Campus building said to be haunted by ghost of 1946 alumna Mary Virginia Harrison

The Harrison House, located at 434 W. Hancock St., is now home to the Office of Institutional Research, but its history is marred with the story of a local woman’s suicide.
Nestled atop the mantle in an open room in the house sits a photo of Mary Virginia Harrison along with a shoe that once belonged to her. Harrison shot and killed herself on Nov. 6, 1979 and according to Dr. Bob Wilson, history professor and campus historian, Harrison is now said to haunt the Harrison House.
Harrison was born in 1925 to Benjamin and Gussy Harrison of Milledgeville. She later attended Georgia State College for Women and was friends with Flannery O’Connor.
“She was beautiful: dark hair, brown eyes,” Wilson said. “For her, life without boys and men was just insupportable; it was just like one after another. And she was the ultimate flirt; she was the southern bell of all time.”
Harrison was on the staff at The Corinthian, a member of Alpha Psi Omega, the Allegro Club, President of the Literary Guild and was involved in many other areas around campus. She also suffered from severe mood swings.
“She was really talented, but screwed up,” Wilson said.

Mary Virginia Harrison

She was the first woman under the age of 21 to register to vote in Baldwin County. She married twice, the first, to John Allison Mills, lasted almost five years. The second, in 1959 to Roy Russell, Sr., lasted until he died in the 1974.
After Russell’s death, Harrison moved back in with her mother.
On the day of her death, there was a couple visiting the house. Harrison was 55 years old. Her mother had brought out a small pistol she had used to shoot snakes to see if the couple wanted it since she no longer had use for the gun.
“She left the gun on the table and Mary Virginia on this impulse—and there was a maid in the house who saw this—grabbed the gun went running through the house down the back steps, out to this little magnolia tree out back, and put the gun to her head and shot herself,” Wilson said.
Harrison later died in the hospital.
Wilson has heard rumors that Harrison may not have left the Harrison House. He had his own encounter with the ghost while on a year-long research sabbatical in 2001. His office was moved to an old bedroom in the Harrison House.
“There were three doors into this room, and all three of them shut. Boom, boom, boom,” Wilson said. “No breeze or anything, they just shut.”
He had one more encounter at the end of his stay in the Harrison House.
“I never had anything else weird happen until I was packing up my books to move next door into the Humber-White house,” Wilson said. “I sat down to take a break and this perfume just permeates the room, out of nowhere. So I went out into the hallway to try and see if they were somebody here. And then it was gone.”
Wilson discovered later that Harrison had an affinity for fine perfumes. Others have approached him about the possibility of a ghost being in the Harrison House as well. People have seen lights flickering and doors closing without any evidence of the source.
“People that live in that house still see strange things happen,” Wilson said.

Posted by Katelyn Hebert on Oct 22 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.