Nine-Story Dorm with a Ghost Named Penelope
150 University Blvd, Morehead, KY 40351
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public university campus — exterior accessible; dormitory interior restricted to residents and guests
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved campus
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1969 · Appalachian Higher Education History · Campus Legend
Morehead State University was established in 1887 as Morehead Normal School, a teacher training institution in Rowan County in eastern Kentucky's Appalachian foothills. It achieved university status in 1966 and currently enrolls approximately 9,000 students.
Nunn Hall was constructed in 1969, named in honor of Beula Nunn, wife of then-Governor Louie B. Nunn. The building is a nine-story structure holding 400 students in co-ed floors and is situated at the back of the main campus. The university's positioning within the Daniel Boone National Forest gives Nunn Hall and its upper floors views not typically associated with a dormitory — green ridgelines extending in every direction.
The university's student newspaper, The Trail Blazer, published a piece in 2015 examining the Penelope legend, interviewing current and former residents. A former resident adviser in the building reported lights turning on and objects moving during his time there. Sophomore students described sensing presences in the elevator and finding objects displaced on the seventh and ninth floors. The Kantuckee travel blog has also compiled accounts from MSU community members about Nunn Hall.
A real student death provides one possible historical grounding for the legend: Dora Deloris Ball, a 20-year-old early education major, died near the campus. However, Ball was a resident of Mignon Hall, not Nunn Hall, which complicates the direct connection some accounts draw.
Sources
The Penelope legend at Nunn Hall follows the structure of a campus ghost story that has been told long enough to acquire stable narrative features. The core account: a student became pregnant by a man her parents refused to accept. Unable to tell them, she jumped from the ninth floor.
The activity attributed to Penelope is specific to certain floors and systems. The seventh and ninth floors are named most often in resident accounts. The elevator has its own tradition — ascending to floors nobody called, doors opening and closing. One reported incident involved the elevator dropping from the eighth floor to the fifth with no passenger call, then continuing to the second.
Former resident advisers have described lights activating without input and objects found in different positions. One RA reported items "moved around" in ways he couldn't account for. Residents described a sense of presence in the elevator when riding alone.
A 2015 investigation by The Trail Blazer, MSU's student newspaper, found that the legend is well-known throughout the campus community, though accounts varied in their specifics. The association with Dora Deloris Ball — a real MSU student who died near the building — is noted in the university's paranormal coverage, with researchers acknowledging Ball lived in Mignon Hall, not Nunn, making the direct connection uncertain.
The ninth-floor hallway is noted for a consistently warm handrail — a detail frequently mentioned by residents as the most physically verifiable element of the legend.
Notable Entities
Morehead State University's main campus is publicly accessible. Nunn Hall, a nine-story co-ed residence hall, can be viewed from the exterior. The building is the only university dormitory in the country located within a national forest. The ninth-floor hallway is the focus of most paranormal accounts.
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