(Shirreff would remain a women’s residence until the mid-2000s.) And Penelope’s tale of love, betrayal, heartbreak and shame is decidedly wrapped up in sexist and patriarchal expectations. The residence - Dalhousie’s first - was built in the early 1920s for Dal’s growing population of female students, many of whom struggled to find housing from local landlords that preferred to rent to male tenants. The story of Shirreff Hall and its ghost are both founded in the gender politics of the early 20th century. So, in honour of Halloween, let’s take a look at the story behind campus’s most famous spine-tingling tale. Yet Penelope’s story continues to be passed along as fun, freaky folklore that just happens to align with some of the more inexplicable events that occur in a century-old residence house. With 440 students calling Shirreff Hall home in a typical year, we’d likely hear about it if a large number of them found themselves face-to-face with a phantom on a regular basis. Now, we don’t mean to mis-spook… err… misspeak: these sorts of mysterious happenings are not very common.
“But with my own experience and the tales other people have shared, I am definitely hesitant to deny that Penelope exists." “Before I moved into Shirreff I didn’t believe in ghosts, and I thought Penelope was a fun idea but just a tale,” says the student. And there was no way someone could be standing where she was because that’s where my filing cabinet is.” The girl quickly disappeared - was she even there? - but the student has noticed other strange happenings in her time living in the building as well, like a certain cabinet drawer that opens and closes on its own.
and saw a girl standing in the corner of my room, covering her face as if she was crying. “I was in my room sleeping,” says one current Shirreff resident (who prefers to stay anonymous - perhaps for fear of offending the wayward spirit). But some stories go further, including possible sightings of the woman, named Penelope, hovering through Shirreff’s darker corners Most of these stories are tied to unexpected happenings: strange sounds, sudden temperature changes, things that turn on or off without any apparent human intervention.
Dalhousie’s oldest residence, Shirreff Hall, has long been haunted by stories of a resident who never left - a young woman, scorned and heartbroken, forever cursed to creep the building’s corridors.
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