The Westcott Building at Florida State University with its brick towers and arched entry, and the Westcott Fountain in the plaza in front

Florida State University – Tallahassee, FL: Gallows Hill, the Westcott Fountain and the Ghosts of Cawthon Hall

Southeastern US Haunted Schools

Florida State University in Tallahassee has two ghost stories that people tell about the main campus, and they could hardly be more different. One is tied to the ground under the Westcott Building and its fountain, where a hanging took place nearly two centuries ago and is documented in a pioneer’s memoir. The other is a pair of residence hall legends about Cawthon Hall, told as school lore by the university’s own archivists. This guide keeps the history and the legends apart, treats the hanging with the seriousness it deserves, and notes where the stories do not hold up.

Gallows Hill: what the record says

The best early source is the memoir of Francis Elizabeth “Lizzie” Brown, who arrived in Tallahassee as a ten-year-old with her family in 1828. She began writing her recollections in the spring of 1894, at age 77, and the historian Bertram Groene published them with notes as “Lizzie Brown’s Tallahassee” in the Florida Historical Quarterly in 1969. In the fall of the year she arrived, she remembered, the first trial for murder took place. A Black woman had been convicted of killing her baby and sentenced to hang. The place chosen was the spot where the West Florida Seminary later stood, and the woman was hanged there that fall. From then on the hill was used for hangings and called Gallows Hill, and the gallows stood there for many years. The memoir gives no name for the woman, and no other source found for this guide does either. Groene adds a note that the site is now occupied by Westcott Hall.

Columnist Gerald Ensley, writing in the Tallahassee Democrat on November 8, 2024, gives the same outline. He dates the hanging to the fall of 1829 or 1830 and describes an unidentified Black woman convicted of killing her child. He writes that the site was used for executions until 1854, when Tallahassee’s mayor, Francis Eppes, built a male academy there. The West Florida Seminary opened in that building in 1857, and Florida State traces its history to that school. The university’s Ghosts of FSU exhibit places Gallows Hill right about where the Westcott Fountain stands today, and calls the hanging the first and most famous execution there.

The present landmark is newer than the hill’s history. According to the 175 Years exhibit on the building, the Westcott Building went up in 1909 as the Administrative Building and was renamed in 1936 for the benefactor James D. Westcott Jr. A fire in April 1969 destroyed much of its interior, and renovations finished in 1973 kept the Collegiate Gothic exterior. The Westcott Fountain was a gift of the classes of 1915 and 1917. Its structure failed in 1988 and an exact replica replaced it.

The legend of the hill

The ghost story is the one the university’s own special collections blog tells in School Spirits: Ghosts at Florida State. The blog dates the hill to 1829 and calls the hanging of a mother convicted of killing her child the first and most famous execution there. The story holds that the hanging left something behind, and that students crossing the plaza or standing near the fountain at night have felt chills or heard odd sounds. The story is a campus tradition, passed along among students. No dated sighting, named witness or contemporary report was found for it.

Cawthon Hall: two ghosts, told as lore

Cawthon Hall is named for Sarah “Tissie” Landrum Cawthon, the first Dean of the College Home, now known as Student Affairs, at Florida State College for Women. FSU’s housing page notes that she held the post for fifteen years and started the Student Government Association, and Ensley writes that she resigned in 1925 because of poor health. The hall was built in the late 1940s. The FSU Legacy Walk says 1946, housing lists 1949, and FSU’s digital repository catalogs a 1948 dedication. Today it houses first year students and a music living-learning community.

The university’s Ghosts of FSU exhibit says the hall has two ghost stories. In the first, Tissie Cawthon herself moved in after the dedication to keep an eye on the women living there. The exhibit credits this to Daniel Barefoot’s book *Haunted Halls of Ivy*, and adds that some say she arrived when the campus became coeducational. In the second, a student sunbathing on the roof was caught in a thunderstorm, was locked out, pounded on the windows and was killed by lightning. Residents of the top floor are said to hear pounding and crying and to see a girl at the window. The exhibit says the stories passed from student to student until they became legend, and the special collections blog calls them “campus mythologies.” The FSU residence halls archive preserves a Florida Flambeau article of August 4, 1971, which the special collections blog credits to Lucy Weber, “Does Cawthon Hall Have School Spirit?” and describes as discussing tales of paranormal activity in the hall. The exhibit and the blog give the article’s title as “Is there a ghost in Cawthon Hall?”

What the record does not support

  • A single year for the hanging. The memoir’s own sequence, and Groene’s note on it, point to the fall of 1828. The university exhibit says 1829, and Ensley says 1829 or 1830. Groene also warns that Lizzie Brown’s memory was inaccurate at times, and she wrote some 66 years after she arrived. Groene’s note adds that a man identified only as Ben was tried for murder in 1827, so the order of early cases is uncertain. The year is best treated as uncertain.
  • Any link between the hanging and later sightings. The records establish an execution and a site. They do not connect either to the stories of chills on the plaza.
  • A named victim in the roof story. None of the university pages read for this guide names the student or gives a date. The legend calls the victim a student of the women’s college, yet Ensley reports that Florida State College for Women became the coeducational Florida State University in 1947, and the hall was dedicated in 1948. The details do not line up neatly, which suggests they shifted in retelling.
  • The contents of the 1971 article. The newspaper itself was not read for this guide. Only the university’s descriptions of it are cited.
  • A fraternity-house ghost. A “Howdy” ghost story from a Phi Delta Theta house is sometimes attached to FSU online. It belongs to Tennessee Tech, according to that school’s student paper, The Oracle (October 24, 2014), and no FSU source was found.

Visiting

The Westcott plaza and fountain are on the public campus and can be seen during the day. The Westcott Building houses the university’s administrative offices. FSU’s exhibit notes that the university announced in 2026 that the fountain would be fenced off daily from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m., so check current rules before planning a night visit. Cawthon Hall is a student residence and not a visitor site. Please do not enter the building or disturb the residents.

Sources

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Top image: The Westcott Building and fountain at Florida State University in Tallahassee, photographed August 18, 2018. Photo: Ernie Stephens, CC0 (public domain dedication), cropped, via Wikimedia Commons