Western's first residence hall, Potter Hall (named for Western regent J. Whit Potter) was built for 250 students in 1921. It served as both a women's and men's residence hall, and also housed the college cafeteria, before it was converted into an administration building in 1994. Potter saw many generations of students pass happily through its doors. But for one, college life could not alleviate her despair.

The ghost of Potter Hall would walk the floors, push aside furniture, make strange noises, and call residents' names. Night clerks heard keys turning in locks and the sound of change being inserted into a vending machine–even heard the drink fall–but saw no one. Like the proverbial whistler in the graveyard, staff would pass by one of Potter's basement storage rooms quickly and reluctantly, and never at night.

Trying to make sense of the mystery, some of the residents used a ouija board to contact the spirit, who responded with alacrity, but also with sorrow and bitterness. Her name, it is said, was Allison. Some years ago, she had committed suicide by hanging herself in that basement room that everyone seemed to avoid. She gave precise details of her death–the date, even the location of the room where it happened.

When the residents asked a housekeeper about the incident, she was surprised by what they already knew, as the tragedy had been carefully hushed up over the years.

Since Potter Hall's conversion into an administration building, Allison has been heard from less frequently but a 1994 incident, where she loudly banged on the pipe in the room where she died, suggests that, unfortunately for her tortured soul, she may still be "alive and well."