What’s on the Fourth Floor?

Acclaimed for its architectural building, AHA is often best known for its old but gorgeous building. The building has been around for 1931 and has undergone many renovations and additions along the way.  AHA was originally a girls-only boarding school, where the students learned and lived all within the building. The students were instructed by the Sisters of Saint Joseph, who also lived in the building.

With an old school comes old rumors. One of the most mysterious parts of AHA is the fourth  floor, which is tied deep within the lore of the school. The fourth floor is a mystifying place, not open to the AHA student population. The only available point of access to the fourth floor for students is through the band and choir room, located on the fourth floor but not connected to the rest of the school. Given its lack of access, many rumors have arisen about the contents of the level in and of itself. The most popular would be the common rumor of the “fourth floor pool.” Others claim that the floor is haunted by the ghosts of the nuns. So what is the true contents of the fourth floor? 

I was given the opportunity to take a visit to the fourth floor along with other Blue & Gold writers, sophomores Aubrey Pannhoff and Lucy Chamberlain, in order to see what was up there once and for all. I hate to disappoint, but there were no pools or ghosts roaming the halls. I didn’t expect it to be as modern as it was, but it had full electricity and some rooms were even equipped with televisions, to my surprise. Another detail that surprised me was the size of the fourth floor. It was much larger than I originally assumed and spanned the length of the math hallway, but with many more classrooms. The rooms were mainly used as storage space for old furniture and equipment. Seniors, juniors, and sophomores will remember the now retired Mr. Roche. Mr. Roche actually used to have a classroom on the fourth floor, and it is still filled with desks and chairs, a TV, and an Eiffel Tower decal painted on the wall. 

There was also a large room used for heating, which contained two items of interest. The first was a large architectural model of the entire school lot, which was extremely detailed. Architectural Model Building students have the chance to see this model as an example during their course. The other item of interest was a large painting, depicting a religious image of Mary, Jesus, and a saint, created by an unknown artist. The painting nearly reached the ceiling and has been in the school for years, yet the artist is still undisclosed. There were other paintings, tapestries, and pieces of art in the other classrooms, made by students or otherwise. Lots of theater props were also kept in the rooms. The only thing that we found odd was the one-sided glass between two rooms, where it was mirrored on one side and clear on the other. In all, the fourth floor really is nothing different from the rest of the school.