Willard Library, Evansville: The Grey Lady and Her Ghost Cams

Willard Library is a red and cream brick High Victorian Gothic building on First Avenue in Evansville, the oldest public library building in Indiana still in use. It is also, by its own cheerful admission, home to one of the best-known ghosts in the Midwest: the Grey Lady.

What makes Willard unusual is how openly the library tells the story. Staff keep a printed Grey Lady handout listing who saw what and where, the University of Evansville student paper calls it the most haunted library in the United States, and the library has run live ghost cams since 1999. This guide covers the real history of Willard Carpenter and his library, the ghost stories as staff and patrons tell them, and how to visit.

History of Willard Library

Willard Carpenter came to Evansville from Vermont and made his fortune in real estate. He first hoped to found a college for women, Willard College, but financial setbacks changed his plans, and in 1876 he set up a trust to establish and endow a public library instead. His stated aim was a library “for the use of the people of all classes, races, and genders, free of charge forever.”

Brothers James and Merritt Reid of Evansville designed the building in the High Victorian Gothic style, with steep roofs, a tall central gable, Gothic-arched window arcades and bands of red and cream brick. Construction began in 1877. Carpenter did not see it finished: he died in 1883, leaving much of his estate to the library, and Willard Library opened to the public in 1885. It was incorporated to serve the city of Evansville and has run continuously ever since.

Carpenter’s family life was famously strained. He cut his children out of his will, and his daughter Louise is said to have challenged it in court in the 1890s, claiming her father was not of sound mind; she lost. That family quarrel is the root of the most popular theory about the ghost.

The library was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Its genealogy and local history collections opened in 1976 and drew researchers from across the country, and a modern addition opened in 2015, housing the archives reading room and the Browning Gallery. Each year the library holds a Midnight Madness week when it stays open late for researchers.

The ghost of Willard Library

The custodian in 1937

The story starts more than fifty years after Carpenter’s death. Early one winter morning in 1937, a night custodian went down to stoke the coal furnace in the basement and saw a woman in a flowing dress with a grey veil. She vanished. He is said to have dropped his flashlight, and he quit soon afterward. The library’s handout puts the encounter near the furnace room and the hallway junction in what is now the children’s department.

Who is the Grey Lady?

Many people believe she is Louise Carpenter, the daughter left out of her father’s will, come back to keep an eye on the library that got the money. Her portrait hangs on the first floor. Others think she is a former librarian. Nobody knows, and the library is careful to say that theories vary. The Louise theory is a good story, but there is no evidence that ties the ghost to her.

Staff encounters

The library’s handout lists decades of reports from its own staff. Children’s librarian Margaret Maier had several encounters, and during renovations in the 1980s the Grey Lady was said to have followed her home. Staff describe books tumbling from shelves, and a story is told of a former director who tried to play the ghost down, only for a book to fall during a patron’s question. A special collections librarian found the faucets running in a locked basement restroom.

Perfume, touches and the elevator

Patrons describe an old-fashioned perfume, sometimes lilac or lavender, with nobody nearby, a touch on the hair or jewelry, a chair pulled away, and footsteps in empty aisles. The elevator has its own stories: a custodian stuck on the first floor demanded to go down and it obeyed, and a library assistant who greeted the ghost saw the elevator arrive empty with its call light on. After a security alarm, police officers reported seeing a woman in the window of the second-floor Bayard Room and found nobody inside.

Investigators and the ghost cams

Psychic Lorraine Warren visited in the 1970s and is said to have gone into a trance in the children’s story pit, describing a sorrowful woman tied to the land under the building. WFIE chief meteorologist Jeff Lyons was present when books slid off a shelf in Special Collections. In 1999 the library, working with the Evansville Courier and Press, put cameras in the rooms with the most reports, and anyone can watch the live ghost cams online today.

Where to look

• The children's department: In the basement, near the old furnace room. Where the 1937 sighting happened and where she is most often reported.
• The elevator: Staff tell of it moving on its own and arriving empty with its call light on.
• Special Collections and the Bayard Room: On the second floor: books sliding from shelves and a figure in the window seen by police.
• The first floor: No sightings here, but staff report perfume, footsteps and falling books, and Louise Carpenter’s portrait hangs here.
• The lower-level archives: The 2015 addition has its own tales of toilets flushing and a projector moving by itself.

Visiting Willard Library

Willard Library is a working public library and free to visit. The children’s department, the main reading rooms and the special collections are all open to the public during library hours, which vary by day, so check the library’s website before you go. It sits on First Avenue just north of downtown Evansville, with parking around the building.

There are no ghost hunts or overnight investigations at Willard, and you should treat it as the busy library it is. The best way to look for the Grey Lady after dark is from home, on the library’s live ghost cams. In October, Evansville’s seasonal ghost walks and the library’s own events are a good time to visit.

• Visiting A working public library, free to visit
• Hours and season Open most days; check the library website for hours
• Tickets Free
• Ghost hunting No ghost hunting events of its own; anyone can watch the live ghost cams online

Tips for your visit

• Ask at the desk for the Grey Lady handout, which maps where each story happened.
• Visit the basement children’s department and look for the old furnace room corridor.
• Find Louise Carpenter’s portrait on the first floor.
• Watch the ghost cams online late at night, when the building is empty.
• Be respectful: this is a working library and research center.

More haunted places nearby

• Haunted places in Indiana: Indiana’s other haunted places, from the Hannah House to the Old Lake County Jail
• Haunted hotels in Indiana: including French Lick Springs Hotel, about two hours northeast
• French Lick Springs Hotel: the haunted resort where Thomas Taggart is said to ride the halls
• Haunted places in Indiana

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

• Wikipedia: Willard Library
• Willard Library: The Grey Lady handout (2024)
• Indiana Public Media, Moment of Indiana History: Willard Library Ghost
• The Crescent (University of Evansville): The Gray Lady of Willard Library (2023)