Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA campus legend about a 1960s elevator accident in an adjacent dormitory migrated to Harris Hall after the original building was demolished — students and staff still report the ghost they call Lily.
214 Hebrard Boulevard, Lafayette, LA 70503
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
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Free
UL Lafayette campus is publicly accessible. Exterior walk-bys are free; building access is restricted to students and university affiliates.
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Wheelchair OK
Paved university campus walkways
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Est. 1960 · UL Lafayette campus legend of 'Lily' originating in demolished Denbo Hall · Named in 2012 campus newspaper The Vermilion · Documented in The Advocate in 2024 with student and staff accounts
Harris Hall is a dormitory on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette campus. The paranormal legend attached to it is properly understood as originating with a now-demolished building: Denbo Hall, which previously occupied or was adjacent to the same part of campus.
A campus legend — one without documentation of an actual fatality in university records — held that a female student was killed in a malfunctioning elevator in Denbo Hall sometime in the 1960s. The elevator was said to have been subsequently sealed behind a steel door. When Denbo Hall was demolished, the story did not disappear; it migrated to Harris Hall, the surviving adjacent building.
In 2012, the UL Lafayette student newspaper The Vermilion published an article naming the ghost 'Lily' — the first documented formal naming of the figure in print. The Vermilion article generated enough campus conversation to establish Lily as a recognized part of UL Lafayette's informal oral history. A 2024 article in The Advocate followed up on the legend, interviewing current students and staff who described ongoing sightings and campus belief in the haunting.
The Advocate's coverage is notable for interviewing people who work and live in Harris Hall and taking their accounts seriously as part of the campus culture, rather than framing the story purely as fiction. Lafayette's official tourism site includes Denbo/Harris Hall among the area's notable legends.
Sources
The Lily legend circulates on the UL Lafayette campus in several overlapping versions, none of which can be verified against university or public records. The core account holds that a female student was killed in an elevator accident in Denbo Hall in the 1960s. The elevator was sealed, and Denbo Hall was eventually demolished — but the legend persisted and attached itself to Harris Hall.
The 2012 naming of the ghost as 'Lily' by The Vermilion gave the legend a specific identity that made it more durable in campus culture. Following that article, references to Lily became more common in student accounts and informal documentation. An earlier account — from a student in the 1980s — described seeing a young woman in period-appropriate clothing standing in a dormitory window and waving, only to find the room empty when investigated.
The Advocate's 2024 coverage found current Harris Hall residents and staff who described specific experiences: unexplained sounds in the building, a sense of being watched, and occasional visual anomalies near the upper floors. Faculty members interviewed for the piece acknowledged awareness of the legend without necessarily endorsing it.
What makes the Harris Hall case notable as a dark-tourism entry is the documented continuity of the legend across decades and its institutional acknowledgment in both the student press and regional journalism — unusual for a campus urban legend.
Notable Entities
Visit the UL Lafayette campus and locate Harris Hall on Hebrard Boulevard. The building is an active dormitory and exterior viewing only is appropriate for non-university visitors. The Lily legend is well-documented in the campus newspaper and local press.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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