HAUNTED LAWRENCE

Founded in 1915, Cordley Elementary School bills itself as the “oldest
elementary school building still in operation in Lawrence.” In its decades
of existence, the school has served thousands of students and is an important
part of Lawrence history.
Cordley’s story starts in the early 1910s. It was during this time that the
Lawrence Board of Education decided to construct two new elementary
schools, with one on each side of the Kaw River. While the board quickly
agreed that the northern school should be established on Rhode Island
Street, a consensus as to the location of the southern school was not so
easily forthcoming. Eventually, after considering over a dozen different
locations, the board agreed that block one of Taylor’s Addition (roughly
the area bounded on the east and west by Vermont and Kentucky Streets
and on the north and south by Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets)
would serve as the best location for the new school. In late 1914, the
aforementioned land was purchased, and on May 4 of the following year,
construction began.
While the building was being erected, members of the town decided
that the building should be christened in honor of Reverend Richard
Cordley, who had served the community as the minister for the Plymouth
Congregational Church from 1857 until 1875. Cordley—a staunch
abolitionist—was an important member of the early Lawrence community,
and after Quantrill’s Raid, he helped the city of Lawrence rebuild. Cordley
was also a skilled writer, having penned the books The Lawrence Massacre
(1865), A History of Lawrence, Kansas (1895) and Pioneer Days in Kansas
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(1903). Thanks to these works, we now know a great deal about life in the
early city.
Schools are often a hotbed of paranormal activity, and Cordley
Elementary School is no exception. Witnesses claim that lights turn on
and off spontaneously, doors open and close by themselves, toilets flush
when no one is in the bathrooms and footsteps echo through the empty
hallways after hours.
Kelly Rettig, a teacher in the Lawrence School District who formerly
worked as an instructor at Cordley, is one of the many who believe that the
school is home to a variety of spirits. According to her, the first spirit she
interacted with was that of a small boy. She explained:
Reverend Richard Cordley, an early member of the Lawrence community and a prominent
antislavery minister. Courtesy of the Kenneth Spencer Research Library.
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Numerous children and staff have experienced this child energy. We call him
“Tommy”—and I’m not sure why! My first interaction with Tommy was
that I had things moved around in my classroom—they were misplaced. I
[soon] sensed his presence. My first year I was teaching there, I had a little
girl [who] was fussing. I looked over, and I literally saw her ponytail lift
up and [something] pull her hair. Without a doubt it was a child energy
that pulled her hair.
For nine of the ten years that Rettig taught at the school, she, her students
and fellow teachers had several run-ins with Tommy. Many of these
incidents were innocuous: children would feel a tugging on their sleeves,
or individuals would hear the sound of footsteps reverberate in otherwise
empty hallways. Other times, the spirit was more aggressive; for instance,
several children claimed that they were pushed by the entity, seemingly for
no reason. But despite this behavior, Rettig maintains that Tommy is not
malicious, just occasionally rascally, as young children often are.
A number of people have also caught glimpses of Tommy. Carmen
Marsico, a custodian who formerly worked at the school, said in an interview:
The first time that I saw him, I was in the hallway, and there was a
musical going on, and this kid kept running in and out of the gym. I
thought, “Who is that kid?” But then I realized that the doors were closed!
It was the ghost! He was running right through the door. [Another time]
I was in the gym, and I was sitting on a desk. And he actually pushed me
off the desk! He did the same thing to me in from of Kelly [Rettig] one
night. I was talking to her and he pushed me off of a bench—twice!
Other witnesses—ranging from students to adults—have all described
the spirit in the same way: he is the height of an average child, with brown
hair, wearing “old-fashioned clothes” like dungarees and a button-up shirt.
But who exactly is Tommy? Rettig speculates that he is a child from the
early to mid-twentieth century, who in his lifetime loved spending time at
the school.
Cordley is also home to protector spirits of sorts. The first of these Rettig
refers to as “Hazel.” She describes this spirit as that of a woman, who
will walk through the school and peer into classrooms, as if checking to
see if everything is as it should be. Rettig’s experience was corroborated by
Marsico, who explained:
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I saw [Hazel] many times. This woman was dressed in a very long black
dress that went up to the neck. Hair up in a bun. Always stood at the
classroom doors, just watching me. She’d watch and then walk away. She
seemed like a really stern schoolteacher. The kind that if I were an ornery
kid in elementary school, I’d be scared to death of ! However, I’m convinced
that she’s benevolent and just watching over her old school.
Both Rettig and Marsico are not certain, but they believe that this entity
is the spirit of Hazel Lee Simmons, who was principal of the school from
1937 until 1965. During her time at Cordley, Simmons was well loved and
respected by students and teachers alike; a 1966 report by the Cordley PTA,
for instance, claimed that Simmons was “of good will, patient, efficient and
firm, [and] fair.” If the entity that both Rettig and Marsico saw is Hazel Lee
Simmons, then it is likely that she remains at the school, looking out for its
teachers and students.
The second protector spirit is that of Reverend Cordley himself.
According to Rettig, “Reverend Cordley is always there, and he is in
charge.” According to several witnesses, his spirit will simply observe
others, making sure that everything is running smoothly. Some have
even seen him looking out of the school’s windows at night. It seems that
The front of Cordley Elementary School. Author’s collection.
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Reverend Cordley is a caring spirit, as he, in the words of Rettig, simply
returns “to make sure that [the teachers] are doing everything OK. He
just comes to check.”
Not all of the spirits are friendly, however. Many people who work at the
school claim that when they venture down into the school’s basement, they
are overcome with a feeling of foreboding and fear. Rettig always felt as if
the area had experienced some sort of suffering in the past. Marsico said,
“You always got the feeling that there was somebody there with you. They’d
never show themselves, but the minute you went down, you felt them.”
Likewise, in the upstairs level of what was the original part of the
school, a spirit that several refer to as “The Lady in Red” supposedly
lurks. This spirit, as her name suggests, wears a red coat. She is known to
follow people around, often appearing in their peripheral vision. Rettig,
in her many years teaching at the school, never quite felt comfortable in
the upstairs area, which she attributes to this spirit. Marsico, on the other
hand, never felt that the Lady in Red was malevolent. He described her
as “very pretty” and “always smiling.” He explained, “I’d turn around
and she’d be standing there, smiling. She never made any motions or
movements—she’d just stand there.”
The identity of the Lady in Red is not quite clear. Perhaps she once lived
on the land on which Cordley School was built, or perhaps, like the ghosts
of Hazel and Reverend Cordley, she, too, was a former authority figure
who is now visiting the school from beyond the grave.
Cordley Elementary School is located at 1837 Vermont Street, just one
block west of Massachusetts Street. Because it is a public school, the building
is closed off to random visitors. As such, attempting to enter the building
without permission is highly discouraged.