University Residence Hall with Fifth-Floor Haunting Legend
Edinboro, PA
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public campus. Residence hall interior is restricted to residents and guests.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Campus walkways; the building has elevator access
Equipment
Photos OK
Lawrence Towers were constructed in 1974 as eight-story twin-tower residence halls at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. The buildings are named for David L. Lawrence, who served as governor of Pennsylvania from 1959 to 1963 and was previously the long-serving mayor of Pittsburgh. The towers were designed as the university's principal traditional-style high-rise dormitories during a period of significant residential expansion at Pennsylvania's state-system institutions.
In July 2022, Edinboro University merged with Clarion University and California University of Pennsylvania under the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education to form Pennsylvania Western University. The Edinboro campus has since operated as PennWest Edinboro, with Lawrence Towers continuing to serve as student housing. The university has announced a $115 million housing project at the campus, with Lawrence Towers reportedly slated for eventual demolition following completion of the second phase of the new development.
The specific haunting legend attached to Tower A has circulated among students since at least the late 1970s. The legend holds that a female music student died in Room 517 and that the fifth floor was subsequently closed for renovation for a period. A student who attended the university in 1975–1976 — the building's first full academic years of occupancy — documented that no awareness of the legend existed during their time there, suggesting the story developed or gained wider campus circulation after that period.
Sources
The core legend of Lawrence Towers A holds that a female music major died by suicide in Room 517 and that the fifth floor was subsequently closed for renovation. The precise date of the alleged death is not documented, and the renovation story appears in multiple accounts as a folk explanation for the floor's unusual atmosphere. No university record, news report, or court filing corroborating the death has been located, and the suicide narrative should be understood as campus oral tradition rather than verified history.
Phantom singing is the most consistently reported phenomenon attached to the building — a soft voice heard in fifth-floor corridors at night, attributed in the campus legend to the deceased music student. A strong sense of presence in the hallways at night is also consistently described, with some students reporting a compulsion to retreat to their rooms rather than linger in the corridor.
The elevator behavior is a specific repeatable claim across multiple student generations: the cars stop at the fifth floor regardless of which floor was selected. Different accounts from different periods describe the same pattern.
In 2008, an unusual cluster of reports emerged on the fifth floor: multiple students found oily cross-shaped markings on the exterior of their doors and inside their rooms on the same night, with no explanation. The incident was documented independently of the broader phantom-singing legend in regional paranormal accounts. No subsequent investigation has resolved the source of the markings.
Lawrence Towers is an active residence hall closed to non-residents. The campus folklore has continued to circulate among students through the PennWest era.
Notable Entities
Lawrence Towers A and B are traditional high-rise residence halls on the PennWest Edinboro campus. The building's interior is restricted to residents and university guests. The haunted legend is campus folklore centered on the fifth floor of Tower A.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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