Former Notre Dame Convent Campus Haunted by a Reluctant Nun
12800 North Lake Shore Drive, Mequon, WI 53097
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Active private university. Public access is limited to campus events and open house visits. Exterior grounds are viewable from the lakefront road.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved campus roads and walkways along Lake Michigan
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1982 · School Sisters of Notre Dame · Wisconsin Catholic Education History · Lutheran Higher Education · Mequon Heritage
The lakefront property at 12800 North Lake Shore Drive in Mequon, Wisconsin was developed by the School Sisters of Notre Dame as a residential campus for young women entering the order. The sisters maintained a high school for aspirants on the 102-acre site, along with the chapel, dormitories, and other buildings that formed a self-contained religious community.
By the early 1980s, the practical calculus had changed. Trends within the Catholic Church had shifted — prospective sisters were increasingly encouraged to have more experience in the broader world before joining an order, making the residential high school model obsolete. With only 130 nuns still living on a campus designed for substantially more, the School Sisters decided to sell.
On September 15, 1982, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod purchased the campus for $7.1 million on behalf of Concordia University Wisconsin. The university had been operating in downtown Milwaukee; the move to the Mequon lakefront took effect in 1983. Concordia retained the chapel and dormitory buildings — including Coburg Hall, Catherine Hall, and Augsburg Hall — that the sisters had constructed and used for decades.
The campus today is a fully operational liberal arts university with Lake Michigan visible from much of the grounds.
Sources
Sister Sixtoes has been part of Concordia's student culture for more than forty years, long enough to qualify as genuine campus tradition. The legend's mechanics are consistent: when the School Sisters of Notre Dame sold the Mequon property in 1982, one elderly nun reportedly refused to leave the only home she had known. She died near the chapel, and her presence has been felt by students in the decades since. The nickname — Sixtoes — reflects the informal, slightly affectionate relationship students have developed with the legend.
Activity attributed to Sister Sixtoes is reported in the chapel and in three dormitories: Coburg Hall, Catherine Hall, and Augsburg Hall. Electronics are a frequent category: lights, radios, and televisions that turn on and off when no one is present, particularly after students make jokes or comments about the ghostly nun. Objects in student rooms are found moved from their original positions.
More unusual reports include unexplained bruising on students who wake after sleeping in certain dorm rooms — large bruises in locations where no injury occurred. Banging on walls and doors at night has also been reported.
The chapel — the location where the legend says Sister Sixtoes died and remains — generates its own set of accounts. The outline of a figure has been reported near the stairs adjacent to the chapel during late-night hours, seen briefly and then absent.
No documentation connecting these events to a specific named sister has been found; the nickname appears to be student-generated rather than historically derived.
Notable Entities
Concordia University Wisconsin's 102-acre lakefront campus on Lake Michigan was originally the home of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. The chapel — where Sister Sixtoes is said to have died and continues to be reported — is visible from the campus exterior. Public access is restricted to enrolled students, faculty, staff, and invited visitors.
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