Pleasant Hall

One of several reportedly haunted dormitories at Louisiana State University, this residence hall has a long history of unexplained phenomena that keeps some students sleeping with the lights on.

Pleasant Hall was constructed in 1931 as Smith Hall, a women's residential dormitory on the Louisiana State University campus in Baton Rouge. Later renamed for Governor Ruffin G. Pleasant, the building served generations of female students before being converted into a hotel facility during the 1970s. It was during this hotel era that the tragedy at the heart of the haunting allegedly unfolded.

According to campus legend and accounts corroborated by long-time staff, a young couple staying on the third floor became embroiled in a violent domestic dispute. The woman, believing her boyfriend was unfaithful, shot him in a jealous rage. She then fled upstairs to her own room, number 312, where she turned the gun on herself and died. Remarkably, the boyfriend survived the shooting. The incident left an indelible mark on the building, and reports of paranormal activity began almost immediately.

Room 312 became the epicenter of the haunting. Hotel guests and staff reported eerie noises, unexplained lights, and shadow figures within the room and throughout the third floor. Connie Scott, who served as a custodian in Pleasant Hall for thirty years, was working the night of the incident and later confirmed the story to the LSU Reveille. She noted that hotel visitors and workers alike reported seeing ghosts or bizarre shadows and hearing mysterious noises, particularly on the second and third floors. Some custodial workers grew so anxious about the third floor that they dreaded their shifts there.

The paranormal activity has persisted long after the building ceased operating as a hotel. Lisa Graves, a program coordinator for Continuing Education who worked in the building, described experiencing a presence on the third floor, noting a chilling and tingling sensation that was unlike anything she had felt elsewhere. Other staff members have reported extreme temperature drops, doors closing on their own, and the voice of a young woman who sounds as though she is in pain. Visitors have described the apparition of a thin woman in her early twenties with blonde hair, believed to be the spirit of the woman from Room 312.

Today, Pleasant Hall houses LSU Undergraduate Admissions, Financial Aid and Scholarships, and other university offices. The third floor, where the most intense activity has been reported, now contains government offices and is no longer accessible to the general public. Despite its administrative transformation, the building remains one of the most storied locations on a campus already known for its ghostly reputation, standing alongside Evangeline Hall and Acadian Hall as evidence of LSU's haunted heritage.