Entry No. 30 — the Anchorage file — filed under: paranormal
Wendy Williamson Auditorium
“found walled up behind a crack that opened in the 2018 earthquake”
A university auditorium with a famous local haunting: a recurring 'woman in white,' an elevator shaft that leads nowhere, and a fully wired room that staff say was found walled up behind a crack that opened in the 2018 earthquake.
The story
The Wendy Williamson Auditorium wasn't built to be haunted; it was built wrong. In 1972, construction on the UAA campus stalled when funds ran dry, leaving the structure sitting as a concrete shell for 18 months. When the Municipality of Anchorage stepped in to rescue the project, they slashed the original 2,000-seat design in half without completely redrawing the architectural blueprints. Instead, they shrank the plans on the fly. The result is a structural fever dream of orphaned catwalks, doors opening into blank walls, and an elevator shaft that drops straight into nowhere.
That structural chaos got stranger after the magnitude-7.1 Anchorage earthquake in November 2018. The shaking cracked a lobby wall, and when maintenance crews opened up the drywall to inspect the structural breach, they found a fully wired room complete with live electricity and light fixtures hidden behind it—a room that had vanished from official campus blueprints decades earlier.
Then there are the phantoms. House staff and stage technicians speak casually about the venue's uninvited regulars: a woman in white spotted along the upper corridors, a phantom pianist who plays the lobby piano late at night (often credited to namesake John Wendell 'Wendy' Williamson), and an aggressive specter known to push women with long, dark hair along the staircases. You didn't hear it from us, but if you ask the stage crew setting up before a performance, they'll confirm that the structural glitches aren't the only unexplainable things in the building.
What it's like
Buying a ticket to whatever lecture, pageant, or concert is on the UAA event calendar is your cover charge to get inside. Arrive early before showtime to wander the upper lobby corridors, inspect the stairwells, and hunt for the dead-end elevator shaft. The vibe is classic mid-century campus theater—fluorescent hallways, heavy steel doors, and red velvet seats. If you go Monday through Thursday, campus permit parking is strictly enforced, so use the Pay-n-Park machine in the lot just west of the venue off Providence Drive; Friday nights and weekends are generally unenforced. Stick around after the curtain falls to ask the house staff about the walled-up electrical room.
The move: Catch an evening performance here, then linger after to walk the upper-floor hallways and ask the house staff about the woman in white and the walled-up room.
📍 Before you go It is a working venue on the UAA campus off Providence Drive in Midtown, so you get inside by ticketing whatever is on the calendar — concerts, pageants, lectures — and most of the lore lives in the lobby, around its staircases and piano, so arrive early and linger after the show. Campus permit parking is enforced Monday through Thursday; Fridays and weekends generally go unenforced, and a Pay-n-Park vending machine sits in the lot just west of the building. The elevator shaft to nowhere is real: the 1972 building stalled half-built for 18 months and was finished from shrunken blueprints, which is also where the orphaned catwalk came from. Pair it with the wildlife realia collection at ARLIS in the Consortium Library, a short walk across the same campus.
- 📍 Midtown Anchorage / UAA
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 2533 Providence Dr, Anchorage, AK 99508
Hours: Added 2026-06-09 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- ARLIS Wildlife Realia Collection (Alaska Resources Library) — A short walk across the UAA campus brings you to a quiet research library where you can inspect real taxidermy, animal skulls, and pelts.
- UAA Planetarium & Visualization Theater — Located on the same campus, this 62-seat planetarium pairs well for a laser star show before an evening performance.
- Bear Tooth Theatrepub — Head 2.5 miles west into Spenard post-show for house-brewed beer and pizza delivered directly to a movie booth.
Good to know
How do I get inside the Wendy Williamson Auditorium?
Because it is an active performance venue on the UAA campus, you gain entry by buying a ticket to whatever show, concert, pageant, or lecture is listed on its public calendar.
Why does the auditorium have an elevator shaft that leads nowhere?
When construction stalled in 1972, the building was finished using scaled-down blueprints derived from a much larger planned 2,000-seat auditorium, leaving mismatched architectural elements like dead-end shafts and orphaned catwalks.
What was found in the wall during the 2018 Anchorage earthquake?
The 2018 earthquake opened a crack in a lobby wall. When staff opened up the wall for repairs, they discovered a fully wired room with electricity and lights that had been sealed off and forgotten.
What is the parking setup at the building?
UAA enforces paid permit parking Monday through Thursday. Fridays and weekends are generally unenforced, and a Pay-n-Park vending machine is located in the parking lot immediately west of the auditorium.
What ghosts are associated with the venue?
Local lore recounts a recurring woman in white, a spirit that plays the lobby piano, and reports from women with long dark hair being shoved in the stairwells.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: thenorthernlight.org · adn.com · uaa.alaska.edu
last checked: 2026-06-09