THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Old Main at Franklin & Marshall College stands on land traditionally known as Lancaster's old Gallows Hill. Campus accounts have long claimed that the building's bell sometimes rings unexpectedly in the middle of the night.
Old Main is one of the original Gothic Revival buildings on the campus of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Campus historical accounts associate the site with an area once known locally as Gallows Hill, traditionally described as a place where convicted criminals were executed when the rise was one of the highest points around early Lancaster. The building subsequently developed its own supernatural folklore. A 1990 account in an F&M campus publication reported that the bell in Old Main would sometimes ring unexpectedly during the middle of the night. The story remains part of Franklin & Marshall's collection of campus hauntings. Unlike nearby Diagnothian Hall, which has separate and more detailed reports associated with its Civil War hospital use, the principal documented Old Main legend centers on the unexplained nighttime bell and the site's gallows tradition.