HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
+ 1 further entry on record
Staff have reported a woman in period dress stepping off the elevator — possibly the library's first director
254 College St, Gadsden, AL 35901
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public library
Access
Wheelchair OK
Public library with elevator access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1906 · Carnegie Library Legacy (1906) · Gadsden Community Institution · Annie Gilmer First Director (1922–1943)
The Gadsden Public Library's institutional roots trace to 1906, when the city received a Carnegie grant to construct one of Alabama's early Carnegie library buildings on College Street. The Carnegie building was a central community fixture for nearly five decades before it was replaced by the current structure in the mid-20th century.
Annie Gilmer served as the library's first director from 1922 to 1943, overseeing the institution during the later Carnegie era and through the economic pressures of the Depression. Her tenure was long enough to establish her as the dominant administrative figure in the library's history, and her identity is the basis for the most specific paranormal attribution the site has received.
The current building, which replaced the Carnegie structure, is a functioning Etowah County public library. Its collection and services are entirely contemporary, but the institutional continuity with the Carnegie era gives the site a historical thread that runs back more than a century.
Sources
The most specific paranormal report from the Gadsden Public Library comes from staff, not visitors: a woman in 19th-century period dress has been observed stepping off the elevator on the upper floors. The Southern Spirit Guide, which aggregates staff-sourced accounts from Southern library systems, documented this eyewitness report and identified the potential subject as Annie Gilmer — the library's first director, who held the position from 1922 to 1943.
Secondary reports include the elevator operating independently between floors with no passengers and no call button engaged; water running in restrooms or utility areas with no visible cause; and localized cold spots on the upper floors that appear suddenly and dissipate without explanation. The most unusual sensory report is the smell of burning coal, detected specifically on the third and fourth floors — a smell that has no obvious source in a building with modern heating systems, and which could plausibly be associated with an era when coal was a standard fuel.
Britannica's 2008 blog post on Southern library ghosts corroborated the Gadsden library's haunting reputation, lending a secondary institutional source to what would otherwise rest entirely on the Southern Spirit Guide's documentation.
Notable Entities
The Gadsden Public Library is a functioning public library. The elevator and upper floors — where the apparition sightings and cold spots have been reported — are accessible during normal operating hours.
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