Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library (University of Alabama)

Amelia Gayle Gorgas, widow of the Confederate ordnance chief and later university president Josiah Gorgas, became the University of Alabama's librarian around 1880 and served for about 25 years. In that time she grew the collection from about 6,000 volumes to more than 20,000, and she retired at the age of eighty in 1907. She died in 1913, and the university's main library, built in 1941, bears her name. Most of the reported activity centres on the fourth floor, which holds special collections. The elevators reach that floor only with a special key, yet they are said to arrive there regularly, doors opening on no one. Students describe sounds of movement on the empty floor, and library employees say they have seen Gorgas herself. Those who tell the story describe her presence as comforting rather than frightening.