The Tunnels Beneath Us: A Radford Ghost Story
By: Rylee Meadows
In honor of the Halloween season, it is only right to tell a ghost story that involves a place that Radford residents walk over every day: the tunnels underneath Radford’s campus. The McConnell Library Archives provided a 1984 issue of the Tartan, where columnist Richie Ellis analyzes the history of the tunnels and a spooky story about a Radford University student.
The tunnels beneath campus were built around the 1960s, allowing women of the college to travel around campus without having to go outside. Now, the tunnels are used for connecting different locations around campus for utility and heating purposes. They are not accessible to Radford residents whatsoever, as they once were a long time ago.
If you happened to hear any odd noises on Friday night, it may have been the cries of a ghost who is said to visit the tunnels every Halloween: Elizabeth. Elizabeth was a quiet and peculiar girl who was teased by five girls on campus.The five girls constantly picked on her, and then they decided to create a secret admirer for Elizabeth. Using notes and flowers, the five told her to come to a halloween dance dressed as a princess, and then eventually luring her to the tunnels to meet the secret admirer. When she arrived in the tunnels, her admirer wasn’t there, Elizabeth cried and called his name. The lights went out in the tunnel and she heard laughter, she began to run through the darkness frantically, still calling his name, and then sadly tripped and fell to her death. Legend says that Elizabeth, still dressed in her princess costume, haunts the steam tunnels and halloween parties every Halloween looking for her admirer.
Elizabeth’s story isn’t the only ghost story that resonates at Radford University, the McConnell Library Archives provides very interesting and infamous ghost sightings and stories of haunted buildings around campus. While these stories are just urban legends, every place has a history, and the tunnels below us have history we may never know about.
