There’s a ghost story on campus – and it’s easy to miss.
After all, not many students travel under the main hub of Parks Student Union to the source of the paranormal rumors. The first floor of PSU, now home to the MESA and TRiO programs, was once dedicated to the school’s library. It was also the site of the 1987 arson that took the life of firefighter Gary Parks.
PSU, named after Gary Parks, was rebuilt on the same footprint of the older building. The room no longer resembles the book-lined aisles that birthed the ghostly encounters, but this once was, and may still be, the most haunted place on campus.
Librarian Heather Uhl remains one of the few faculty members still at EvCC with a first hand encounter.
“There’s a lot of trauma associated with that location,” she said of the former library. “These are the kind of things that tend to take on emotional resonance.”
Uhl said she has had many spectral sightings in the library. She said the manifestations come to her like a flash and with the sense of an aura, which to her feels as if “an electric shock climbs your entire body and every hair stands up.”
One such instance occurred after hours, when Uhl said she was checking the back of the library, the main area where the fire took place.
“I looked to my left and I saw the lower half of a man sitting in a chair – and he was super chill, too,” Uhl said.
She said the legs, complete with pleated pants and thick, laceless boat shoes, sat relaxed with one ankle resting on top of the other knee.
“(The legs) stopped here,” she said, pointing to the top of her waist. “There was nothing else above.”
Ever the polite librarian, Uhl said she acknowledged the presence and went on her “merry way.” By the time she came back, the legs were gone.
Uhl said another encounter occurred after closing.
“I knew for a fact the library was empty except for me and my colleague.… I was looking again into the back stacks and I saw a dark shape move through the stacks.”
At first, Uhl said she thought she had missed somebody. She never found another person in the room. Reflecting back on it, she said she realized she could see up to where the figure’s head would be, but the shape had no lower half.
“It was very, very dark. It looked like if you had peeled a shadow off the ground.”
She said there was never any sign of animosity from the spirits, but that they did seem to keep tabs on the staff. Every now and again she would catch the shadows stretching from around the corners to silently regard her presence.
Uhl said she found that there are many spirits around Washington and quite a few related to the legends told by some of the indigenous tribes of the area.
“I don’t mind being surrounded by these things,” Uhl said, “It used to scare the bejesus out of me. But the way I think about it is why wouldn’t I want to make friends with the unknown? Instead of meeting it as a monster, I meet it as an old friend.”
Jeff Pearce is another staff member and firm believer in the ghosts of the PSU library. Although he has had no personal encounters with them himself, he has spoken to many people over the years who did.
He said he believes they are more than just urban legends.
“Urban legends are generally false, and you cannot usually find anyone who has actually experienced them or been involved. This is a ghost that has been reported by various people over several decades… based on their personal experiences, and you can actually talk to them,” Pearce said.
Many people have had their own experiences with the PSU ghosts. Students and staff from previous years have shared many stories from flickering lights to eerie presences and other glimpses of ghosts.
For those interested in finding out more about the occurrences, Deborah Cuyle’s Haunted Everett book has a section dedicated to the accounts of previous staff members.
However, for skeptics and supporters alike, Pearce advised against attempting any further paranormal investigation in person.
“My advice is to be wary and don’t seek out ghostly phenomena. Be skeptical. What you think is a ghost might be a shadow or an old coat,” Pearce said. “Of course, it might (actually) be a ghost.”
