Berry Residence Hall | College of Charleston’s Haunted Dorm

Posted: 06.04.2024 | Updated: 01.30.2025

Among the most haunted spots in one of America’s most haunted cities is the College of Charleston’s Joe E. Berry Hall. The Berry Residence Hall has a long and frightful history and is considered a major hub of spectral activity. Many believe because it was built on the first public American orphanage, the Charleston Orphan House.

For over two hundred years, a building has been here, housing children and occasionally catching fire for one reason or another. From an orphanage to a dormitory, through plagues, wars, and flames, this site has attracted death like few others. 

It is believed that mischievous spirits now haunt the College of Charleston dorm and its dwellers. Students report ghostly children running up and down the hallways and playing games, seemingly unaware that they died decades ago.

The deaths of countless children, taken long before their time, paint the history of the College of Charleston.

Discover what other souls have stuck around after their final breath on a Charleston ghost tour with Charleston Terrors!

 Who Haunts The Dorm At The College of Charleston?

Students at the College of Charleston are well familiar with the tales of ghost children in Barry Hall. They have heard them singing Ring Around The Rosy and seen their handwritting in the mirror. It seems the burned down, 18th-century Charleston Orphan House and those who died in it have not let their grasp over the land escape their icy grip.

The Charleston Orphan House

Before the College of Charleston was even a thought, the Charleston Orphan House was established on October 18th, 1794 for young children affected by the Revolutionary War. For nearly a century, The Charleston Orphan House operated as an orphanage and a school.

Children attending this Charleston institution were taught trades and guided on how best to contribute to society. Over the years, the COH became well-known and equally well-respected.

When the Civil War came to South Carolina, the children were moved to a former seminary school for safety while the home was temporarily used as a hospital.

Once the war was over, the building became overcrowded with wayward children. Despite the violence, the resilient staff and board at the location never closed its doors.

In 1918, the orphanage was again forced to endure hardship when the Spanish Flu pandemic devastated the home. Healthy children spent their days outside playing, away from the infected kids.

One day, a group of these healthy orphans picked up some oily rags from the courtyard and began playing with them. They allegedly “ somehow” caught fire.

Consequently, the building was set ablaze. The Fire Department arrived in time to save the building. Unfortunately, rescuers were not in time to save four souls who died of smoke inhalation.

The city rebuilt the orphanage after the fire and it remained there for thirty-three more years. In 1951, the orphanage was moved to another part of the state, and the building became a Sears department store.

Berry Hall | College of Charleston’s Haunted Dorm

In 1988, the Sears store was torn down, and a new residence hall for the College of Charleston was built where the old children’s home once stood.

From the first day the dorm was opened, students said they heard children laughing and playing marbles well into the night. Despite searching floor by floor for children, none were ever discovered. In 1991, the building suffered from false fire alarms, and authorities never identified the culprit.

The eeriest experience reported was the sound of little girls singing “ Ring around the rosy” in the college dorm courtyard, not far from where the 1918 fire started.

 In 2011, the building underwent renovations, and residents were outraged by the construction work.

Mostly because the dorm’s fire alarm system would go off at random times and intervals. Construction work was completed in late October, but fire alarms continued to go off without cause in the middle of the night.

It wasn’t until February 2012 that a “ faulty wiring ” issue was corrected, ending the nightmarish scenario for residents.

While the new building hasn’t seen any significant fires there was a small fire in 2019. The Fire Department was alerted to black smoke billowing from the roof in March that year.

Residents evacuated as authorities investigated the scene. Firefighters entered the building and quickly discovered an exhaust fan in flames on the top floor.

While there were no injuries, there was never a solid explanation for the fire. According to the fire department, the cause of the fire is believed to be an electrical failure from the exhaust fan, but there are no specifics yet.

Some speculation suggests that the ghosts of the children who caused the fire in 1918 are still determined to burn the place down.

Haunted Charleston

How did the oily rags catch on fire in the first place? If they are setting off the fire alarms, why? Are their two opposing groups of ghosts fighting over the fate of this historically macabre place? CofC alum Ed Macy co-wrote the book  Haunted Charleston: Stories from the College of Charleston, The Citadel and the Holy City.

Macy interviewed roughly 40 residents from the College of Charleston Dorm. Many have not only been awakened by the alarm and singing, but have seen old-fashioned cursive writing on their bathroom mirror like something out of a Stephen King novel.

While the answers to these and other questions may go unanswered indefinitely, those who endeavor to understand the supernatural have a keen eye on Berry Hall. The ghost-hunting community watches as the revolving door of student residents desperately hopes that Berry Hall has seen its last fire.

Keep reading our blog to uncover more haunted tales of Charleston, and be sure to book a ghost tour with Charleston Terrors to see the haunted locations of Charleston in person!

Sources:

• https://www.facebook.com/palmettostateparanormal81/posts/joe-e-berry-residence-hall-dormcollege-of-charlestoncharleston-scthe-young-ghost/1737760322915330
• https://abcnews4.com/news/local/fire-reported-at-college-of-charlestons-berry-dorms
• https://today.cofc.edu/2018/10/30/ghost-stories-berry-hall/
• https://www.hercampus.com/school/c-of-c/orphanage-residence-hall/