Age 20

Informant: “So, at my high school, I went to high school in Manhattan, in New York, and it was in this big mansion that got… converted into a high school. So, there’s this really fancy library with a little stone staircase in it. And there’s this little stain on the staircase that’s…this reddish, coppery tone. And the story goes that when…it was a mansion, and when the man who lived there was living there, someone tried breaking in. And that stone staircase in the library leads to a secret door in his bedroom, which is now a classroom…So then, when someone tried breaking in, they tried going up that staircase to sneak into his bedroom and kill him, and the maid was on the staircase, and she got shot. And so that, like, coppery tone is actually a bloodstain…But that is how the story goes, and that’s what the teachers told us.”

Context: The informant was told this story when she was on a field trip by a head teacher at her school. She went to school in Manhattan and would’ve been told this story in the spring of 2023.  The informant told this story when prompted if she had been told any ghost stories growing up. She does not necessarily believe it is true, but finds it humorous that the teacher would tell students this type of story. 

Analysis: I think an interesting view of this specific ghost story is looking at it as school lore or a legend within the school. Legends themselves are stories set in the real world, told as if they are true, in which truth value is debatable but plausible. A story like this, a murder in a city, isn’t entirely unbelievable. The story was specifically told by a person in authority (teacher) to students. This is interesting because it is common that the institution attempts to police folklore that undermines its power or public image. A murder in a school is surely not something the administration would want public, and makes the teacher telling this legend interesting. I think this shows that the teacher is comfortable sharing this story with the students and knows it will not affect their overall view of the institution, but rather think it is an interesting piece of historical knowledge of the building.