HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
A 1926 Keene State residence hall named for educator Harriet Lane Huntress, the subject of a long-running campus ghost story.
229 Main Street, Keene, NH 03435
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Huntress Hall is an active Keene State College residence hall. The building interior is not open to the public; the exterior can be viewed from the campus and Appian Way / Main Street area at no cost.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved campus walkways around the residence hall; building interior is not publicly accessible.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1926 · Named for Harriet Lane Huntress (1860-1922), NH deputy superintendent of public instruction · Honors the first woman in New England appointed deputy superintendent · 1926 residence hall, originally a women's dormitory at Keene Normal School
Huntress Hall stands on the Keene State College campus, off Appian Way near Main Street in downtown Keene. The brick residence hall was built in 1926 and named for Harriet Lane Huntress, a New Hampshire educator and public servant who had died in 1922.
Huntress was a significant figure in state education. Born in 1860 in the Center Harbor area, she joined the New Hampshire Department of Public Instruction in 1889 and in 1913 became deputy superintendent, described as the first woman in New England appointed to such a position. She was also a suffragist and clubwoman, and her work focused heavily on the state's normal schools at Keene and Plymouth, the teacher-training colleges that became Keene State and Plymouth State. New Hampshire College conferred an honorary master's degree on her in 1920. When Keene Normal School named a women's dormitory in her honor, it was recognizing a career devoted to public education.
The building has served generations of Keene State students. During World War II, the campus housed Navy trainees, a period that figures in the dormitory's later folklore. Today Huntress Hall remains active student housing and is a recognizable landmark on a campus that traces its roots to the founding of Keene Normal School in 1909.
Sources
The best-known story at Keene State College is the one attached to Huntress Hall. According to the student newspaper, the Equinox, residents have for decades reported hearing the sound of a rolling wheelchair, creaking back and forth, coming from the attic. The noise was attributed to Harriet Huntress, and the story holds that her wheelchair was kept in the attic after her death.
The legend has some obvious problems with the historical record. Huntress died in 1922, four years before the dormitory that bears her name was built in 1926, so she never lived or stayed in the building. Some versions of the tale tie the activity to World War II, when Navy trainees were housed on campus and the all-female dorm's usual order was disrupted. Other versions add that Huntress dislikes being mocked and that students who dress as her for Halloween invite mischief.
The story has been examined skeptically. A 2016 Equinox feature laid out the legend, and a follow-up 2024 Equinox piece set out to debunk it, while local paranormal listings note that a 2008 investigation of the hall turned up nothing. Out of fairness to the real Harriet Huntress, an accomplished educator and the first woman in New England to serve as a state deputy superintendent of public instruction, the campus story is best treated as folklore that grew up around her name rather than anything documented about her life. Visitors should view the building only from the public campus walkways; it is active student housing.
Notable Entities
See Huntress Hall, the 1926 brick residence hall named for educator Harriet Lane Huntress, from the public walkways of the Keene State College campus. The interior is active student housing and is not open to visitors. The campus connects to downtown Keene's Main Street, where several other Monadnock-region sites of local interest cluster.
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