Est. 1900 · Appalachian Mission Education · Mountain Medical History · Presbyterian Mission History · Liberal Arts College Founding
Edgar Tufts arrived in the Banner Elk area of Avery County in the late 1890s as a Presbyterian minister and found communities with limited access to formal education. In the winter of 1899, he began tutoring young people from the area in his study. The small group he gathered, called the Class of 1900, marks the institution's founding.
Tufts named his first school building after Elizabeth McRae, a teacher from South Carolina who contributed early support. In 1905, the school's name was amended to add a reference to Mrs. S. P. Lees of Kentucky, another benefactor. The institution received its state charter in 1907 as Lees-McRae Institute and became a fully accredited junior college in 1931.
Alongside the school, Tufts founded the 20-bed Grace Memorial Hospital to address the severe shortage of medical care in the surrounding Appalachian communities. When Tufts died in 1923, the hospital was one of three institutions — along with the college and an orphanage for 100 children — that his work had created.
By 1961, the hospital building had been renovated for use as student dormitory housing and renamed Tate Hall in recognition of Dr. Tate's contributions to the institution. The building retained its basic structure but was adapted to residential use, including — in the version of campus legend that circulates to this day — a now-removed elevator shaft that figures in one of the reported phenomena.
Sources
- https://www.ncpedia.org/lees-mcrae-college
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lees%E2%80%93McRae_College
- https://www.lmc.edu/about/news-center/articles/2022/feature-article3.htm
- https://828newsnow.com/news/228822-strangeville-the-ghost-of-emily-at-lees-mcrae-college/
Phantom soundsLights flickeringDoors opening/closingObject movementApparitions
Among current and former Lees-McRae students, the fourth floor of Tate Hall has a specific reputation. Multiple students have independently described hearing the sound of a ball bouncing on the floor above them late at night — a floor that is, in some of the accounts, empty. Security staff have reported returning to find lights on in corridors they had just switched off.
The figure associated with these reports carries the name Emily, drawn from a gravestone located in a small cemetery near the campus. The stone marks the burial of Emily Draughn, who died in 1935. The inscription reads: "She is not dead, but sleeping." Her age at death is not recorded on the marker. A 2000 newspaper investigation of the campus legend, referenced in a subsequent 828 News Now article, raised the possibility that Emily may not have been a young child — complicating the version of the story that circulates most widely, which describes her as a 12-year-old tuberculosis patient in the then-hospital.
Students have returned to their rooms to find clothing removed from drawers and closets and scattered across the floor. A frequently repeated account describes an elevator operating in Tate Hall despite the fact that no elevator currently exists in the building — the shaft was removed during the 1961 renovation.
Emily's presence has been reported outside Tate Hall as well. Witnesses in Virginia Hall, Hayes Auditorium, and Tennessee Dorm have described a young woman in old-fashioned clothing whose appearance has been attributed to the same figure. The campus library, also named in Tate's original mission-era facilities, has its own separate set of reports.
The college acknowledges the Emily legend as part of campus culture. A 2022 feature article on the Lees-McRae College website addressed Tate Hall's history as the former hospital directly, though not the paranormal claims.
Notable Entities
Emily Draughn
