Pattie Cobb Hall at Harding University, a two-story red-brick building with a rounded entrance canopy, partly framed by trees

Harding University – Searcy, AR: Gertie and the Ghost of a Building That No Longer Stands

Southeastern US Haunted Schools

Harding University’s best-known ghost is a young woman named Gertrude, said to have fallen to her death in an elevator shaft at Godden Hall, a building torn down in 1951. No source found documents that death. The earliest print mention of a ghost in Godden Hall is a September 1936 item in the student paper, and the best-known version of the story was written by a student editor in 1950 and ends by calling the tale “ridiculous.” This guide separates the documented history of the campus from the legend that grew on it.

The campus before Harding

According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Galloway Women’s College in Searcy was dedicated on April 18, 1889, and was established by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. A fire in 1898 destroyed its four-story building. Charles Conway Godden was president from 1897 to 1907. Enrollment fell during the Depression, and the school closed after its last commencement in June 1933 and merged with Hendrix College. A year later the property was sold to Harding College, which moved from Morrilton to Searcy in 1934.

Harding’s 1950 yearbook says the Searcy campus had 120 acres and six main buildings, including Godden Hall and Pattie Cobb, and was bought for $75,000. Godden Hall was the center of campus life for both schools. Harding’s Bell Tower page says the Bell Tower and the Claud Rogers Lee Building were built with bricks from Godden Hall, and the 1957 yearbook says the tower holds the bell once housed there. Students helped dismantle the hall, which was razed in 1951 to make room for the Administration Building, according to the 1992 yearbook. Harding’s Special Collections dates the new music building to the early 1950s and says its bricks came from Godden Hall.

The earliest traces of the ghost

Harding’s 2023-24 yearbook says the first recorded account of a ghostly presence appeared in the September 1936 issue of The Bison, which described Godden Hall as haunted. The ghost was dubbed the “Galloway Ghost” in the following years. The Bison issue of September 29, 1936 is in Harding’s archive, but its scan could not be opened for this guide, so the 1936 wording is not quoted here.

The White County Historical Society reprints a recollection from Fayetta Murray, who said the Galloway Ghost story was already on campus when she arrived in 1934. She gave it little credit and thought it “was created by the boys to make the girls scoot a little closer.” The 2023-24 yearbook adds that students made up a backstory for the ghost in the 1940s and shows a satirical clipping from The Bison of April 6, 1948.

The 1950 story

The version most people now repeat comes from The Bison of November 4, 1950, written by student editor Chris Elliott and reprinted by the historical society. Its outline:

  • Gertrude, a popular Galloway student, comes home from a party one November night, hears something, and walks toward an abandoned elevator shaft.
  • A scream wakes the dorm, and police find her at the bottom of the shaft. The case is closed as an “Accident,” and no killer is found.
  • Years later a freshman sees her sitting in the shaft in a white evening gown, combing her hair. The dean of women looks and finds only “an old comb someone dropped.”
  • The writer concludes that Gertrude is said to walk Godden’s halls on full-moon nights, “and it is ridiculous, of course.”

The piece is plainly tongue in cheek. It also predicts the end of the story, asking whether the ghost will move to Pattie Cobb Hall when Godden is wrecked and answering “I doubt it. For, with destruction of Godden, so goes the ghost story.” A note added by the reprint says many people say the ghost moved to the Music Building instead. The 2023-24 yearbook says the story was revived in the 1960s.

Gertie after Godden Hall

The yearbook says Gertrude’s spirit came to be associated with the Bell Tower and the Lee Building, whose bricks came from Godden Hall. Students reported footsteps overhead, doors opening and slamming, locked doors found unlocked and faint piano notes. Special Collections Librarian Hannah Wood, who studied at Harding in the late 1990s, recalled friends who heard someone practicing upstairs and found no one there. These are legends and student recollections, not documented events.

An October 1998 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article by Penny Warner, reprinted by the historical society, calls her “Gertie Sue.” It describes a woman in white lace walking the old brick path toward the music building, which it says was built about 300 yards from Godden Hall’s site, and quotes an unnamed former student who says he and friends recorded footsteps in a recording booth. Some who heard the tape said they could have made the sounds themselves. The same article retells a separate legend from Richard Young’s collection, “The Ghost on the Third Floor,” about a grieving music student who plays a piano on a floor that does not exist.

Pattie Cobb Hall

Pattie Cobb Hall is one of the few buildings that connect Galloway and Harding. Harding’s campus buildings page says it was built in 1919 as part of Galloway Women’s College and was named in 1934 for the wife of James A. Harding. It stands in this guide’s top photo. No Gertie sighting there appears in the sources reviewed. The 1950 story mentions it only in the line quoted above.

What the record does not support

  • A death in Godden Hall. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas history of Galloway mentions no such death. The only detailed account is the 1950 student piece, which calls itself ridiculous. No source found identifies a real Galloway student named Gertrude, gives a year for such a death or describes an elevator in Godden Hall.
  • A single construction year for Godden Hall. The 2023-24 yearbook captions it “built in 1902.” A White County Historical Society photo caption describes a college building of 1898 that replaced the burned 1888 original and was later razed for the Administration Building. The sources disagree, so no year is stated here.
  • The 1936 wording. Only the yearbook’s description of it was available.
  • A ghost that moved on its own. The 1950 writer expected the story to end with Godden. The move to the music building is something later students said.

Visiting

Harding is a working campus in Searcy. Undergraduate visits are organized through Harding’s campus visit page or the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at 800-477-4407. The page lists Black & Gold Days and dates when the campus is closed to events. Please respect classes, practice rooms and residences.

Sources

Shop the gear

Heads up: NicheStuff is our own shop, so we earn from purchases made through these links. Prices and availability are set on the store and can change.

Top image: Pattie Cobb Hall at Harding University, Searcy, shown because Godden Hall no longer stands and no free photo of it, the Bell Tower or the Lee Building was found. Pattie Cobb Hall was built in 1919 as part of Galloway Women’s College, and trees partly screen the front. Photo: Valis55, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons