Ask Bucky

Do you have questions? Ask Bucky has answers! Ask Bucky is a service provided by the Campus Information and Visitor Center — your one-stop shop for information about the UW–Madison campus and surrounding community, and your centralized source for off-campus housing listings. E-mail Bucky at askbucky@redgym. wisc.edu. Below is a question Ask Bucky recently answered.

I understand a few buildings on campus are reputed to be haunted. Which are they?

Campus “hauntings” are a spooky but popular subject. Many rumors exist about haunted campus buildings, but it can be difficult to find recorded information on them.

Many people say that Science Hall is haunted. The anatomy department of the Medical School was formerly housed in this building. According to Jim Feldman’s book “The Buildings of the University of Wisconsin,” there was a morgue in the basement of Science Hall. Bodies for class work were brought to the back of the building by hearse and winched to the attic. Geography students were still finding body parts in the attic as recently as 1974! In addition, while Science Hall was being built, a construction worker was killed. His spirit and others are thought to linger there.

According to University Archives, the Mosse Humanities building also is rumored to be haunted. Some say that the architect who designed the building killed himself after discovering that the building’s design was flawed and haunts its halls to this day. Even though he did not actually commit suicide, students still tell this story.

For more information on these buildings or about campus history in general, you can contact University Archives, the official repository for UW–Madison historical information, at http://archives.library.wisc.edu/ or 262-5629.