Like many old buildings in Manhattan, the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity house is believed to be occupied by more than just its members.
Ghosts have been said to haunt the halls of the house since 1955, when the old St. Mary’s Hospital moved from its location at 1100 Fremont St. to a new building in Manhattan.
The members of Delta Sigma Phi claim there are two ghosts who live in the house: George Segal, a former hospital patient, and an entity known only as “the Nurse.” There is no direct relationship between the two ghosts, but their whereabouts in the house have been documented by previous members of the fraternity who have allegedly encountered them.
“Bedrock Values” is a book by Loren Mall, a Delta Sigma Phi alum, containing the history of the Kansas State chapter of Delta Sigma Phi, and it includes a chapter about the ghosts. Matt Mindrup, junior in biology, shared an excerpt from “Bedrock Values” about George’s background.
George was a patient at St. Mary’s Hospital in the early 1950s. He was bedridden and could not speak. One night, George fell off his bed and was pinned between the wall and the bed frame.
As the hospital made its transition from the Fremont place to the new Manhattan location, the hospital staff was checking all the rooms and making sure all the patients were moved out. When checking George’s room, they didn’t see anyone and assumed he had already been moved. George died later that night.
The book also mentions how George really liked “Star Trek.” An ice storm in the 1960s knocked out the power to the whole neighborhood, but every Tuesday at 4 p.m., the electricity would come on in the house and reruns of “Star Trek” would play.
“What’s weird about it is, it said no other house would have electricity,” Mindrup said.
The members quickly found out that George’s love for “Star Trek” meant he had a hatred for “Star Wars.”
“I was told last year a member brought a lightsaber for a date party costume, and that night he heard a huge crash; it was his lightsaber broken on the other side of the room,” Mitch Byers, freshman in secondary education, said.
“He’s a good ghost,” Mindrup said. “People think he liked to bowl, so members hear a bowling ball out on the third floor at night, and they’ll go out and look and won’t see anything, and they really only hear it from George’s room.”
Jake McIntire, senior in kinesiology, also had a chilling encounter when he lived in the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity house.
“One time I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and there was a recliner at the end of the hallway,” McIntire said. “I thought I saw someone rocking in it, but when I looked back they were gone. It was 3 in the morning, so everyone else was asleep.”
With over 50 years of haunting the halls in Delta Sigma Phi, it doesn’t appear George is going anywhere anytime soon. Fraternity members currently living in the house continue to have unexplainable occurrences.
“In the room right next to me across from George’s room, once or twice a week they will hear footsteps go across the room,” Byers said. “It’s really weird. It’s creepy.”
The other ghost that is said to reside in the Delta Sigma Phi house is simply referred to as the Nurse. According to legend, she was on the third floor and was going to take a cart down to the first floor. She pressed the button for the elevator and opened the gate. She backed in, thinking the elevator was there, fell down the elevator shaft and died.
Current members say that while George stays on the third floor, the Nurse roams the house. She particularly likes to haunt a hallway they call Nurse’s Hall.
“Nurse’s Hall is probably the creepiest part of the house, especially at night,” Cody Uhlich, senior in biology, said.
Byers shared a story he heard about a time when their house mom, Barb Holste, was decorating the house for the holidays, and all the members were out studying or taking finals so she was the only one home. Holste heard screaming, but no movement up or down the steps.
When the Nurse died, it has been said she screamed all the way down.
While the idea of ghosts being in the house may seem unsettling, many of the fraternity members have learned to live with it.
“It doesn’t really bother me because you don’t think about it until something weird happens,” Mindrup said.
With strange noises, flickering lights and other paranormal activities, the majority of fraternity members say they believe ghosts do exist within the walls of Delta Sigma Phi, even if they haven’t had their own personal encounters with them.
“I 100 percent believe there are ghosts in the house,” Byers said. “I would love to encounter them. That’d be a really cool story.”
