Along the banks of the Hudson River, roughly halfway between New York City and Albany, lies one of the country's most famous centers of culinary learning: The Culinary Institute of America. Countless chefs have passed through its venerable Roth Hall, a signature behemoth of a building dating back to the early 1900s. Roth Hall houses a variety of classrooms, kitchens, dining rooms and administrative offices. And like many universities, it is home to its share of legends.
The Culinary Institute of America was founded in 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut. It was originally created as a training school for veterans returning from WWII on the GI Bill. What started as a small storefront in New Haven outgrew two buildings by the late 1960s. A nationwide search for an adequate facility landed on the property of St. Andrew-on-Hudson in Hyde Park, New York. The Jesuits who owned the property were consolidating and moving to Syracuse. The CIA bought the property in 1970 spent two years renovating it.
It was only shortly after the school moved onto the property that stories started emerging about a ghostly figure that roamed the campus. In the ensuing 40 years, the legend of Father Murphy – the apparition said to haunt the kitchens of the CIA – has persisted.
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