that lives up in the attic in our wing. She likes to play pranks like that”.
As I later learned, Wanda had been a student and resident of Bruce Hall back in the 1950’s. She was a bit of a troublemaker and always up to tomfoolery and shenanigans.
One day some contractors doing some work found her dead body at the far of end of the attic over A-wing next to a round window that let in pale light reflecting off the chemistry building nearby. No one knew for certain why she was there or how she died but there was certainly lots of wild theories and speculation, depending on who was telling the story.
Ever since, the Ghost of Wanda has been blamed for doors slamming, showers being turned on and left on, and other harmless pranks.
Over the years, students walking along behind Bruce Hall could spot that same round window at the eastern end of the A-wing attic. And many of them are sure that someone stood inside that window staring down at them. They remark that although the details are hard to discern, the person’s silhouette was unmistakable. It was that of a young woman.