A look at one of the most concentrated areas of hauntings in all of New York City: Fordham University in the Bronx. This is part 1 of a look at the ghosts of Queen’s Court, the oldest dorm on campus.
Ghostly priests, secret tunnels, black dogs, poltergeist activity, multiple burial grounds, housing in an old morgue, and more abound at Fordham University, at a campus in the Bronx that’s about half a mile wide. This is part 1 of a look at Queen’s Court, the university’s oldest dorm, which was built in 1845, was once a seminary, and has a number of hauntings and urban legends attached to it.
Highlights include:
• A groundskeeper ghost who still does his rounds
• The ghost of a 19th century seminarian
• A digression about Stone Tape Theory
• A theory about why Fordham’s ghost stories were kept quiet until the 1970s
• A conceited archbishop
Maps showing Fordham University’s size
East-West Measurement of Fordham University’s Rose Hill Campus
North-South Measurement of Fordham University’s Rose Hill Campus
East-West Measurement of a similar sized area around Washington Square Park
North-South Measurement of a similar sized area around Washington Square Park
Pictures of Queen’s Court
Church with pointed steeple and St. John’s, early drawing, from the Fordham University Archives and Special Collections
St John’s Hall, Queens Court_A history of St. John’s College, Fordham, N.Y by Thomas Gaffney Taaffe, 1891
St. John’s Hall with church on the right, from the Fordham University Archives and Special Collections
St. John’s Hall with vines, from the Fordham University Archives and Special Collections
St. John’s Hall, from the Fordham University Archives and Special Collections
St. John’s Hall, Vine covered wall with several students by the fountain, from the Fordham University Archives and Special Collections
Sources consulted RE: the Ghosts of Queen’s Court
See sources page for the full source list for the series
Books consulted
- A history of St. John’s College, Fordham, N.Y by Thomas Gaffney Taaffe (1891)
- Fordham: A History of the Jesuit University of New York: 1841-2003 by Thomas J. Shelley (2016)
- Fordham: A History and Memoir, Revised Edition by Raymond A. Schroth (2009)
- Haunted Halls: ghostlore of American college campuses by Elizabeth Tucker (2007)
- The Big Book of New York Ghost Stories by Cheri Farnsworth (2019)
- The Graveyard Shift: A Family Historian’s Guide to New York City Cemeteries by Carolee Inskeep (2000)
- Ghosthunting New York City by L’Aura Hladik (2011)
