Have you ever seen an elderly Jesuit roaming the stacks late at night? There are many tales about a ghostly figure who wanders through the library late at night. Study groups have certainly been spooked by a spectral entity, but not to worry- He is a friendly ghost who has even helped some students with their homework!
The only thing scarier than having to work late into the night is doing so while accompanied by a supernatural presence. Some library staff members have even claimed to hear footsteps running above the Circulation desk late at night. What's so spooky about that? Well, these noises have only been heard after the library is closed for the night! If the building is vacated, where or who could these footsteps be coming from?
How many floors makeup Walsh? If you guessed four, you would be mostly correct. However, there is an additional level above the fourth floor that remains mostly unfinished and is now used primarily for storage. (Which is why it is closed off to nearly everyone.) Rumor has it that during the construction of Walsh, hydraulic elevators were installed, but this type of elevator can operate between four floors only-- And the basement counts as the first floor! This error prompted a complete reorganization of the collection. Working with less space to accommodate more books led to the acquiring of the high book shelves that makeup the stacks of Walsh today, and allow for the entire collection to be comfortably spread out between three floors.
In 1841, the year Fordham was founded, a Jesuit professor wrote a letter to his brother in New Jersey. Part of this letter was a hand drawn map of an early version of the university campus. Looking at the map today and according to the professor's measurements, the area where Walsh Library stands today was once a duck pond. The story goes that although the ground was not an official pond, it is positioned in an area in which it is susceptible to water collection. That might explain all of the floods!
