The East Alabama Male College, which later became Auburn University, closed down during the Civil War. The campus was used as a training ground for Confederate soldiers, and the Auburn University Chapel, in the same location today on the corner of Thach Avenue and College Street, was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers.
After the Confederacy was broken up, the campus was again used as a university. One dead Confederate soldier, however, allegedly refused to leave the former hospital he died in.
According to legend, Sydney Grimlett was a British soldier fighting for the Confederacy. He died in the chapel after a failed amputation of an infected leg, and was buried in Pine Hill Cemetery. The chapel was used by Auburn's theater department in the 1900s, and actors would blame unexplained problems with missing props or scripts on Sydney.
His legend was passed down, and it is still told today to student actors and freshmen at Camp War Eagle.
"I think it's interesting because it portrays the natural human side of wanting to see something supernatural," said John Morsom, freshman in history.
He heard about the haunting at Camp War Eagle, but said he doesn't necessarily believe the legend.
The chapel is the second oldest building on campus, and the oldest building in its original location. Over the years, it has been used as a church, a hospital, a classroom and theater before serving as the church it is today.
The building is locked, but open to the public with a reservation through Auburn's reservation department and a $20 deposit. From the raised stoop leading to the front door, Samford and Toomer's Corner can be seen over the wall in the courtyard.
The tan shuttered windows and locked front doors discourage college students walking to and from the downtown bars from organizing their own tours.
Inside, the sound of yells and laughter from the sidewalk can be heard. Loud motors from trucks accelerating past the four-way intersection sound loud enough to be heard on the church stage next to the pipe organ facing the metal framed, blue cushion chairs lined up in swayed rows. Lights illuminated every corner of the main floor, stairway and balcony.
Faith Serafin, author and Alabama paranormal investigator, investigated the chapel with the Alabama Paranormal Research Team. Throughout the night they spent on location, numerous inconclusive signals were picked up by their equipment.
As they left, however, they heard water from the sink in the women's bathroom being turned on and off.
"The biggest thing that I can tell you, as far as a paranormal investigator goes, is that you can have all the equipment in the world," Serafin said. "The best cameras, thousands of dollars of thermal gear, military grade everything and for you to go somewhere and have an experience with your own senses, not that you could capture, that's when you have a tendency to believe a little bit more what might actually happen there."
As the University expanded, the chapel was renovated and the theater department moved to the Telfair Peet Theatre on the opposite side of Auburn's campus. Sydney allegedly followed.
Robin Jaffe, associate professor of theater and production manager and faculty technical director for Auburn's theater department, came to Auburn in 1992. Then, the legend of Sydney in the Telfair Peet Theatre was alive.
Jaffe can't say whether he has seen or heard Sydney himself, but a tradition of leaving Reese's peanut butter cups and Skittles on the catwalks before shows has kept Sydney's meddling with the actors at bay.
If the stage managers don't follow tradition, something will go wrong.
"Sometimes it's the students, sometimes it's Sydney," Jaffe said.
Scripts and props go missing, and there is a bin of shoes where only one in the pair could be found. According to legend, Sydney takes the other shoe for his leg that wasn't amputated.
One professor, in 2008, decided it was time for students to take responsibility for their mistakes instead of blaming Sydney and performed an exorcism that allegedly made Sydney leave. That professor left, and the legend of Sydney continues despite the fact that "the ants have taken more candy than the ghost," said Jaffe.
Serafin said her team would like to return to try and find more about Sydney, but until then, the legend of Sydney will be passed down from the older theater members to the newer.
"Any story created helps build a camaraderie," Jaffe said. "There's always a history everywhere you go."
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