Transylvania University - Old Morrison

Founded in 1780, Transylvania is one of the oldest colleges in America. Old Morrison, its Greek Revival centerpiece, has burned twice and been rebuilt each time — which has given rise to a long-running belief that the building carries some kind of curse.

Transylvania University, founded in 1780, is the oldest university west of the Allegheny Mountains. Its campus in Lexington, Kentucky, produced some of the most consequential figures in American history — Henry Clay, Jefferson Davis, and Stephen Austin among them. At its peak in the early nineteenth century, it was one of the premier institutions of higher learning in the nation. It was into this atmosphere that Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz arrived: a polyglot naturalist born in Constantinople who spoke multiple languages and possessed a restless, brilliant, and thoroughly eccentric mind. He joined the faculty to teach botany, Italian, and French, and during his seven-year tenure he published scientific names for thousands of plants and hundreds of animals, including what is now known as Rafinesque's big-eared bat. He also earned a reputation for frequently arriving late to or missing classes entirely.

In the spring of 1826, university president Horace Holley dismissed Rafinesque — officially for unprofessional conduct, though campus gossip held that the real cause was an affair between Rafinesque and Holley's wife. Upon learning of his firing, Rafinesque stood in the doorway of the building that is now Old Morrison and cursed the university. The exact words vary by account. One version has him declaring in an ancient language: "Damn thee and thy school as I place a curse upon you!" Another, drawn from Rafinesque's own writings, records his departure more soberly: "I took lodgings in town and carried there all my effects: thus leaving the College with curses on it and Holley." According to university tradition, the curse decreed that something terrible would befall Transylvania every seven years.

The curse appeared to take hold immediately. Horace Holley resigned the following year and died unexpectedly of yellow fever. The main campus building burned to the ground shortly after. Cholera and influenza outbreaks ravaged the campus. Old Morrison, the Greek Revival masterpiece designed by architect Gideon Shryock and completed in 1834 to replace the destroyed building, itself burned on January 27, 1969, a fire so devastating that only the exterior walls remained standing. Remarkably, the crypt housing Rafinesque's remains — which had been exhumed from Philadelphia and reinterred at Transylvania in 1924 — was completely untouched by the flames. Firefighters who battled the blaze reported witnessing the figure of a man standing in the doorway of the crypt while fire raged around him.

The identity of the remains in that crypt is itself a mystery. Research has suggested that the bones moved from Philadelphia in 1924 may actually belong to a woman named Mary Passimore, meaning Rafinesque's actual remains may still lie in an unmarked grave in Philadelphia — and that whatever haunts Old Morrison may not be connected to his physical body at all.

In the 1960s, a Transylvania student named Betty Gail Brown was found mysteriously killed in her car in front of Old Morrison, adding another layer of tragedy to the building's history. Visitors and staff report sudden temperature drops, strange sounds, and the sensation of being watched within Old Morrison's halls. The university has fully embraced the Rafinesque legend: the campus cafe is called the Rafskeller, the unofficial mascot is known as "Raf," and each October the university celebrates Raf Week — days of spooky festivities culminating on Halloween night, when raffle winners earn the right to sleep overnight in the tomb of Constantine Rafinesque inside Old Morrison. Whether or not the curse still operates on its seven-year cycle, Transylvania remains one of the most reliably haunted campuses in America.