On Monday, April 23, residents of Bartlett Hall were allowed a rare tour of the building’s fourth and fifth floors, which have been closed since 1983 due to fire code.

Adrienne Appler, the Residence Life Coordinator of Bartlett Hall, directed the tours.

“I’ve been really excited to be able to do this for Bartlett residents, especially because it’s Bartlett’s last year,” she said. “There’s a lot of mystery surrounding the fourth and fifth floors because they’re locked up. Hearing that it was a haunted house causes people to wonder what’s up there.”

Appler first escorted the students to the fifth floor, a small segment of the building which consists mainly of one large room referred to as “the ballroom.” In an alcove off to the side sit three old couches and a floor lamp. Disregarding a fine layer of dust, the ballroom and alcove looked as though they had been waiting for students to walk in and start dancing, studying and relaxing.

After the short jaunt about the fifth floor, Appler showed the students to the fourth floor, which had been used as a haunted house in the past. This information seemed trivial until the floor was unlocked and students looked inside rooms with “redrum” painted on the walls in what looked like fresh blood. A bathroom sported a tub filled with the same red liquid. Signs of the devil and creepy sayings stared down at the students.

Aside from the haunting d?cor, the fourth floor looked just like the floors below. At one point, it housed students just like the ones on the tour.

Jeff Heidebrink, a freshman public relations major, went on the tour after waiting his turn in line on the third floor.

“It’s weird seeing it because it all looks the same as down here,” said Heidebrink after the tour. “The bathrooms look the same. The rooms have the same closets, same mirrors over the sink.”

After 98 years of serving as a residence hall, Bartlett Hall will close down this May to be renovated into a space for faculty offices and laboratories. In the small space of time between students moving out and the beginning of the renovations, the hallways and rooms of Bartlett will stand just as empty as the upper floors have for years. But many Bartlett Hall residents will not soon forget their time there.

“I feel like this is my home,” said Elizabeth Raising, a sophomore pre-med major. “I’m really comfortable and I’m sad that I’m losing my home.”

Stephanie Boardman, a freshman public relations and marketing double major, will always have fond memories of her time living in Bartlett.

“I met my future roommate. I got closer to my friends. Bartlett let us get closer because they were all here,” Boardman said. “I know it’s cheesy, but cheesy is sometimes good, I guess.”

Dustin Woody, a sophomore electronic media major, has been a visible member of Bartlett Hall the past two years. Bartlett’s eight houses each chose a superhero as their theme at the beginning of the year. To represent his house, Woody wore a Batman costume to every hall senate meeting. He even attended a few hall events in the costume.

“It’s a great building,” said Woody, “I really wish it could stick around for two years, which would be my senior year and Bartlett’s 100th birthday, but it’s getting old and falling apart.”

Ramya Varadaraju, a sophomore exchange student majoring in computer science, found living in Bartlett to be a pleasant experience.

“It was cool. I have a host family here, since I’m an international student, and my host grandma lived on the same floor,” she said.

The resident assistants on staff this year are also sad to see the building go.

Quintan Mann, a junior actuarial science major, said, “I enjoyed working here; it’s been a blast. I wish I could work here longer, but I can’t.”

“It was an honor to be a resident assistant in Bartlett in its last year as a residence hall,” said Molly Hayes, a junior English education major. “I have made so many memories this year, thanks mainly to the other RAs on staff – we grew to be very close. I will miss them, and I’ll also miss Bartlett’s unique, easygoing community. I only lived in Bartlett for one year, but in that year Bartlett became home.”

While the renovations will change the interior of Bartlett, the structure itself will stand as it is.

“I’m really glad that they’re keeping the bones,” said Appler of the reconstruction plans. “I’m glad it can live on in some way.”