Every year Ross Allison pays a visit to Dutchess Community College for his annual lecture and ghost hunt. this year (2018) down in the basement after a student felt something cold behind him, followed by a stage noise. the thermal image was capture below. it appears a figure was standing there.
Around 1913, the Nettie Bowne TB Hospital (Bowne Hall building) was built on this hill-top property, hoping to catch the clean wind to cure the sick. TB was the scourge that killed many people in the first half of the 20th century. In 1936, an antibiotic that could kill the TB bacteria was created, spelling the end of the reign of terror that this disease had on the public. By 1956, TB was a disease that could be treated as an outpatient illness, and was no longer the contagious killer with no cure. Instead of letting the hospital stand idle and decay, becoming a public eyesore ( Kalamazoo Sanitorium ) the hospital buildings and grounds were donated to the State Education Department, to be used as a junior college. Dutchess Junior College opened for classed in 1958, becoming part of the State University New York System.
Two of the buildings from the Nettie Bowne TB Hospital, were renovated and remodeled to serve the students and faculty; called Bowne Hall and Taconic Hall. Bowne Hall structure began its second life as an important college building, housing Dutchess Junior College’s classrooms, library, faculty offices, and the cafeteria.
The basement of Bowne Hall had been the morgue for the Nettie Bowne TB Hospital. The upper floors of Bowne Hall had been the final home of many critically sick patients who died through a slow suffocation, as the disease destroyed their lungs.Throughout the years, staff, employees and students have been made aware of “strange presences” in this building, especially the basement.
