Confederate Hospital Turned Campus Stage
1300 Greene St, Columbia, SC 29208
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Ticket prices vary by production. Check the USC Theatre box office for current schedule.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved campus paths; arena-style interior
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1855 · Civil War · Confederate Medical History · University History · Classical Revival Architecture
The building that now houses the University of South Carolina's Department of Theatre and Dance began as a campus chapel and auditorium in 1855, constructed in the Classical Revival style that dominated institutional architecture in the antebellum South. The structure served several purposes in its early decades: classroom building, gymnasium, armory.
When the Civil War interrupted university operations in the early 1860s, the building was requisitioned for medical use. Confederate forces established a field hospital within its walls — an arrangement that saw it become a 300-bed receiving and treatment facility. The basement, with its barrel-vaulted brick alcoves, became the morgue. Ventilation shutters were installed on either side of the lower-level entry to regulate airflow — a standard practice for facilities that handled bodies in warm climates. Those shutter doors remain visible today.
After the war, the university resumed operations and the building returned to academic use. It was named for Augustus Longstreet, the institution's eighth president and, USC has since acknowledged, an ardent essayist in support of slavery. The naming has generated renewed scrutiny in recent years as the university has examined its antebellum legacy more directly.
In the 1970s, major renovation work transformed the interior into an arena-style performance space. The Department of Theatre and Dance has occupied it since, mounting a full production calendar each academic year. The barrel-vaulted alcoves of the original morgue now constitute the 'green room' — the backstage preparation area for performers. The building stands at the corner of Sumter and Greene Streets on the central campus.
Sources
The building's haunted reputation is not casual campus lore — it has been consistent enough that USC Theatre Assistant Professor Lauren Wilson created a full-length play in 2025 specifically exploring the history and reported phenomena. The production, titled The Seeing Place, ran at Longstreet from September 26 through October 5, 2025, and followed directing students who stage an unauthorized Hamlet in the theatre.
USCPD officer Eric Grabski described accounts from fellow officers who reported a cold sensation concentrated near the steps of Longstreet Theatre. One officer, in Grabski's account, repeatedly observed what he described as ghostly figures near that location during night patrols. These reports came from officers not known to one another and were apparently not shared between them before Grabski collected them independently.
The green room — the barrel-vaulted basement space that served as the Civil War morgue — is the focal point for student and staff accounts. The ventilation shutters that line either side of the entrance remain in place, still capable of opening. Theatre students have described an abrupt temperature drop in the space and a persistent feeling of being watched from the direction of the alcoves. Several accounts note that students instituted an informal buddy system for the building after dark — declining to work late-night rehearsals alone.
The specific account documented in the original Shadowlands report describes a student who descended to the basement vending machine during a late-night dress rehearsal. Standing at the machine, she experienced a sudden wave of involuntary fear, turned, and felt a wall of cold air strike her despite closed windows and doors. She left immediately. The encounter is consistent with multiple independent accounts from the same area.
Auditory phenomena — doors slamming, unexplained floor creaking — are the most frequently reported. The elevator has been observed opening its doors without being summoned.
Media Appearances
Attend a Department of Theatre and Dance production in this 312-seat arena-style venue built within an 1855 Classical Revival structure that served as a 300-bed Confederate field hospital and morgue. The green room sits in a barrel-vaulted basement space with ventilation shutters still in the walls — remnants of the original morgue. The theatre's production calendar runs throughout the academic year.
The exterior of Longstreet Theatre, at the corner of Sumter and Greene Streets on the University of South Carolina campus, is accessible during regular campus hours. The Classical Revival facade and its relationship to the surrounding antebellum campus buildings provide context for the building's pre-Civil War origins.
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