Research Paper On The Lloyd House Ghost

The Lloyd House Legend and Hunting the Lloyd House Ghost In the following essay, I will be analyzing a legend from my childhood and how my folk group, which consists of my childhood friends and I, reacted to it. My childhood friends and I all attended the same school where this legend started and we were passed down this story from an older student. After researching, I have not found anything to prove the events within it even took place; however, it was integral to my folk group and reveals much about the desires and fears of us young girls. The Legend is a ghost story about a teenage girl who died at her boarding school and this ghost story, known as “The Lloyd House Legend” led us down a path of investigation and obsession for a summer.

I was sitting atop the monkey bars with my friends in the playground facing the building. Katie, who was a year older than me, and my best friend’s sister, told us the chilling story. A girl, who lived on the top floor of the building, died, by suicide or murder, in her dorm room, alone. Legend has it that if you come across the building at midnight, you can witness her ghost hanging from the top window. For some context, my friends and I attended St. Stephens and St. Agnes School, an Episcopal K-12 school that became coed in 1991, merging two schools. Before the merger, the elementary school campus served as an all-girls school with an option to board called St. Agnes School. On the campus, there is a building called The Lloyd House which was built in 1856. This building became both a class building and a dorm for the boarders in 1924 and remained a dorm until 1979 when the boarding program ended. Our elementary school campus was just a few blocks away from me and my friend’s house, and after we heard this story, we were restless. The Lloyd House had always felt creepy to us, being significantly older than the rest of campus, but now we were even more

Not only was this a fun activity, but it further connected us as student peers and friends. If we told someone the story, they could come on our expeditions, they became part of the group. Ghost stories have a way of connecting people through shared fears. Every day when we walked up the stairs to the attic, we bonded a bit more. According to Elizabeth Tucker, “Ghost stories entertain and educate students, offering a unique blend of excitement, mystery, and danger. When students gather to tell ghost stories, they get to know one another better.” Though Tucker is talking about how college campus ghost stories serve as a rite of passage for incoming freshmen, the idea is still relevant. We were students at the school and, like college students, we spent a great deal of time on that campus. Telling stories and sharing experiences brings people closer together. This notion is called performative intimacy, meaning that when someone engages in a certain activity or ritual, they become closer to each other. Sharing this story and going on ghost hunts was not only a form of entertainment, it was a way to become closer to one