The Secrets of William & Mary Part 1: Barrett Hall

During my time in Beijing over the summer, I tried to actively seek out places that the average tourist wouldn’t go, believing that the places that the locals went were always the places that were the most interesting to visit. But I think it was quite recently that I realized that really, William & Mary is a similar location with similar landmarks, places that people don’t really know much about and are sometimes shrouded in mystery are abundant here also.

Thus, I’ve decided to start a new series in my blog here, one that points out more of the aspects of everyday W&M, one just has to dig a little deeper than usual to find it.

Today, I decided to highlight a rather mysterious section of our campus in my freshman hall, Barrett Hall.

Barrett Hall from the side facing the Sunken Garden. Located in Old Campus, the dorm is three floors with a mysterious fourth.

For those who have ever been on a school admission tour or simply walk around campus can always recognize the elegant patio or the gracefully painted study lounges of what possibly could be the most beautiful freshman dorm on campus. According to the Swem Special Collections Wiki, Barrett Hall construction was started in 1926 and cost nearly $212,000 (pretty cheap compared to the multi-million dollar ISC project going on right now). The dorm was named after Kate Waller Barrett, the second woman to be named to the university’s Board of Visitors and a prominent Virginia figure. The dorm was also an all-female dorm, a policy which was upheld until quite recently.

The layout was originally planned for three floors with 84 bedrooms in all. But what many people who are not residents of Barrett do not recognize is that Barrett actually has a mysterious “fourth” floor to it.

Even for the residents who live in Barrett Hall, no one around campus really knows what the fourth floor is used for. The door to the “attic” can be accessed from both of the side stairwells in the building, but the door is always locked and the inside is always dark enough that no one can tell what is inside.

There are, of course, several rumors that have developed over time. Some people believe that the attic is simply used for storage of extra beds and materials for the university. But still others (mainly Barrett-ers) believe that the fourth floor is haunted.

The portico of Barrett, one of the many stops along a campus tour.

According to an urban legend, the fourth floor used to be opened up with bedrooms, but W&M decided to close the floor for safety reasons. Ever since, some residents of Barrett have often believed the floor to be haunted, saying that ghosts still live and occasionally visit the residents below.

Of course, that is if you believe the urban legends. What is true is that every Halloween, someone (or thing) manages to get into the attic to turn on the attic lights, which are simply bulbs on a string that don’t actually illuminate the room, but rather simply flicker and swing around.

Perhaps there really is a ghost, or many ghosts in Barrett’s attic, or perhaps it’s just someone trying to spread needless rumors around campus. But what is a fact is that the fourth floor does exist, and it definitely makes the list for one of the most secret areas of William & Mary.