Employees at the Old State Capitol building are familiar with Pierre Couvillon — he’s been walking the halls since 1850. But Couvillon is only one of the three ghosts said to haunt the Old State Capitol, one of Baton Rouge’s paranormal hotspots. The Old State Capitol has been a prison and a hospital, and Old State Capitol Director Mary Louise Prudhomme said spirits from those eras may inhabit it as well.Prudhomme said she heard an adding machine inexplicably go off and locked doors open and close on their own.Old State Capitol Director of Education Memory Seymour said ghostly residents may include Henry Watkins, who was responsible for most of the landscaping of the area and is the only person buried on the grounds; Sarah Morgan, whose father donated the land surrounding the Capitol; and Adelina Patti, an opera singer during the late 19th century, who is sometimes heard performing in the Senate Chamber. The building was used to hold community concerts and dances when the legislature was not in session.Pierre Couvillon is said to have died of a heart attack after a heated congressional debate in 1852. It has since been argued whether he died in the Old State Capitol or at his home in Marksville, but employees feel he continues to wander the halls, said Prudhomme.One of the better-known stories involves a security guard who was in the building alone when a sensor in another room went off, Prudhomme said. When she went into the other room, no one was there, but, Prudhomme said, one of the beds on display appeared to have been messed up. The security guard has since refused to work in the building alone at night, Prudhomme said. Seymour said she feels that whatever is in the building doesn’t seem to be interacting with the living but rather going on with “unfinished business.”The Spanish Moon, a bar on Highland Road, and the University’s own Pleasant Hall also have reports of paranormal activity.Lauren Ellermann, mass communication junior and student worker in Pleasant Hall, said she heard the story of the haunting when she was a freshman. Sometimes the elevator doors will open and close on their own; other people say they’ve glimpsed a girl’s face in the hall, who they claim to be the ghostly resident, she said. “I don’t mind it because we’re only here during the day, but I wouldn’t come here alone at night,” Ellermann said.The story of the Pleasant Hall haunting begins when the building operated as a hotel in the 1970s. “There was a love spat between a lady who worked as a secretary in Pleasant Hall and a male student who lived in Pleasant Hall and worked as a concierge,” said Doreen Maxcy, public service director of Continuing Education. The couple was breaking up when the woman became so distraught and angry she tried to shoot him and then turned the gun on herself, committing suicide, Maxcy said.”Her ghost is said to wander the halls on occasion,” Maxcy said.Though the stories persist, paranormal activity has never been proven in Pleasant Hall. John Capdevielle, director of housing from 1946 to 1981, said he has never heard of the suicide story and doesn’t believe the building is haunted. “When we asked about doing an investigation [of Pleasant Hall], we were told that they had heard no such reports of activity,” said Lynda Glorioso, founder and coordinator of Seekers of Unexplained Louisiana, a paranormal research team based primarily in Baton Rouge. Glorioso has been involved in paranormal investigation for 15 years. Brad Duplechien, founder and director of LaSpirits, said his team of paranormal investigators offers its services free of charge. On request, LaSpirits will survey a building or personal residence for paranormal phenomena using energy detection equipment.”We’re not ‘Ghostbusters’ or anything like that,” Duplechien said. LaSpirits team members try to recreate supposed paranormal events to see if suspicious noises have anything to do with the building structure. If they believe the noises may be paranormal in origin, they try to gather evidence and then present that information to the owner.—-Contact Olga Kourilova at [email protected]