West Hall, Rensselaer

Having been founded in 1824, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is the nation’s oldest technological research university. Over the course of nearly two centuries, the school has expanded both its undergraduate programs and its campus size. West Hall, for example, is currently the center of the university’s Arts department, but the building was originally the Old Troy Hospital.

The ghost of a nurse named Betsy, who worked in the hospital’s psychiatric ward, is said to still wander the building. She sometimes plays piano, as she did in life to calm to patients in her ward, and her footsteps can be heard walking down the halls. Students have also reported hearing the screams and cries of deceased patients, as well as thumping sounds and slamming doors. Betsy is said to have died in a fire that broke out in the hospital; she stayed in the building too long, trying save the lives of her patients.