UPLB Baker Hall

Baker Memorial Hall was constructed between 1927 and 1938 and named in honor of Charles Fuller Baker, the second dean of the UP College of Agriculture. Designed as a physical education facility, auditorium, and social hub for the university campus, the building featured a spacious wooden sports court, high arched windows, and administrative offices. However, its history took a dark turn following the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in December 1941.

From November 1943 to February 1945, the Imperial Japanese Army seized Baker Hall and established the Los Baños Internment Camp. Over 2,100 American and Allied civilian internees—including missionaries, businessmen, teachers, and families—were imprisoned within the crowded gymnasium and surrounding barracks under harsh, starving conditions. On February 23, 1945, a daring joint military rescue operation executed by US Army 11th Airborne division paratroopers, amphibious tractor units, and Filipino guerrillas successfully liberated all 2,147 internees without losing a single civilian life. During the raid, the entire Japanese garrison of over 200 soldiers was killed. Following the war, Baker Hall was restored and designated a Historic Site by the National Historical Institute in 1982.

The spooky legends surrounding Baker Hall center on its traumatic WWII period as an internment camp and execution site. Student folklore at UPLB recounts how Japanese soldiers executed captured guerrillas and uncooperative internees near the building's basement storage areas and rear courtyard. It is said that the cries of prisoners pleading for food and medical aid echo through the empty gymnasium rafters on quiet nights.

Another famous campus legend involves sightings of spectral Japanese soldiers conducting midnight drills inside the main hall. UPLB athletes practicing late at night have reported seeing a phantom Japanese officer standing rigidly on the upper balcony, watching over the basketball court with a saber drawn. Additionally, students walking near the Makiling forest edge behind Baker Hall report encountering headless figures in military attire fading into the trees. Campus oral history also tells of a wailing female prisoner seen weeping beside the old shower rooms late at night, calling for help in English before evaporating into cold mist.

Students also tell stories of a phantom runner seen pacing around the indoor balcony track late at night, leaving behind the sound of squeaking rubber shoes on empty floors. The legend of a ghost officer watching over the court remains a favorite campus ghost story. Night campus patrols report seeing shadow figures moving near the old outdoor bleachers before vanishing into thin air.

Students, faculty members, and campus security officers have documented numerous paranormal experiences inside and around Baker Hall. During evening sports practices or theater rehearsals, witnesses frequently report hearing heavy marching boots rhythmically pacing across the hardwood floorboards when no one else is in the room.

Unexplained auditory phenomena include the sound of frantic clattering trays, distant weeping, and disembodied conversations speaking in Japanese and English echoing from empty locker rooms. Night watchmen have reported seeing flickering phantom lights inside the locked gymnasium, experiencing sudden freezing cold drafts, and feeling invisible hands pushing against them while patrolling the basement corridors. Equipment like digital cameras often experiences battery failure in the basement areas, while shadow figures are spotted near the rear entrance.

In addition, security guards report that electronic keycards and flashlights often malfunction without warning near the historic basement entrance. Students studying late near the building also describe hearing unexplained piano music and soft singing floating from the closed auditorium windows.

Baker Hall is designed in a prominent American Colonial Neoclassical style, featuring thick reinforced concrete walls, a high gabled roof, and a grand front portico supported by classic columns. The front facade features arched entrance doorways, decorative moldings, and commemorative historical markers honoring its role in WWII.

The interior layout centers on a large multi-purpose gymnasium floor equipped with basketball courts and retractable seating, flanked by mezzanine viewing balconies on the upper level. Subterranean and ground-level wings contain physical education faculty offices, dance studios, equipment locker rooms, and storage cellars that retain their historic wooden framing and original structure. The building stands prominently near the foot of Mount Makiling, surrounded by ancient tropical trees.

Baker Hall is located within the main campus of the University of the Philippines Los Baños in Laguna, at the base of Mount Makiling. The campus is open to visitors, and Baker Hall's exterior can be easily viewed and photographed by walking along the main campus avenues during daylight hours.

Public transportation to UPLB is available via buses from Manila to Santa Cruz or Los Baños, followed by a short jeepney ride directly onto the campus grounds. Visitors should respect ongoing university classes, athletic events, and campus safety rules when exploring the area. Guided historical walks around campus landmarks can also be arranged through student heritage groups.

Baker Hall's haunted reputation is rooted in its historic role as the Los Baños Internment Camp during World War II and its tragic wartime casualties. The combination of its impressive 1920s Neoclassical architecture, proximity to the mysterious Mount Makiling forest, and generations of student ghost stories has secured its place as a cornerstone of UPLB folklore and Southern Luzon dark tourism.