By Dr. Frank McCoy
The University of Montevallo has quite a few ghosts, but one of the most interesting is the ghost of Colonel Reynolds. He was one of the first priesidents. When julia tutwiler helped get this instiitution established as a girl's training school, Reynolds bacame the first president and made a go of it. He owned a store downtown, and kids had to buy whatever they needed from him.
During the civil war Reynold's was a colonel in the Confederate Army, and his job was to supervise Reynolds Hall, which had become a hospital for Confederate soldiers. He learned that Sherman was about to attack Brairfield Iron Works, which was a very valuable smelting facility for the Confederates, so he decided to go eight miles from Briarfield and participate with the troops. Unfortunatly, he left wounded soldiers in Reynolds unguarded, and when the Union Army came through, they massacred the wounded in Reynolds. Reynolds came back from Brairfield and was anguished over the fact that he had not died on the battlefield. He regretted not staying in Montevallo to protect the wounded men, so he never left. He said he'd never go from Reynold's Hall again.
I have been over to Reynolds on nights when maintenance people will swear that Reynolds' portrait has been moved. They will take it down nd move it back to its proper place. No one has ever been caught moving i, but it does in fact move around the building. Every now and then, a gust of wind will blow across the stage when the doors aren't open, so it's very easy to imagine there's someone else in the room. He's a ghost who is sorry for what he did in life, and is trying to compensate for it after death.
"Ghost Walk"
By TourGUide
-Student workers have reported lights that they would turn off would come back on by themselves.
-Several have reported feeling like a colld figure just walked right through them.
- Ghost Hunters have reported feeling two entities there, Colonel Reynolds and a sad lady, both are reported most notibly on the second floor where the theather/ former civil war hospital use to be.
-Most reports come from the second floor.
-Reynold's supposedly loves to mess with any female that's up on the second floor. The host said he'll almost always mess with any female who enters that building. I've been in Reynolds once, I'm female, nothing happened, but then it was the middle of the day on the first floor.
-Dark thick stains, possibly blood was reported on the theater floor when the carpeting was replaced. If it was blood stains, that would confirm that Reynold's Hall was in fact a makeshift Civil War hospital.