THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Carlisle Barracks has accumulated numerous ghost stories during its long military history. Soldiers, staff, and visitors have reported apparitions, unexplained footsteps, voices, and other unusual activity throughout the historic post.
Carlisle Barracks is a military school that was attended by the likes of John J. Pershing and Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was originally a military post that began in the 1700s. Ghostly band music is said to come from the bandstand, tunes from around the turn of the century. The campus is also said to be haunted by Jim Thorpe, the school’s star athlete, who has been heard playing basketball at night in the Old Gymnasium. Thorpe’s apparition also has been spotted at the Letort View Community Center along with others: a well-dressed female student and a man in farmers’ clothes. The center’s cellar is said to be a hot spot for strange activity. Hessian soldiers are believed to haunt the campus’ Powder Magazine Museum, and a ghostly lady in old-fashioned green dress walks in and out of homes along Barracks’ Flower Road. An invisible baby cries at the Washington Hall Guest House, and in one residence, a framed print of Civil War Major General J.E.B. Stuart was suspected to have been broken several times by a spectral Union soldier.