LBH Glenville State College

Shortly after my retirement as a police officer, I went to work for a public safety training agency. They had a satellite location at Glenville State College, on the third floor of Lewis Bennett Hall.

I was the training coordinator, and in addition to assisting with some criminal justice classes, I also brought in training that was available to law enforcement nationwide.

The facilities included several classrooms, a firearms simulator, mini-gym for defensive tactics, and student lodging.

When I first started, the facility had been vacant for some time. I assisted the maintenance staff in “freshening up” and prepared to settle in.

The first unusual thing that happened, was the weekend before I opened up the site.

My wife had come up with me to “decorate” my new office. We had brought our little min-pin, Zoey. while in the office, Zoey, who had been sleeping on the floor, jumped up and ran into the hallway barking. She then started growling and showing her teeth, while backing up, past the door. finally, she lay there, eyes wide and growling softly. I stepped into the hallway but could see nothing. I went to the stairwell door at the end of the hallway and made sure it was locked. I then checked all the classrooms and the mini-Gym. No one had gone past the office door, and the stairwell door was never heard to open or close.

I returned Monday for my first day. Lots of people coming to say hello, etc. Most took the elevator from the first floor. My office sat directly across from the elevator.

Knowing that my wife was going to be late getting home from a conference, I decided to stay after hours to get some files in order. Several times after business hours, and when I assumed I was the only one in the building, the elevator would come to my floor but no one was inside.

Several of the staff on the other floors had casually mentioned that the building was supposedly haunted. Nothing specific, always with a wink and a laugh.

By now the whole elevator thing was getting old. The next time it happened, I went into the hallway and said: “I`m not ready to leave yet”. At that moment, the file drawer that I had been working in, shut on its own. Taking this as a sign that I was now ready to leave, I did.

After that, little things would happen, missing items that appeared later somewhere else, the elevator, again. But nothing that I couldn’t explain away.

Then I was talking to one of the maintenance guys. He said every morning when he came in, and opened up the first floor offices, the people who had photos of dogs on their desks, had them face down on the desk. We both thought this was a little strange, but, there might be a reason. So, one day I asked. The woman I talked to said they didn’t do it. It was always that way in the morning. She laughed a little, and said: “someone here doesn’t like dogs.” I immediately thought of Zoey.

Sometime later, I was asked to do a community presentation on a drug issue that I was familiar with, on a Saturday. Rather than drive all the way back to Parkersburg and have to return very early the next day, I chose to stay overnight at LBH and sleep in one of the instructor suites (a little nicer). I contacted the tech guy who would be setting up the presidents auditorium and asked if he would be there to help me set up my laptop. He would be there early to get things going and would help when I showed up.

I went over my powerpoint for the presentation, watched a little tv and went to bed. No big deal, nothing happened. I got up the next morning, showered, dressed, and was having some coffee in the day room when I started choking. When I recovered I walked back to the room to get my jacket and heard someone coughing, mimicking me a short time earlier. Thinking it was the tech guy (their office was on the second floor) I remember thinking that I would tell him I really had been choking. As I got my coat and laptop, I heard furniture being moved around on the second floor. I thought, good he can’t find something and he’s going to look stupid. I went to the auditorium and waited.

Quite a while later, the tech guy came running in out of breath. He said he would go get his stuff and be right back. I asked, “what did you forget?” He said, “huh?” I said what were you looking for downstairs? He just stared at me and asked what I was talking about. I said, “you know when you made fun of me for choking and then you were moving the chairs and cabinets around.” He just looked at me again and said, “I just got here, my car wouldn’t start and I had to get my dad to bring me.”

Now I felt really stupid. Someone else had been making fun of me and I blamed this poor kid.

Fast forward, a couple of years. I’m now working at the agency’s main office at the old West Virginia State Penitentiary (I know, out of the frying pan into the fire).

Several of us were talking near Halloween. They said, “you must have had a good time at LBH on Halloween.” I said I had never been there on that day. They all went on about it being haunted. Curiosity got the best of me and I looked it up. I found an interview from the school paper with the vice president. She said that she had been working alone in LBH when she heard someone call her name (like mimicking me coughing) then she heard the furniture in the hallway and other offices being thrown around. When she looked, nothing was moved (you can find her interview online under haunted Glenville State College).

Did I have a run in with the LBH ghost? I don’t know. But when I read her account, it gave me chills.