Built on the site of Rose Hill Manor and an 1830s hospital, Fordham's Bronx campus has produced documented haunting reports across Collins Auditorium, Keating Hall, O'Hare Hall, and at least four other buildings.
441 East Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 10458
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Campus grounds are accessible to visitors; no admission fee. Seasonal student-led ghost tours offered around Halloween.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved campus pathways; some building interiors have stairs
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Photos OK
Est. 1841 · Founded 1841 on former Rose Hill Manor estate · Built near site of 1830s hospital · Keating Hall used as filming location for The Exorcist (1973) · Hughes Hall repurposed from dorm to Gabelli School of Business, 2012
Fordham University's Rose Hill campus was established in 1841 when the Society of Jesus purchased the Rose Hill Manor estate in what was then a rural section of the Bronx. An 1830s hospital previously occupied the land or its immediate vicinity — the institution was cleared during construction of the campus's earliest buildings.
Keating Hall, the campus's central Gothic-collegiate landmark, was completed in 1935. Its chapel, basement lecture halls, and corridors became familiar to a wider audience when scenes from The Exorcist (1973) were filmed there. The building was not, as some accounts claim, converted from a hospital — it was purpose-built as a classroom hall.
Hughes Hall served for decades as a student dormitory before being repurposed as the Gabelli School of Business in 2012. Before the conversion, residents reported a recurring apparition of a small boy in the hallways, along with unexplained door activity.
O'Hare Hall was completed in 2000. During construction, a worker suffered a fatal heart attack on the roof and fell. The account has circulated among students ever since: residents describe unexplained hammering sounds inside the walls, most often late at night.
Finlay Hall previously housed Fordham's Medical School, including rooms used for cadaver dissection. Residents over the years have described a sensation of being grabbed at the throat and having their toes pulled while in bed — specific enough to have persisted in student testimony across multiple generations.
Sources
The Rose Hill campus's haunting tradition is documented partly through Fordham's own library research guides, which catalog reports building by building — an unusual degree of institutional acknowledgment for a Jesuit institution.
Collins Auditorium (1904) is the most consistently reported site. Faculty and students describe seeing a man walking the balconies at hours when no one is supposed to be in the building; the figure is also said to move backstage equipment before productions. A 2014 student account gave the figure the name Johnny Collins — though no documented connection to anyone by that name has been established.
Keating Hall reports center on physical sensation rather than visual apparitions: cold spots in summer, a sense of being touched on the shoulder in the basement, and documented electronics malfunctions — multiple sinks in one bathroom reportedly activated simultaneously, with windows slamming closed in the same event.
Martyr's Court dormitory has produced accounts of a small blonde girl seen behind shower curtains, accompanied by the sound of children laughing inside the walls.
Finlay Hall's medical-school history is the basis for its resident reports: throat-grabbing sensations and toe-tugging at night, specific enough to have circulated for decades.
The Queens Court incident in summer 2003 is the most detailed: an RA reported that mattresses were being repeatedly propped upright in a room by an unseen force. An elderly Jesuit then appeared, spoke, and the disturbance ended. The figure was not a living resident of the building.
Notable Entities
Walk the Rose Hill campus past Collins Auditorium (1904), Keating Hall (1935), O'Hare Hall, Martyr's Court, and Hughes Hall. A university library research guide documents the haunting traditions associated with each building.
Student organizations offer ghost tours of the Rose Hill campus around Halloween, focusing on reported paranormal phenomena across multiple buildings. Check the Fordham events calendar for seasonal dates.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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