Ghosts in the Halls?

I entered the new Great Bay Community College building at Pease, on the first day of classes. As I rode the painstakingly slow elevator up to the fourth floor, the new location of all the Business Department classes, my memory took me back to a story – a rumor that I had heard one or two times before. The top floors of the new building are said to be the home of paranormal activity, a place where people have had ghost encounters and have said that the halls are haunted.

This idea of the fourth floor haunting was then mentioned by a student in my Cost Accounting class on that same first day. The class, along with Mr. Murphy, discussed the Ghost story and looked online to see if we could find any documentation of this haunting. Two websites, included the GBCC Pease building on their list of “NH’s Most Haunted Places.” We all joked that we will be listening for the spirits while in our business classes throughout the semester.

NH's Most Haunted Places Websites:
http://theshadowlands.net/places/newhampshire.htm
http://mightbehaunted.com/NEW%20HAMPSHIRE.html

The mention of the haunted halls made me remember a few other creepy - ghost related stories I had once heard about this location. A former GBCC student told me that when he first attended the Pease campus, only the first floor was used for classes and the top three floors were boarded off and abandoned. The dark stairwell leading up was one that no one ever dared to enter along with the abandoned elevator, leaving the upper floors a mystery to students. Another story was told by a friend of mine who worked doing construction on the new GBCC building during the renovation process. He told me that when he entered the top floors they seemed eerie and haunted, still filled with ancient surgical equipment from when the building was the location of the former Air Force Hospital. On numerous occasions the lights would flicker on and off while they were doing construction. He wondered if this was caused by the electricians working downstairs or if it was the ghosts of Great Bay?

With ghost stories flying through my head I decided to do some research to find out some History to go along with these documented Ghost encounter stories.

Yes indeed the current building was the Hospital on the Pease Air Force Base that was established in the 1930’s and was used by the US Navy during WWII. The base was active till it was the first of eighty-six military institutions, closed by the Commission of Base Realignment and Closure, a decision made in 1988. On March 31st, 1991 Pease Air Force Base was officially closed for military operations and re-opened for civilian use. Today the Pease Tradeport is a hub for transportation as well as an industrial park which is the home to over 220 businesses – Including Great Bay Community College, where ghosts roam the halls.

Pease Tradeport Website: http://www.peasedev.org/about_us/documents/PDAPressKit.pdf