WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 [music] 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:13.000 PASSEHL: Todd Hall was officially built in 1912. Students first inhabited the building in the summer of 1913. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:20.000 The building was primarily used as the women's first dormitory for the school up until 1967. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:25.000 Some of the most interesting architectural elements of this building can be viewed as soon as you walk inside. 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:29.000 To the left, there's a large window where visitors would check in 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:32.000 and students would not be able to miss their evening curfew. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:37.000 All of the students' rooms included intricate closets, 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:43.000 where they had both the rods and original hooks and built-in shelving for all of their clothing. 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:46.000 A lot of the original wood is still kept in the building. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:52.000 The different mahogany details in both the ceiling and the different cedar floors can still be found today. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:56.000 Another interesting room was the music room, which contains still 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:61.000 a fireplace that has tiles covered from Miss Todd's trips to Europe. 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:05.000 It also has two of the original window seats built into the room, 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:08.000 and there used to be a large piano where students would play. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:13.000 GANSON: The dormitory was named after Jessica Todd, 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:19.000 because she was the first Dean of Students and the Director of Dormitories during that time. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:27.000 She retired in 1931 and the Oregon University System unanimously voted to name the building after her. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:31.000 She assumed the duties of the Dean of Women and she really took that to heart. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:37.000 Many of these girls came from farm communities, for example, and were a little bit rough around the edges. 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:43.000 So she felt not only her duty but her task to teach these young girls to be young women. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:49.000 That included everything from how they carried themselves on campus, how they acted in public, 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:52.000 and also to how they dressed. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:58.000 As a dormitory, this was the central meeting spot for everybody on campus. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:01:64.000 We had the dining hall in the building until, I believe, 1938. 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:09.000 Then at that point they converted the front living area to a meeting room 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:13.000 where people on campus could come over, but certainly the girls could have their meetings. 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:20.000 They had classes inside the dormitory, where they met and they talked about what modern women should be doing, 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:25.000 even preparing them to work in the kitchens, so that they could learn how to cook so when they left here, 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.000 not only were they going to be qualified teachers, many of them, 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:32.000 but they would be qualified women to work in any industry. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:41.000 At the bottom of the front entry steps we still have a giant mirror that was given to our girls back in 1914. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:44.000 So this building's been loved and cared for for many years. 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:51.000 TAYLOR: The building is architecturally fabulous. It's an old, 100-year-old obviously, building. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:55.000 On the first floor we have a child development center, in which we're 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:60.000 still using parts of the kitchen and the dining room to prepare meals for the kids. 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:06.000 On the second floor we have a variety of offices that are related to the Teaching Research Institute. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:12.000 You can still see some of the hints of dormitory living based on the closets that are in the offices. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:18.000 On the third floor, where Psychology is located, we also have an office that has a balcony. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:23.000 You can tell, again, that these used to be larger bedrooms and dormitory facilities. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:27.000 So throughout the building there are still hints of it having been a dorm. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:32.000 But of course over the last 100 years it's changed quite a bit. 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:41.000 CARLTON: Is Todd Hall haunted? You know, that's a really good question 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:45.000 I've had numerous things happen to me in this building, but in this particular room that we're in right now 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:49.000 I did have something that was very unusual that had happened. 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:52.000 Several years ago, we had a couple of professional ghost-hunters come in 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:56.000 and they had told me, while I was taking them on a tour through the building, 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:59.000 that I had a little girl that was following me around the building, 00:03:59.000 --> 00:03:64.000 and she just stuck right by me. I'd never seen her up to that point. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:08.000 About a year after the second ghost-hunter had told me that, I was coming 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:12.000 into Todd Hall to do a security check in the building. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:16.000 Coming up a set of stairs, and I got about three-fourths of the way up the stairs 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:23.000 and saw a little girl in a real lacey dress, something like they wear on Easter, 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:26.000 that came running through this room that we're in right now. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:30.000 At first I thought maybe it was the ceiling fan that I'd seen, 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:38.000 but the ceiling fan was going in the opposite direction of what it should have been going if that's what I would have seen. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:44.000 We've had a few officers who have heard voices when nobody's been in the building. 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:48.000 We've had custodial staff that have heard people running through the building, 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:54.000 and this is at 2, 3 o'clock in the morning when absolute nobody is in the building except for custodial staff. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:62.000 We had some paranormal research groups that came in. The paranormal research groups also said that there were entities here. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:09.000 I've done numerous tours on my own with our students, and we have some phenomenal pictures. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:13.000 Red glow on the gross motor swing that's downstairs here from here. 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:22.000 What looks like a hurricane when you blow it up, and it's just a very odd-looking presence in the photo. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:28.000 I don't think it's haunted. I think that there are fun entities that are in here. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:34.000 I have responded to every single building on campus for medical assist, except this building. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:37.000 TAYLOR: I think Jessica Todd watches over Todd Hall. 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:45.000 I think there's still a presence about being in Todd Hall, where Jessica perhaps is making sure 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:53.000 that the building stays true and honest to its original formation of educating and providing students a place to be. 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:58.000 GANSON: It's a place of learning now. It's a place where we teach young children new things. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:05:63.000 So I think we've carried on her mission, is to teach people. 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:07.000 CARLTON: Over the past couple of years, the ghost stuff has kind of died down. 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:10.000 We're not doing so much with it, not talking about it so much. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.000 But in future, who knows? It may come up again.