The Red Lady of Huntingdon College

“Nearly all colleges have ghosts, legends that have grown up around some supernatural occurrences generations of students tell to each other [...] but the finest of those ghost stories, those college ghost stories, is told here at Huntingdon College in Montgomery.”
— Kathryn Tucker Windham

One of the most Iconic College Hauntings in America

Huntingdon College of Montgomery, Alabama regularly makes the lists of ‘most haunted’ universities in America as generations of students have claimed the ghost of a young woman haunts the fourth floor of Pratt Hall--an apparition that has become known as the Red Lady.  Legend claims that this young woman named Martha left behind her home in New York to attend the institution, but upon her arrival, she was overcome by homesickness and the loneliness of being misunderstood by the other girls in her dormitory.  As a result, Martha did something drastic that students continue to whisper about to this day.    

But did Martha actually exist or is this just another tall tale to frighten freshmen?  We will explore this question and more on this week’s episode of Southern Gothic….

 
 

Sources:

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Ferri, Jessica. “A Crimson Vision: The Red Lady of Huntingdon College.” The Lineup. Open Road Media, August 17, 2016. https://the-line-up.com/the-red-lady.

Hauck, Dennis William. Haunted Places: The National Directory. London: Penguin, 1997.

Huntingdon College. Accessed January 6, 2022. https://www.huntingdon.edu/. 

Huntingdon College's Red Lady. YouTube. Dr. Poppy Moon, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsinhmsF4gA&t=48s.

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Schexnayder, Brandon, Alicia King-Marshall, hosts. “Wolfgang Poe of the Birmingham Historic Touring Company” Ghost Tour (podcast), September 10, 2021, accessed January 5, 2022, https://www.southerngothicmedia.com/blog/gt001

Serafin, Faith. Haunted Montgomery, Alabama. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2013.

Swancer, Brent. “The Mysterious Lady in Red and Other Hauntings at Huntingdon College.” Journal Online, March 22, 2021. https://journal.com.ph/the-mysterious-lady-in-red-and-other-hauntings-at-huntingdon-college/.

“White Lady.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, January 5, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Lady. 

Windham, Kathryn Tucker and Margaret Gillis Figh. 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2016.