I ought to preface this with the fact this was a hard one for me to write. I love Brenau history, and I've learned a lot over the years. But I've never written each individual story, legend or fact down, so here I go....
When I first got to Brenau, I was relayed stories about a resident ghost that haunts Pearce Auditorium. As expected, I was really interested in learning more about Agnes, and I really was ready for sorority recruitment to start, but I had two weeks to burn until then, so I consumed myself with learning more about Brenau and getting involved to subside my impatience.
The legend is a girl named Agnes, a feisty freshman back in the 1920's hung herself on the diving board of the pool underneath Pearce's stage after some traumatic event. These events range from spurned lover, or a ashamed she was pregnant and her lover abandoned her, spurned ballerina or actress, blackballed from a sorority, and then a separate story that the young woman, a member of a secret society, was killed by members of another secret society.
First, it's impossible for Agnes to have been killed by rival societies - Brenau's secret societies did not exist until about 10 years later. And, though there's no record of a swimming pool underneath Pearce, there's also no record contradicting that there could have been one - the legend went that it was indecent for girls to wear their swim suits outside, so they would take the underground tunnels to the basement - this is also possible, but those tunnels are another story for another day. As for the sorority blackball, the Agnes we think is "our" Agnes - Agnes Galloway - is featured in a Zeta Tau Alpha composite photo from what would be her freshman year. Was she a spurned lover, accidentally pregnant or lost a big part? Maybe. But the story Brenau girls like always involves love.
Therefore, the story I've deduced is the most likely is as follows: young Agnes was a budding singer and pianist. While she took a liking to her music teacher, possibly misinterpreting a friendly touch as something more, she soon fell deeply in love with him, only to discover after Christmas Break that he had married a sweetheart back home. Angered and upset, she dramatically hung herself from a diving board at the pool below the auditorium. If you're looking for extra flair, remove "possibly misinterpreting a friendly touch" and replace with "they began having a secret affair" and change "angered and upset" to "tormented by her secret pregnancy."
Let's dissect this story, like I have many times with Brenau's Campus Traditions Director Debbie Thompson, who has always helped me fuel my Brenau legends and lore knowledge. First, there really was a student named Agnes Galloway, that fits in the time period of the story. She also really did die - an obituary (that I cannot find online to save my life though I swear I have seen) two years later says she died from consumption at a sanitarium. Keep in mind, suicide was an embarrassment in ye olden days, so I think there's a good chance that her family would have tried to cover it up, and pretending to send your daughter to a sanitarium for a year or so where she died of tuberculosis and you have no services would be a good cover story.
At least, that's what I've heard, and really, that's what I chose to believe. Whoever Agnes was, she's special to us Brenau girls. We've even made t-shirts with her name on them - "Agnes is my homegirl."
We love Agnes. Musical and theatre productions give her "time to shine" before each performance, often seeing odd spotlights that are out of control of lighting techs. She wiggles door knobs, hides underwear, and flickers lights. She's playful, and all you have to do is say, "Ok, Agnes, cut it out" and off she goes, leaving you alone. One student told Thompson that she came in to her room in Mt. Bailey (named for its never-ending, steep staircase) to find a jar of pennies knocked over, completely empty - and every penny was heads up.
I've had several Agnes experiences, mostly because I've bothered her. Unable to wait on my Bid Day, I convinced security, with another girl on my hall, to let us climb into the attic of Pearce and Bailey, take a look around. He chuckled and told us not to piss her off. We did not, but got a really nice view, despite the fact that we probably risked our lives just for a cool story. I've toured Pearce's basement too many times to count, enjoying the odd chlorine smell and tracing outlines of what could be an Olympic sized swimming pool. I've also snuck in to the Octagon room, a series of small, mint green rooms, now used to house air conditioning ducts, but what used to be bedrooms, inhabited by real Brenau girls, and maybe even Agnes, overlooking Wilkes lawn.
But my most vivid Agnes experience was my freshman year of college, about a week before sorority recruitment, when I was just about to lose my mind and had been researching Agnes into the wee hours of the morning. The next day, I came back from dinner, telling a hall mate what I had learned. We opened the doors to Crudup First North and there it was - the strong smell of a chlorine pool. When we ran to find someone else to confirm what we had smelled, it was gone. It was so strong - I can still remember exactly what it smelled like. I only smelled that same chlorinated smell in one other place - the basement of Pearce.
