NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@alpha.nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

9/21/2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES - Northwestern State University will have its own ghost story on Halloween Night.

NSU is planning a "Welcoming Ceremony" for Isabella, the university's legendary ghost, Oct. 31. The ceremony will begin at the columns near Russell Hall and conclude at Lee H. Nelson Hall after the NSU Theatre production of "The Tragedy of Frankenstein."

According to campus lore, Isabella inhabits the oldest building on Northwestern's campus which is Nelson Hall. The building, which is the former Women's Gymnasium, was built in 1923. After sitting idly for 30 years, a $2.6 million rehabilitation project has turned the building into the home of the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, a unit of the National Park Service.

After Caldwell Hall was destroyed in a fire, Isabella was moved to the Women's Gym on Halloween Night in 1982 in a ceremony that captured national attention. But the renovation of Nelson Hall and two fires in the building during construction may have displaced her.

"All of the work and the fires may have driven her away," said Executive Assistant to the President Robert Crew. "We want to make sure she is welcome in her new home."

Northwestern's Student Activities Board, the NSU Theatre and several student organizations will be involved in the ceremony.

Isabella traditionally resides in the oldest building on campus. In 1904, she was moved from Bullard Mansion when it was torn down to East Hall. Students were involved in the last three moves. Isabella was moved in 1926 from the site of the demolished East Hall to the music education building. When that building was torn down in 1948, Isabella was escorted to Caldwell Hall where she stayed until the 1982 move.

According to legend, Isabella lived before the Civil War. At one time she was in love with a young man who was killed in a duel of honor. She became a nun and lived in Bullard Mansion which was on the current site of Northwestern. Isabella was a recluse who only came out at night to talk to her lover. Following a violent storm, she stabbed herself through the heart with a knife, leaving a bloody handprint the wall. Tradition says that she leaves a bloody handprint on the wall or door of every building in which she resides.

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