Paula Merritt / The Meridian StarUniversity of West Alabama literature professor Alan Brown sits on a sofa on the second floor of the Julia Tutwiler Library and watches as his Maglite flashes during a ghost investigation early Thursday morning. Brown has traveled around the world and written more than 30 books about the paranormal.

LIVINGSTON, Ala. — The two-story brick library sits on the edge of the University of West Alabama’s campus, just a stone’s throw from North Washington Street.

Three long, concrete stairs lead students and visitors to the silver-outlined, glass doors at the entrance. Above the entrance, black letters splashed across light gray concrete spell out “Julia Tutwiler Library.”

As students trickled from the library late Halloween night, UWA American literature professor and paranormal investigator Alan Brown settled near the handicap ramp and glanced down at his cellphone.

The Julia Tutwiler Library, according to Brown and one male student who exited the library around 10:30 p.m., has long been a hotbed for paranormal activity. An investigation that night would provide some evidence.

Brown, a Meridian resident and author who has written more than 30 books about paranormal experiences, has traveled around the country and Europe, twice, in pursuit of paranormal activity. Brown, however, doesn’t have to venture far from his office in Wallace Hall across campus to search for ghost legends.

“I came here in ’86, and that’s when I found out about Ruby Pickens Tartt, who collected folklore in Sumter County during the 1930s,” said Brown, who relocated from Illinois. “And then I found out about Kathryn Tucker Windham, who also collected ghost stories throughout the entire state. I didn’t know Ms. Tartt, but I did know Kathryn Tucker Windham. And so I decided that I wanted to start writing like she did. I wanted to write the same kind of stories; I wanted to talk to people and collect these legends that they’ve been telling in these small towns, and that’s what I’ve been doing since about ’96.”

Storied library

The library opened in 1962 and is dedicated in honor of Julia Strudwick Tutwiler, who served as president of then-Livingston Normal College from 1890 to 1910. Tutwiler died in 1912, but her contributions to women’s education and prison reform are widely recognized in Alabama.

Wednesday’s investigation brought Brown and four UWA staff members, novice ghost hunters, to the library in search of activity. As Brown entered the building, he carried with him two white tote bags filled with investigation equipment: electromotive force meters (EMFs), Maglites and other various ghost hunting gear. While some ghost hunters spend thousands of dollars on equipment, Brown proudly stated his two most-expensive pieces cost around $90-100-dollars apiece.

Students and former library staff have shared their experiences of seeing a woman’s reflection in the entrance’s glass doors. Some have claimed to hear the sound of phantom books crashing from shelves onto the tile floors. Others said they have felt the soft touch of a woman’s hand run through their hair. Those who have seen her claim she was dressed in 19th-century attire.

Once inside the library, and after the group received the all-clear from a campus policeman, Brown and the men scrambled to turn off the lights.

“Midnight to 2 a.m. is the witching hour,” Brown said.

After a widespread search for the proper breaker box, the group was able to successfully power down all but one set of lights located near the entrance. Brown distributed the EMFs and Maglites, and explained their uses. The second floor of the library, he said, is where most encounters occur.

“If you go into one of these expecting to find ghosts, you probably will,” Brown said earlier in the night. “Now that doesn’t mean that they’re really there, but you’ll convince yourself that they are. I’m very skeptical about it, and I’ve had some experiences that I can’t discount as being my imagination because I’ve used these devices that seemed to indicate something was there.”

Alan Brown

“If you go into one of these expecting to find ghosts, you probably will. Now that doesn’t mean that they’re really there, but you’ll convince yourself that they are.”

–Alan Brown

The group split into two, and Brown led a few of the staff members upstairs. The others remained downstairs and scoped out a dark location for investigation. A spot was found near what appeared to be the clerk room. An EMF and voice recorder were placed on a table, and the group waited.

Creaking sounds

The tree limbs twisting in the late-night breeze cast dancing shadows on the walls. Their rhythm created an eerie backdrop. Sounds could be heard, not unfamiliar with a building of its age, creaking pipes and wood, for example, but the EMF didn’t register any spike in energy.

After nearly 20 minutes, part of the group migrated to another room on the first floor, and it appeared that the change of venue wouldn’t yield different results. They remained motionless.

One explorer talked as if a ghost was present, asking questions and making comments, when something strange occurred. In response to a question, the green light on the EMF began to light up and increase in intensity.

Somewhat surprised, the explorer asked another question to see if it would elicit the same response.

It did.

This happened for around five minutes until the voices from a couple of staff members, making their way back downstairs, could be heard. It was the only occurrence with the EMF that group witnessed.

Seeing the light

The group reunited with Brown, who was sitting on a couch near a collection of books on the second floor of the library. His EMF, iPhone equipped with a ghost tracking app and Maglite rested on the table in front of him.

Brown said he had experienced a similar activity to what had happened on the first floor.

Brown unscrewed the top of his Maglite before the investigation, just enough for it to flicker should it come in contact with a ghost’s energy. He said the Maglite had been blinking off and on for a while, and his hand-held thermometer gun recorded slight decreases in temperatures during those instances.

The group remained seated and watched the light flicker off and on at times when Brown would ask the apparent energy questions.

“The ghosts materialize by drawing energy from their surroundings, and that accounts for cold spots,” Brown said. “So that’s why we try to do both: we try to look for drops in temperature. If it’s a serious drop in temperature, you get your EMF detector out and see if it registers, if there are any spikes in the EMF field. And if there are, then the two of those, it’s pretty likely that there’s something going on there.”

After sitting a while, the group explored other upstairs rooms for activity. Just after 2 a.m., Brown began concluding his investigation.

Although he was heading back to Meridian, the staff members began to prepare their bedding — they planned to remain in the library throughout the night.

Raising questions

Although no one experienced an outright ghost sighting that night, the experience was memorable, especially for Will Atkinson, the school’s assistant to the vice president of student affairs. Atkinson said the experience left him with a desire to learn more about the existence of ghosts and it piqued his curiosity.

“It was my absolute first time,” Atkinson said. “I can’t say that I’ve been a person that was a skeptic, but I also can’t say I’m a person that’s like, ‘I know ghosts exist.’ I think I’m on the fence. Now having said all of that, I can’t offer a rational explanation to the flashlight turning on and off, which was pretty interesting and probably causes me to have more questions than answers. But that was probably the most compelling thing that happened that wasn’t self-inflicted.”

While many television shows and movies portray ghost hunts as hair-raising, adrenaline-packed ventures, Brown has found the opposite to be true. Patience, he said, is a key trait to possess when engaging in investigations. 

“The thing about real ghost hunting is it’s a lot more boring than it looks like on TV,” Brown said. “Those half-hour shows are heavily edited. What you’re seeing are the good parts… A real investigation will take hours and maybe days, and so they really condense those to make it more interesting. Ghosts don’t perform on cue, so don’t expect amazing things to happen immediately.”