Shilling Hall at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, a red-brick building with a clock tower and tiled roof, seen across the lawn

Millikin University – Decatur, IL: Rail Girl, Aston Hall and the Old Gym

Midwestern US Haunted Schools

Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, has a campus ghost list that students have passed around for years: Rail Girl in the Albert Taylor Theatre, a student in Aston Hall, phantom basketballs in the Old Gym and a bricked-up window in Shilling Hall. The student newspaper, The Decaturian, has kept the stories in print, and Millikin’s own archives mention one of them. Only a few have anything behind them. This guide separates the documented events from the folklore.

What the record says

James Millikin University opened for classes on September 15, 1903, and the university’s chronology dates Shilling Hall, then Liberal Arts Hall, to a June 12, 1902 cornerstone. Its auditorium, first an assembly hall, was rededicated as Albert Taylor Hall on October 28, 1939. Women’s Hall opened for residents in the fall of 1907, and in December 1909 it took the name Aston Hall, after Anna Aston Millikin’s maiden name, according to the University Archives Aston Hall exhibit. The gymnasium opened in 1912, and the Student Army Training Corps used it in 1918. Army Air Corps cadets were housed there in 1943, before barracks were built.

One student death is documented. In 2019 The Decaturian reported, from its own archive, that student Bernice Richardson died by suicide in Aston Hall on February 1, 1927. The 1927 issue itself was not available for this guide. Because the story concerns a young person’s suicide, it is told here without method or detail. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

The same article says the only recorded death in the Old Gym was caretaker Clarence O. Foster, 64, found dead on March 28, 1942. That date rests on the student paper alone. The building was demolished starting September 27, 2022, according to The Decaturian, and a new athletic center opened in 2025.

The legends

Rail Girl. In the Albert Taylor Theatre, inside Shilling Hall, a girl in a white dress is said to sit on the upper lighting rail. Crews blame her for equipment trouble and leave candy for her. The University Archives theatre exhibit lists her under “Strange but True?” A 2014 Decaturian feature calls her origin unknown, while a 2021 version says she died after an accident.

The Aston ghost. Students say Richardson walks the third floor. Objects are said to move, and she is seen only from the waist up. A 2021 retelling instead has a student falling to her death on the stairs.

The Old Gym. Students reported dribbling, cheering and footsteps on the elevated track. In 2019 Public Safety officers walked it overnight with student reporters and found only noisy pipes.

Others. A woman in a blue dress in a Blackburn Hall mirror, named after the hall’s namesake, a Modern Languages professor. A maid named Louise at the Alumni House, from Troy Taylor’s Haunted Decatur (2009). A hand on an officer’s shoulder in the Kirkland Fine Arts Center pit. Aston’s security-camera “dancing ghost” orb.

What the record does not support

  • A fatal Shilling Hall fire behind the bricked-up window. The chronology lists a 1970 fire at the Anna Millikin Home but none in Shilling, though it is a work in progress.
  • A named or dated Rail Girl. No person, date or death has been found.
  • A body behind the boiler, a lost graveyard, a Native burial ground. The 2019 article repeats these as rumor with no source. The boiler building came down in 2018.
  • A 1919 flu quarantine at the Millikin homestead. The 2019 article states it; no record was found.
  • A death at the Alumni House. The 2019 article says none is recorded, and the “wicked housemother” has no source.
  • The Aston stairs fall. It conflicts with the 2019 account of Richardson’s death.

Visiting

Millikin is a working private university at 1184 W. Main Street, and the visit pages do not describe public access to residence halls or classroom buildings, so assume it is restricted. Official visit days are designed for prospective students, and the page lists performances at Kirkland Fine Arts Center. The Old Gym no longer exists. No public ghost tour was found, and archive hours were not confirmed, so check before you travel.

FAQ

Is Rail Girl real?

She is campus folklore. The university’s own exhibit files her under “Strange but True?”

Did a student really die in Aston Hall?

Yes, per The Decaturian’s archive research on February 1, 1927. The ghost story is separate from that fact.

Can the Old Gym still be seen?

No. It was torn down starting in September 2022.

More haunted schools in Illinois

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

Sources

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Top image: Shilling Hall, formerly the Liberal Arts Building, at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, photographed June 10, 2011. Photo: Paris25, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons