By Tom Ventsias

Maryland Society of Ghost Hunters members (from left) Joseph Houghton, Kristin Seblak, Misty Levasseur, Renee Behling, Duane Oden, Alan Cohn and the group’s founder and president, Rodney Whittaker. Photo by Rob Frelow

During the day, the Rossborough Inn presents an inviting gateway to the university—a restored, three-story Colonial structure where staff and student volunteers from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions greet prospective Terps with questions like “What do you want to study at Maryland?” or “Are there any extracurricular activities you’re particularly interested in?”

At night, however, after the last worker has left and darkness envelopes the 200+-year-old building, the queries one might ask are far less appealing: Why is a third-floor window mysteriously able to open itself? What are the strange flickering lights emanating from the adjacent Carriage House? And does the spirit of “Miss Betty”—who reportedly worked in Rossborough during the Civil War—still wander its original hardwood floors?

A group of paranormal experts armed with an array of electronic gadgetry recently toured the inn, looking for answers, for signs of nighttime activity more associated with Halloween than new students. The seven members from the Maryland Society of Ghost Hunters spent more than four hours on a sweltering June evening recording detailed electromagnetic and temperature data, filming darkened rooms with infrared cameras and asking a series of provocative questions designed to stimulate a conversation with any spirits that might be lurking.

“Most of the investigations we do are because someone has reported some type of problem, such as noises at night that are disturbing a person’s sleep,” says Alan Cohn, a member of the group. “Other investigations, like this one, are really more to hone our skills or see if there is anything to the stories that usually accompany an older building’s history.”

The Rossborough Inn indeed has a record of supernatural folklore, says University Archivist Anne Turkos, who will be presented with a report of the ghost hunters’ findings later this summer.

Built as an inn in 1798 between Washington and Baltimore by speculator John Ross, the structure later became a farmhouse and barn before it was sold in 1858 as part of the original 428-acre parcel that became the Maryland Agricultural College. Over the years, it has served as a classroom building, a faculty and staff dining club and a home to the alumni association.

“There are many odd occurrences that have been brought to our attention,” says Turkos, ranging from a dining manager in the 1980s who swore he saw Miss Betty to another person’s account of the unexplained appearance of a vase with a single, fresh-cut flower appearing in an unused, cluttered upstairs storage area. Other oddities include locked windows that would open repeatedly—seemingly by themselves—and strange lights or sounds coming from the Carriage House.

All of these stories were relayed to the Maryland Society of Ghost Hunters, along with history of the inn being used by the Union and Confederate armies.

For the onsite investigation, the paranormal experts split into two groups after dispersing eight infrared cameras and other recording devices throughout Rossborough and the Carriage House. One team member remained in the main foyer of the inn, monitoring a computer screen that captured images from the surveillance equipment strung together by hundreds of feet of wiring.

“Can you tell us your name? What company were you in? Are you a Yankee or are you a Rebel?” asked Cohn in a darkened room on the third floor of the Rossborough.

After a long pause, with no visible or audible response, Cohn continued: “Is there someone you need us to get a message to? … Is there anyone here who has stayed in this inn, or was here during the war?”

Still nothing.

While it is not unusual to see or hear little in real time, the goal of these seemingly one-sided “conversations” is to capture any data with the recording devices, which are analyzed later, says Duane Oden, the group’s self-professed “gadget man.”

The infrared cameras are designed to catch shadows, while the other devices can pick up rapid changes in temperature or electromagnetic activity—sometimes a sign of paranormal activity, Oden says.

After a few more general questions, Cohn and Oden ramped up the level of conversation.

“If you’re a Rebel, we heard that the South lost the war pretty badly,” stated Cohn, as Oden flipped on a digital recording of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” quickly followed by the sound of an actor reading Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.”

“These are trigger mechanisms,” Cohn explains. “The cameras and other devices might pick up something if we sat here and did nothing, but if there is something intelligent here, we think that giving them a nudge will help elicit a response.”

After an hour spent visiting several rooms, Cohn traded places with other ghost hunters in the Carriage House. Rodney Whittaker, who founded the society eight years ago, explains the group splits up because they use different equipment, and spreading out allows for the chance of capturing more than one paranormal event simultaneously.

Whittaker entered the Lafayette Room, named for the Revolutionary War general who supposedly stayed at the inn in the early 1800s, doused the lights, and used a hand-held laser device to try and highlight any ghostly shadows.

While he also asked pointed questions out loud, Whittaker says the group is “always very respectful of our surroundings and of anyone or anything we may come across in our investigations.”

The ghost hunters are planning to return to campus later this month to examine two other storied buildings, Morrill Hall and Marie Mount Hall, and Turkos says their reports will be archived as part of the university’s history.

Supernatural sightings aside, the grandeur and storied past of the Rossborough make it a pleasant work environment for the 35-plus university staff members (including this writer) that currently have office space there.

“I’ve worked late at night by myself, and you certainly can get the sense that there is someone or something here,” says Barbara Gill, assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions whose office is in the Lafayette Room. “It’s hard to explain, and it is not spooky, but this building just has so much rich history to it that you can literally feel it at times.”