👻 HAUNTED PLACE · EXP. Nº9477
ACTIVE
Huntingdon College
Huntingdon College is a location reputed to be haunted in Alabama, US. Its reputation comes from reported apparitions, unexplained phenomena and eyewitness accounts gathered over time.
Where is Huntingdon College?
- Location
- Alabama, US
- Type
- School / university
- Coordinates
- 32.35, -86.285
- Testimonies
- 0
- Last updated
LOCATION
Why is Huntingdon College said to be haunted?
Huntingdon College, a private Methodist liberal arts college in Montgomery, Alabama, traces its origins to 1854 and moved to its current campus in 1909. The college is home to the "Red Lady" legend, recorded in detail by alumna Kathryn Tucker Windham in her 1969 book "13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey." The story tells of a student named Martha who allegedly died by suicide in Pratt Hall after social isolation, and whose ghost is said to appear on the anniversary of her death. No contemporary newspaper account or student record confirms the event; the college's official history does not mention it. Pratt Hall, built in 1912, now houses the Department of Education and Psychology. The campus, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, remains an active college with no ghost tours or paranormal programming.
What is the history of Huntingdon College?
Huntingdon College began as Tuskegee Female College, chartered by the Alabama State Legislature and Governor John A. Winston on February 2, 1854. Its first president was Andrew Adgate Lipscomb, who shaped the school as a teaching college rather than a research institution. The cornerstone of the Tuskegee campus was laid on April 9, 1855, and the doors opened on February 11, 1856, with a first graduating class of four students that grew to 216 enrolled by 1859.
In 1872 the institution came under the Alabama Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was renamed the Alabama Conference Female College. After the Civil War, the leadership decided to move to a larger city and chose Montgomery, the state capital. In 1908 the college bought 58 acres in what is now the Old Cloverdale neighborhood; the landscape was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., son of the designer of Central Park. The move happened on August 24, 1909, when furniture, laboratory chemicals and college records were carried into Hamner Hall in Montgomery. That building burned to the ground the same night, destroying the records of the college's first half-century. Classes were held at Sullins College in Virginia for that year while Flowers Memorial Hall, the first building on the new campus, was completed in 1910. The school was then renamed the Woman's College of Alabama.
Huntingdon admitted its first male student after the First World War and graduated him in 1934. As coeducation arrived, the name Woman's College of Alabama no longer fit, and in 1935 the college was renamed Huntingdon College in honor of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, an early supporter of Methodism in England. The Montgomery campus was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 24, 2000, as the Huntingdon College Campus Historic District, with thirteen contributing buildings in Gothic and Tudor Revival styles. In 2001 the college expanded across Fairview Avenue with the former Cloverdale School property.
The college today is a small United Methodist liberal-arts institution of roughly 1,100 students. Its documented history is rich and verifiable; its fame as a haunted place rests on a single published ghost story, examined below.
Timeline: the documented record of Huntingdon College
- February 2, 1854 The Alabama State Legislature and Governor John A. Winston charter the school as Tuskegee Female College; Andrew Adgate Lipscomb becomes its first president.
- 1872 The college passes to the Alabama Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is renamed the Alabama Conference Female College.
- August 24, 1909 The college moves to Montgomery into Hamner Hall; the building burns that night, destroying the records of its first fifty years. The date is still recognized as the founding of the Montgomery campus.
- 1910 Flowers Memorial Hall, the first building on the new Cloverdale campus, is completed and the school is renamed the Woman's College of Alabama.
- 1935 With coeducation underway, the college is renamed Huntingdon College in honor of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, an early supporter of English Methodism.
- 1969 Alabama folklorist Kathryn Tucker Windham publishes '13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey,' fixing the 'Red Lady of Huntingdon College' legend in print for the first time.
- February 24, 2000 The Huntingdon College Campus Historic District, with thirteen contributing Gothic and Tudor Revival buildings, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (reference 00000138).
Is there a rational explanation for Huntingdon College?
The Red Lady story is, at its core, a piece of campus folklore first fixed in print by a professional folklorist, not a record of a documented death. Kathryn Tucker Windham published it in 1969 in '13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey,' and the tale she recorded is internally inconsistent: she names the student 'Martha,' while another source calls her 'Margaret,' and no account has ever supplied a surname, a year, or any means of checking the story against college records. Windham herself dates the suicide only as 'a long time ago,' so the central event cannot be placed in any year.
The details that circulate today do not appear in Windham's account. The published legend describes a suicide by wrist-cutting and a room later converted to academic use; the claims found in many websites, of a death by falling and of a room permanently sealed and removed from the housing rotation, are additions with no source in the book or in any college publication. The college has never released any evidence of a death in Pratt Hall.
What can be verified is the folklore's life, not its subject. Huntingdon openly embraces the tale as part of its identity, and its sororities have staged an annual 'Red Lady Run' each October for years. The story behaves exactly like a living campus tradition: it grows, shifts between tellers, and is retold by the institution itself.
The other ghosts attributed to the campus, a male student who shot himself on the green in the 1970s, a library poltergeist called 'Frank,' a drowned boy, a murdered co-ed, a towel-clad student, are reported only on ghost-tour and paranormal websites, with no corroboration in college archives or newspapers. Old dormitories, suggestion, and the wide 'lady in red' ghost tradition elsewhere explain why a lonely student's legend would persist and multiply.
Can you visit Huntingdon College?
Huntingdon College is a working private college at 3022 Huntingdon College Drive, Montgomery, AL 36106, in the Old Cloverdale neighborhood, about two miles south of downtown. The campus is open to the public during business hours and is best appreciated on a guided tour.
Prospective students and visitors schedule campus visits through the Admission Office; check-in is at Flowers Hall, with parking at the front of the building or in the adjacent Smith Parking Lot. Personal tours run on weekdays and take about ninety minutes. The college also holds 'MUST SEE HC' preview days several times a year, and publishes a self-guided walking tour on its website.
The buildings tied to the legend are in active use. Pratt Hall, where the Red Lady is said to appear, now houses the Department of Education and Psychology rather than student rooms, so there is no public 'haunted room' to enter. The campus is private property; visitors should stay on public paths and respect classes and offices. The college runs no commercial ghost tour, and no fee or ticket is required to walk the grounds.
Montgomery is served by the Montgomery Regional Airport, about fifteen to twenty minutes away by car, and is reachable by road from Birmingham, roughly ninety minutes north, and Atlanta, about two and a half hours east. The historic Cloverdale district around the campus has restaurants and shops within walking distance.
Sources consulted
- Kathryn Tucker Windham, «13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey (chapter: 'The Red Lady of Huntingdon College')» — University of Alabama Press, 1969 book
- Huntingdon College, «Huntingdon Past and Present» — Official college history, 2026 archive
- Susan M. Entzweiler and Trina Binkley, «Huntingdon College Campus Historic District — National Register of Historic Places Registration Form» — National Park Service, 1999 report
- Daniel W. Barefoot, «Haunted Halls of Ivy: The Red Lady of Huntingdon College» — John F. Blair Publisher, 2004 book
- Wikipedia contributors, «Red Lady of Huntingdon College» — Wikipedia, 2026 web
Reviewed by V. Serrano on 2026-08-22 · How we verify our content
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