Image: Wisconsin Historical Society
Doksany Hall is located right next to Hugh Hall, and just by looking at this building, I can tell it is very much haunted. A nun convent in the 1960s now turned into an all girls dorm, Doksany Hall houses 15 girls, and every step you take there is paired with some sort of creaking noise.
My room last year was in the far right corner, the closest to the front door. When you enter Doksany, there is a little window ledge, which is where I began leaving offerings to the spirits who I believe resided there. I am not an overly superstitious person, but living in Doksany made me realize that we are not truly alone.
A few days after the semester had started, the door knob to the main bathroom door on the first floor fell off. I wasn’t there when the knob fell; I found out when I had to use the bathroom and no handle was on the door. I dismissed the fact that greater forces were at play, believing that it was just an old dorm that SNC was comfortable sticking us in.
A few days after facilities fixed the door, the basement decided to become evil. One of the most frightening things about Doksany is the basement. Conceptually like Madlor’s basement, which felt like a scene from a horror movie, the laundry room was in the basement. In Doksany, the basement was already creepy enough with the darkness, silence and water that leaked in.
Within a few weeks, there was flooding in the basement and all of us were temporarily moved to various resident halls. Eventually, we were able to move back in and I decided that the spirits of nuns were part of this foul play. The dorm was already creepy enough for me to believe that spirits were with us. I believed that the spirits were very much displeased with us and that we needed to please the spirits in order to have a nice dorm.
Believing that I could silence the spirits, I used origami to my advantage. I made a heart and left it on the window sill. Nothing bad seemed to happen, which was fantastic. Peace at last, or so I thought.
One night I heard a giant thud from upstairs. I went to check on my upstairs neighbors, and luckily, none were injured. I realized that the spirits were displeased with my lack of effort, so I decided to make a more complex origami offering for them. The next day, the spirits had a nice origami butterfly on their window sill. Once again, things seemed to calm down. I stayed on top of things by leaving little things for the spirits. An SNC pride sticker, a hedgehog figure and some random objects I found at home seemed to get the job done. For the rest of the semester, nothing concerning happened.
While working with the spirits, I had asked several staff members for any rumors or legends they heard about Doksany and the majority of them didn’t know anything about spirits. I have not come across any evidence that Doksany has a reason to be haunted, but these things are out of our control. To future Doksany Hall residents, please try not to offend the spirits.