Stone front and red-tiled roof of Pemberton Hall, a 1909 residence hall at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois

Eastern Illinois University – Charleston, IL: Pemberton Hall and the Real Mary Hawkins

Midwestern US Haunted Schools

A ghost named Mary is said to haunt Pemberton Hall, the women’s residence hall at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, IL. In the stories she moves from room to room checking that doors are locked and switching stereos and TVs on and off, like a housemother from the Other Side. One account describes a student in the spring of 1981 waking to see a young woman in a nightgown at her bedside. The best-known version says Mary was a counselor murdered by a custodian in the 1920s. The record points somewhere else: Mary Hawkins was a real matron, and her documented story is quieter and sadder than the legend.

Historic Carnegie library in Charleston, Illinois
Historic photo of the Coles County Courthouse in Charleston, Illinois

What the record shows

Pemberton Hall opened on January 4, 1909, named for state senator Stanton C. Pemberton, who helped secure $100,000 for the dormitory and gymnasium. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as “Pemberton Hall and Gymnasium” (added 1982, architect W. Carbys Zimmerman).

Mary E. Hawkins was born in Moat, England, on September 10, 1877, and came to the United States in 1901. According to Michael Kleen’s 2014 study, which cites her obituary, death certificate and campus records, she became the hall’s dorm director in August 1910 and left in March 1917. Doctors later described her as “depressed and irrational.” She died on the night of October 29, 1918, at Kankakee State Hospital, aged 41. The death certificate gave “general paralysis of the insane,” or general paresis, which Kleen explains is a late result of syphilis. She is buried in Mound Cemetery in Charleston. Her obituary called her “a woman of education and refinement,” and a bronze tablet in her memory was hung near the entrance two years after her death.

Where the legend comes from

The earliest print telling found is Karen Knupp’s “Ghosts in Pem: True or Not” in the Eastern News on October 15, 1976. It says the stories had been passed down for years, names Hawkins as dorm matron from 1910 to 1917, and quotes a residence counselor saying there were no records of a murder and that Hawkins did not die in the dorm. It also reports students holding a “Mary Hawkins Day” the previous spring. A follow-up on November 5, 1976, quoted a former resident who credited pranks by a student for the story, but Kleen found that her recollection was probably second hand.

Later tellings drifted. The murder moves between winter break, May and spring break. The 1994 National Directory of Haunted Places gives 1920, and the 2014 book Haunted Colleges and Universities says “the 1920s.” The 1981 nightgown account was reprinted in the 1994 book Haunted America, which Kleen credits with spreading the story nationally. Haunted-house fundraisers in the hall began in 1978, and the fourth floor, which a residence counselor said in 1976 was locked because it was unfinished and used for storage, became part of the tale.

Folklorists place the murdered coed in a familiar pattern, “The Roommate’s Death,” first written down by Linda Dégh in 1969. Versions are told at other campuses, with an axe-wielding intruder and a victim who scratches at a door.

What the record does not support

  • A murder at Pemberton Hall: none is documented, and a 1976 residence counselor said no records exist.
  • A 1920s date: Hawkins left in 1917 and died in 1918. The “1920s” traces to Hauck (1994) and Ogden (2014).
  • Hawkins as a “counselor” or resident assistant: she was the dorm director.
  • A death in the hall or a suicide: she died in a state hospital of paresis.
  • A young blonde ghost: Kleen describes Hawkins as middle-aged with curly dark hair.
  • A cover-up shown by gaps in the school paper: Kleen attributes them to wartime paper rationing.
  • A link between the legend’s “poor farm janitor” and any real person: the Coles County Poor Farm history does not mention Pemberton Hall.

Other EIU stories (leads only)

Other EIU tellings were not verified here. An Eastern News item from October 23, 1963, about the Old Main tower, was not read. A 2022 student opinion column calls the Booth Library clock tower haunted, and only its opening was read. Student accounts in the Eastern News in 2019 and 2022 are anecdotes with no traceable source. Margaret Allen-Kline’s 1998 EIU master’s thesis on the legend, cited by Kleen, was not read.

Visiting

Pemberton Hall is an active all-female residence hall with room for 120 residents, so it is a home first and a landmark second. The hall is at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and 4th Street. No public ghost tour was found, and the fourth floor is reported closed. The latest Halloween open house Kleen’s study mentions is 2001, so check with EIU Housing before planning anything. Most campuses are working schools: confirm access and hours directly before going.

FAQ

Who is Mary?

In the legend she is either a murdered coed or a dead matron watching over the hall. The real Mary Hawkins was the dorm director from 1910 to 1917 and died in 1918 of paresis.

Was anyone murdered at Pemberton Hall?

No murder is documented. The story first appears in print in 1976.

What does she do?

She is said to check that doors are locked, switch off TVs and stereos and look in on sleeping students.

Is she frightening?

Most tellings describe her as protective, though the murder version is a classic horror tale.

More haunted schools in Illinois

Read about Millikin University, Lewis and Clark Community College or Lourdes High School.

Sources

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Top image: Front of Pemberton Hall on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. Photo: Nyttend, public domain, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons