HAUNTED HORRORS OF BOSTON
A multimedia Website designed to explore the most haunted locations of Boston
CHARLESGATE
Emerson College’s former Charlesgate Dormitory (535 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215) is considered the most haunted building owned by Emerson. There is a legend that the daughter of the building’s architect, J. Pickering Putnam, fell down the elevator shaft. Students have claimed to see the ghost of the 7-year-old wandering the halls at night. However, Putnam’s daughter did not die in the hotel and lived until 1979. There have been other stories about murders and suicides in the building. One story is that the mafia purchased the hotel in the 1900s and killed people during and after the Great Depression. In the 1940s, the building was owned by Boston University, when many student suicides took place. In 1908, the Boston Globe reported that a resident of the hotel who had insomnia shot and killed himself. Emerson alumni have said that there was paranormal activity with the appliances in the dorm such as music playing from machines that were not in use, toilets flushing on their own, alarms that were never set going off, etc.
In February 1917, the Boston Globe announced that John Pickering Putnam died in the Charlesgate hotel at the age of 60. One student claimed that he was entrapped by a spirit while tightening a light bulb in the shower. A puddle of water formed on the floor, putting him at risk of getting electrocuted. At the same time, his friends were using a Ouija board in the next room.
One story about the building is that Putnam was a member of a cult and built the buildings as a magnet for the paranormal. It is said that during a flood, several horses and young men who tried to save them died in the basement. Students who have used Ouija boards in the building have had their questions answered in precise detail, and others have seen them fly across the room. One student woke up one night to a thick black fog hovering above him, then watched it go through the wall. He later learned that there was a secret room behind his wall. Over the years, the building’s residents have been attracted to black arts and Satanism.