Bradley Hall at Mount St. Mary's University, a long four-story stone building with two white cupolas and a flagpole, standing on a lawn below a wooded mountain

Mount St. Mary’s University – Emmitsburg, MD: Father Bruté, Room 252 and the Dates That Do Not Fit

Northeastern US Haunted Schools

Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, founded in 1808, is best known on Halloween for a ghost story about Father Simon Bruté and Room 252 of Bruté Hall. The real Bruté taught at the Mount, became a bishop and died in Indiana in 1839. The hall that carries his name was begun four years later. This guide sets the stories, which have been in print since at least 2000, beside the dates.

What the record says

The university’s history page says Father John DuBois helped lay the foundations in October 1808, that DuBois was the school’s first president, and that Bruté was on the faculty by 1812. The Catholic Encyclopedia says Bruté, born in Rennes in 1779, taught at the Mount and served local Catholics as pastor, earning the name “Angel of the Mount.” He was named first Bishop of Vincennes, Indiana, in 1834 and died there on June 26, 1839.

The Mount’s 1911 history says ground was broken for Bruté Hall in the spring of 1843 and the cornerstone was laid on May 2, 1843. It says Bruté had designed the building long before, and that it was known for 56 years as the Study Hall building.

Nearby, the history page says Elizabeth Ann Seton stayed at the Mount in the summer of 1809 before founding the Daughters of Charity in Emmitsburg. Her free school, St. Joseph Academy, became degree-granting St. Joseph College in 1902 and closed in 1973. FEMA bought 107 acres and 19 buildings in 1979, and the site is now the National Emergency Training Center.

The legends

Room 252. Mount Magazine’s Fall 2000 issue, in a piece credited to Troy Trayor of hauntedmaryland.com, says Bruté’s ghost “is known to occupy” Room 252. It says a priest living there in 1973 left it tidy and returned to find it torn apart, and that his lights and television switched on and off. A second priest’s cat hissed and hid under the bed, and in 1997 three women reported a mirror falling and a toilet that kept flushing. A Washington Post story from 2002 repeated it, with campus historian Rev. Dan Nusbaum recounting the priest’s story and a senior describing a television changing channels by itself. The student said the school had put a bookshelf on the spot where Bruté died. The Post adds that Bruté glides around the quadrangle in long black robes.

“Turn me over.” The Post tells of a Civil War soldier who promised his sweetheart they would gaze at the same star each night. Killed at Gettysburg, he was buried face down in an old well, and his spirit taps people on the shoulder and asks to be turned so he can see the star.

Mother Seton. The Post says her spirit walks the halls.

The light on the mountain. In one founding story, DuBois, weary on a bridle path in 1805, rode toward a light, fell asleep and woke to a view that made him decide to build there. The Post calls the school “founded on a ghostly light.” It also says students build a Halloween bonfire on Echo Field and trade ghost stories, as of 2002.

What the record does not support

  • Bruté dying in Room 252. He died in Vincennes in 1839, and the hall was begun in 1843, so he could not have died in the building.
  • A confirmed haunting. Each account is a retelling or one person’s report.
  • Seton and Civil War soldiers. The Post itself says she died in 1821, decades before the war.
  • The soldier in the well. No name, regiment or burial record appears in the sources read.
  • “The Mount and St. Joseph merged.” Some ghost-tour sites say so. FEMA’s history says St. Joseph College closed in 1973 because of declining enrollment.
  • Leander. The same retellings include a story about an enslaved man named Leander and a violent punishment. This guide does not repeat it. No record of the incident was found, and it sits on real history: the 1911 history counts slaves among the people at the college in 1813. A 2020 announcement of a new history project lists race, justice and community among its possible chapter topics.

Visiting

No public access to Bruté Hall or other residence halls was found, so stay outside. The university offers campus visits six days a week, with a campus tour and an admissions session, and lists Saturday visits and open houses. Confirm dates first. The National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes at 16330 Grotto Road is a public shrine. Its Lourdes replica was built by seminarians in 1875, and the grounds are open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the Visitors Center open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. No university ghost tour was found. The top image shows Bradley Hall, not Bruté Hall.

FAQ

Did Father Bruté die in Room 252?

No. Bruté died in Vincennes, Indiana, in 1839, and the cornerstone of Bruté Hall was laid in 1843.

Is Mount St. Mary’s haunted?

Nothing has been confirmed. The earliest telling in print found for this guide is the 2000 Mount Magazine.

Can you visit Bruté Hall?

No public access was found. Campus tours go through admissions, and the Grotto is open to the public.

More haunted schools in Maryland

Read about the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and Hood College in Frederick. To plan your own visit, see the campus ghost walk guide.

Sources

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Top image: Bradley Hall at Mount St. Mary’s University, Emmitsburg, Maryland, 2010. Photo: Greenhonda, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons