Ceres Hall

Ceres hall was one of the first buildings on campus, which was built in 1910. This building held a cafeteria, gymnasium, classroom building, and a female residence hall. 115 women could live in this building at one time and had very strict rules. The girls had to be in their rooms at 7:30 pm during the week and gentleman were only allowed on Friday or Saturday evenings and were not allowed past the parlor. Since NDSU is an agricultural college, it was appropriate to name this hall Ceres, for the greek goddess of wheat. It was originally suppose to be named after the first female

student, Jessamine Slaughter. However with a last name like that, it was hard to pass. Instead when she later in life married a Burgum, they used that last name instead and is now an all women’s dormitory. Ceres Hall is now used for Registration and Records. [1]

Rumor has it that this building is most haunted on campus. Legend has it that when it was a girls residence hall, that a female student hung herself because she was having trouble with her failing grades. Also, during World War II, there was a rumor going around that a man hung himself in the basement from a heating pipe. None of these stories have been confirmed, but in 2007 a paranormal activity team came to Fargo to investigate. They confirmed that they did hear noises and saw orbs of light and believed that the building is indeed haunted. [2]

Sources:

1. Bedsaul, Jason. "NDSU Archives Main Page: Timeline." Accessed October 15, 2016. https://library.ndsu.edu/ndsuarchives/
2. FM Paranormal. "Ceres Hall." Accessed October 15th, 2016. http://www.fmparanormal.org/currentcases/CeresHall/index.htm
3. Photo by Courtney Johnson.
4. Photo by NDSU Archives, https://flic.kr/p/86R5ra