This Historic Building at Amarillo College Is Also Probably Haunted As Hell
We've all heard tales of Amarillo's classic haunted locations such as The Nat, Summit Elementary, and yadda yadda. But I'm willing to bet that you haven't heard about the unexplained things that have happened in Ordway Hall at Amarillo College.
Ordway Hall is one of Amarillo College's oldest buildings. It was built in 1937 as part of the New Deal. Here's something interesting: it was designed by the same architect who designed The Nat, Summit Elementary, and many other iconic Amarillo structures--Guy A. Carlander.
The building itself has some curious features. My favorite feature is the odd gnomes that are carved into the exterior on the west side of the building.
So, what's this about ghosties and goblins in Ordway Hall? Well, take it directly from two people who have given me permission to share their experiences.
Andrea Godoy was a student at Amarillo College in Fall of 2010 and Spring of 2011. She was a page editor for the student newspaper and editor of the biannual magazine the AC Current.
Sarah Clark was also a student at Amarillo College in Fall 2010 and Spring 2011. She was page editor on the Ranger, the co-editor of the Current in Fall 2010, and editor-in-chief in Spring 2011.
"Something slammed one of the doors"
While Parcells Hall was closed for renovations, the mass communications department was temporarily moved to Dutton Hall, which is connected to Ordway Hall.
From Andrea:
"Sarah and I were in Dutton/Ordway for the newspaper one time. We were the only ones in the building, I unlocked the doors and let us in and something slammed one of the doors above us and then we heard running down the stairwell and there was nothing there."
"There is Something Up There"
From Sarah:
There was one night in Fall of 2010 where I was in the newsroom at about 2 A.M., trying to get the magazine ready for press. I was alone. The janitor had gone, I know this because he came in and let me know so I could deadbolt the door behind him.
I was at my computer when out of nowhere, I heard impossibly loud stomps directly above my head and then the sound of something massive being thrown to the floor. I can only describe it as if a 300-lb toddler had stomped over to a large and full metal filing cabinet, picked it up, and slammed it down with all their might.
I know it was real because when I looked down at my water bottle...it was vibrating with each loud stomp and crash...like in Jurassic Park.
The worst part? I knew the layout of the building. The newsroom was situated right past the stairwell landing and underneath a locked and empty classroom. There is absolutely nothing up there that could have made that horrible crashing noise.
"We All Heard The Same Thing"
From Andrea:
Ok, so Brittany, Chris, and I had gone to the Bill Nye speech that night. We rushed back to the AC office to put the video up on on the website. We got there at about 10:45 or 11:00 at night and so the building was locked and there was nobody there. There were no cars in the parking lot.
I unlocked the building to get into Dutton and we go in. I unlock The newsroom to let us in and we sit down. They start working on video, I start working on web, and then we hear somebody walking above us. I was like 'oh that's weird' and I think maybe it's just like pipes rattling or like the AC kicked on because I know there's nobody else in the building.
So, we're listening to the audio back and forth from Bill Nye's speech and we hear it again: somebody walking above us.
We got kind of freaked out, because why would someone be up there that late? We're thinking maybe somebody had broken in or somebody had stayed overnight--but why? So we send Chris out there to go look because he's the big strong man of us three.
He goes out there and walks out to the stairwell by the newsroom and he walks up the first flight. He saw nobody there and came back. At that moment, all three of us heard something fall-- just bam-- right directly above us. Then we heard somebody walking down the stairs.
Yes, we got the courage to look. We heard the footsteps coming down but there was absolutely no one there.
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