Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA 1937 elevator death in the campus admin building left behind a ghost story that has outlasted generations of CMU students.
802 University Avenue, Mount Pleasant, MI 48859
Research updated June 2026
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Est. 1892 · Central Michigan University Administration · 1937 Industrial Fatality · Campus Ghost Lore
Warriner Hall anchors the center of Central Michigan University's Mount Pleasant campus and has served as the university's main administrative building for over a century. The building's limestone exterior and formal proportions have made it a campus landmark, but it is a specific and well-documented death inside that defines its reputation in paranormal circles.
On June 12, 1937, Theresa Elizabeth Schumacher — a 19-year-old CMU cafeteria worker from a nearby Michigan town — died when her head was pinned between an elevator car and a fixed bar near the top of the elevator shaft. The death was reported and documented at the time; her name, age, and the mechanism of injury are corroborated by multiple regional sources. She was not a student, and the accident occurred in the course of ordinary work.
In the decades since, her story has become one of the most persistent ghost narratives on the CMU campus. Regional radio and the university's own student newspaper, Central Michigan Life, have published accounts of the haunting at regular intervals. Reports cluster around the theater spaces in the building: actors describe being touched by unseen hands during rehearsals, technicians report blue lights visible near the rafters, and some claim to see a young woman's apparition in the upper levels of the building. The 1937 death is treated as the origin point of all of these accounts.
The accident itself predates modern elevator safety regulations by decades. The specific mechanism — a head caught between a moving car and a structural member at the top of the shaft — represents an era of industrial equipment with lethal tolerances. The elevator has since been updated or removed, but Schumacher's death remains one of the more thoroughly sourced tragic incidents in Michigan campus history.
Sources
CMU's paranormal tradition around Warriner Hall centers entirely on Theresa Schumacher and the elevator death of 1937. Her name is specific, her death is documented, and the haunting reports are consistent across decades of student journalism.
The reported phenomena concentrate in the building's performance and upper-floor areas. Actors working late rehearsals describe feeling something press against them from behind when no one else is nearby. Technical crew members report unexplained blue-tinged lights seen moving near the ceiling of the stage area. Some accounts include a figure — described consistently as a young woman — seen in the upper portions of the building, visible briefly before disappearing.
Central Michigan Life, the university's student newspaper, has revisited the story multiple times across decades, most recently in 2025. Regional outlets including 99.1 WFMK have also documented the tradition. The longevity of the specific, named-person account is unusual compared to more generic campus ghost stories, which typically feature an anonymous figure. Schumacher's documented existence gives the Warriner Hall legend an unusual evidentiary anchor.
Notable Entities
Warriner Hall is the main administrative building on CMU's central campus. Visitors can walk the public corridors and lobby, where the 1937 elevator shaft that claimed Theresa Schumacher's life once operated. The building is a working university office; respectful self-guided exploration of public areas is welcome during business hours.
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