By: Katy Cassetta |Staffwriter
On Halloween night, four ghost tours took place between the hours of 8-11pm. These tours were held on Salve’s campus and visited some of the buildings and dorms where ghost sightings and other strange, paranormal activities have been reported. Leading one of the 9:30 tours was Tori McNally who works for Avalon Enchanted.
The first stop on the tour was Wakehurst. It was built in 1887 and owned by the Van Alen family. Mrs. Van Alen died early, and her children had to be raised by the nannies after her death. There have been reports of baby buggy tracks being seen in the wintertime after a snowfall. There have also been reports of a man peering out of the third story windows. This man is thought to be Mr. Van Alen.
These are not the only past inhabitants of Wakehurst said to haunt the place. Mrs. Bruguiere married James Laurens Van Alen and moved into Wakehurst. After his death, she remarried, and she died in 1969 but outlived both her husbands. Her ghost has been said to haunt the halls Wakehurst. It is also said that she dislikes Salve students, particularly those who enter her home and act disrespectful in it. There have been reports of students being scratched in Wakehurst, but not knowing who or what scratched them, and suspecting it might be an aggravated Mrs. Bruguiere who did.
The second stop was Ochre Court. It was built in 1892 by Ogden Goelet. In 1947, it was gifted to the Sisters of Mercy, allowing them to admit their first class. Ochre Court housed the 58 students, and it was also where these students had their classes. While Salve has expanded, the spirits of the past are said to still roam the halls.
Mr. Goelet used to smoke cigars, and people have smelt cigar smoke before while in Ochre Court. There have also been reports of a shadowy figure on the second floor and the side balconies which is thought to be Goelet. Another spirit who has been spotted is that of a former student in the 60s. While she was alive and at Salve, her parents were going through a divorce, and she was going to have to leave the school. There are two versions of the story’s end: one is that she slit her wrists, and the second is that she made a running leap from the balcony. While the true story is unknown, there have been sightings of a white mist or light thought to be her.
The third stop was McAuley Hall, which used to be called Vinland. It was built in 1882 and sold to Hamilton McKown Twombly in 1896 before being donated to Salve in 1955. There is a story of a little boy who once lived there and was the son of two servants from Ireland. On their day off, the couple left the son with a nanny and went out together on a rowboat. The son saw the rowboat when he was staring out the second story window, and he tried to get out to join them, but fell to his death.
Behind McAuley is the Cliffwalk. There have been reports of a woman dressed in black clothing from an early century powerwalking as she keeps her head turned downwards. She has been spotted both at night and during the day, but no one ever seems able to catch up with her. This woman is thought to be the ghost of Beatrice Turner.
Her family owned what is now the Cliffside Inn. Beatrice lived a sad and sheltered life with an overbearing father. She was never accepted by the elite artist community in Newport despite her desire to be, and after her death, over 1200 self-portraits were discovered. It is said that she now haunts the Cliffside Inn and the Cliffwalk.
The Breakers-well known as the largest of the Newport mansions-was the fifth stop. The architect who worked on it dropped dead two weeks before the mansion was completed. The Vanderbilt family, too, had a series of deaths leading to rumors of a curse. Mrs. Vanderbilt’s ghost has said to be seen in her bedroom or peering over the balcony. Her daughter, Alice, who died early of a childhood disease used to love the mansion, and her ghost has been spotted roaming the grounds of the mansion. There is also a children’s playhouse where people have heard what sounds like kids playing and laughing.
The Wyatt Watts Sherman House is one of the upperclassmen dorms at Salve. It was built in the 1870s. In 1951, it was given to the Baptist Home of Rhode Island to use as a nursing home. A hospital wing was added in 1963. It wasn’t until 1982 Salve gained ownership of it. There are tales of a little boy named Adam who reportedly fell down the stairs and died.
He was known to be bouncing a rubber ball, and there have been many reports from students who live there of the sound of a rubber ball bouncing. There is also a wheelchair ramp in Watts which used to be the body chute for the nursing home before Salve acquired the building.
The last and final stop on the tour was Antone. Antone used to be the stables and carriage house for Chateau-sur-Mer and Ochre Court. The barn manager Arthur and the other ghosts in Antone seem to like to mess with people. There have been reports of objects being moved and electronics being messed with in the building.
At Antone, the tour ended, and those who had been on it dispersed. But the tales they had heard remained with them.
Do ghosts exist? And if so, is Salve haunted? These questions can’t be answered for sure. But regardless of what those answers are, it doesn’t change the fact that the buildings on Salve’s campus have a long, and even dark, history.
