Did you know that the haunted Evansville library was the inspiration for a children’s book?

The ghostly lady who haunts the Willard Library was the inspiration for a super cute book.

Located on First Avenue in Evansville is a beautiful Victorian Gothic style building that we know as the Willard Library. The Willard Library is one of the first public libraries in the state of Indiana. Of course, this library is known for being housed in a beautiful and historic building, but it is also known for being home to Evansville’s most infamous ghost, the Gray Lady.

If you are familiar with Evansville’s ghostly history, you have no doubt at least heard of the Gray Lady.

According to the Willard Library, no one really knows who the Gray Lady is, but it is widely speculated that she is the ghost of Louise Carpenter, the daughter of Willard Library founder Willard Carpenter.

Sightings of the Grey Lady date back to the 1930s, when a guard came across a woman wearing a long dress and a grey scarf. However, the woman quickly disappeared into the darkness. This was the first reported sighting of the ghost we now call the Grey Lady.

READ MORE: Learn more about the story of the Grey Lady here.

I don’t know how I missed this, but did you know there’s a book about a haunted library? Not just any library, this book was inspired by the Willard Library, and you can see a building that looks incredibly similar to Willard!

Recently, the Willard Library published an entertaining video reading of this book, saying:

In this book inspired by the Willard Public Library, the Gray Lady teams up with a young patron to save the library! Will the duo’s hilarious antics save the library from closing? Find out in The Lady of the Library by Angie Karcher.

If you would like to grab a copy of this book, I recommend shopping at a local bookstore. One easy way to do this is Bookshop.org. My two favorite bookstores in Evansville are Bluestocking Social and Your Brother’s Bookstore.

Click here to view Bluestocking Social’s Bookshop.org website.

Click here to view Your Brother’s Bookstore’s Bookshop.org website.

Click on any of the links above and simply search for “Angie Karcher” in the search bar on Bookshop.org. You can buy the book and support a local bookshop at the same time.

If you would like to check out a sample of this book, you can find it below!