Poasttown Elementary – History

Poasttown Elementary School

Middletown, Ohio

 

Hidden amongst nature preserves and gorgeous woodlands that encompass surrounding waterways and wildlife within a small town is where you can find Middletown, Ohio. The former Poasttown Elementary School stands in all its former glory even though time has truly passed on here. The school shows a history in which it tries to salvage and show off for future generations. Other historically valued occurrences took place in this area leaving Middletown synonymous with tragedy rather than an abandoned school. There are rumors abound that these tragedies compiled and built on the ground of the school leaving an ungodly amount of energy behind from death and despair combined with the happiness and pure electricity from a public school and the children that congregated and learned at the Poasttown School. Not only the owner, volunteers, and guests have encountered strange happenings here, but the owner has opened its doors to paranormal research groups to have more professional opinions and utilize their tools and techniques. Thanks to these groups, a plethora of experiences and theories have built up over time, leaving everyone who visits with their encounters and seems to leave the building with a fresh perspective and allowing the building to grow and build its ever-growing legend of the Poasttown Elementary.

 

 

The Past

 

The elementary school itself holds quite a history, from its’ founding to its’ demise. Thousands of children passed through its doors but perhaps the more intriguing aspect of the school is its property. Encompassing approximately a mile radius includes a haunting history of tragedy, death, and despair. Two major train accidents occurred in this vicinity as well as one deadly and horrific flood. All three of these incidents devastated the area, but combined, they left such a sour taste in most locals and visitors’ physiques.

The first train accident occurred in July of 1891. Following a company picnic for the National Cash Register, a passenger train holding a plethora of families collided with a freight train as they were headed toward Dayton, Ohio. This tragic event caused the death of four people and severe injuries to an additional fifty. The second train accident in the area occurred less than twenty years later in (another) July of 1910. This incident was due to the engineer of a passenger train disregarding his schedule following a track detour. Another freight train collided with this passenger train after this simple misinterpretation of the schedule. After the collision, the two passenger cars closest to the engine were decimated. There was a total of nineteen deaths and many others who were severely injured, some fatal in the long-term leading to another seventeen deaths. The location of the current school was created to be a makeshift field hospital as there were no hospitals nearby. Even though the relief trains were dispatched and doctors from the area converged on the area, the death toll climbed to thirty-six total, many of whom perished on the school’s site.

 

 

Only three years following the last train accident in 1913, a massive flood destroyed the area laying waste to mass amounts of homes and businesses. The flood led to six people drowning outside the small town of Middletown. Following this trio of tragedies, the area opened the Middletown Regional Hospital to help prevent the makeshift hospitals which led to countless people suffering and ultimately dying.

The school itself was officially opened in 1937 replacing the original one-room schoolhouse which was the only school even remotely nearby. While the school graduated countless students, it ultimately had its peak time pass by due to technology and a dwindling population. The elementary school slowly moved its students out to various locations during the late 1990s and finally closed its doors in 2000. 

 Not long after, banks foreclosed and the county just wanted to rid itself of the property, selling the abandoned building to a married couple of Brenda and Darrell Whisman in 2004 for $189,000.00. Truthfully only a portion of what it was worth although the building was, and still is, in need of many upgrades and repairs. The pair tried to bring the building up to code but with the immense amount of work and limited money and supplies, they filed for bankruptcy and reconsidered for the school.

 

 

The couple took a step back and decided to create a new business plan. They opened their doors to many groups to the empty rooms to use at their leisure and particular needs. These rooms have been temporarily transitioned into businesses like a nail salon, a weightlifting gym, and a massage therapist; normal enough. However, some other groups have come in looking for disrepair and abandoned rooms to train for catastrophes and disasters. Police and fire training exercises have found regular homes here, rotating out on a normal basis. A fallout shelter for the community was established here and other abandoned locations have been left to be used by survivalist groups and training exercises to prepare for the unknown and a wide array of apocalyptic scenarios. Above all of these abnormal professions are the vast numbers of paranormal investigators who spend time in the old building in hopes of contacting the dead and lost energies inside the school. As strange, and possibly unbelievable, as this seems, there have been a plethora of teams who have recorded excellent and unexplainable phenomena all around the old Poasttown Elementary School.

 

Paranormal Experiences

 

Simply entering the property, the air seems to feel heavy and an unknown sixth sense of someone watching every visitor with a watchful eye every moment of their stay. Voices have been recorded quite regularly, that of a young girl. She has been highly active with sounds of giggling, whistling, and even intelligent conversation. Unfortunately, her name has never been revealed.

In the sleeping quarters, some guests (including the owners) have experienced the sensation of being tugged and pulled. A security system caught this motion on many occasions as an unseen force has yanked seemingly unwelcome guests out of their bed and slumber.

Throughout the upper floors, there have been strange phantom noises like footsteps, dragging noises, and echoing bangs and clangs; this includes classrooms, hallways, bathrooms. The owners alongside their friends and coworkers, during construction, experienced many of these very unnerving events. They originally thought there were animals throughout the building, but it was closed tight, and numerous people experienced these all too similar experiences which pointed toward some otherworldly activity. These events continued to the extent that they contacted a local paranormal team to investigate and ensure they weren’t (too) crazy.

 

 

This local team experienced these somewhat cliché events, but they also captured full-figured shadow figures, poltergeist activity of items moving on their own, and what seemed like animals scampering across the second floor on all fours. After one of these instances, the group mentioned they thought it was an animal running around and captured a clear EVP saying that “Russ will eat it.” This voice has since been traced to an older man and with that EVP, he has been named Russ. He’s been heard all over the building, sometimes welcoming, other times foreboding. Much like everyone else, he seems to get into moods and comes out to speak only when he connects with someone in particular.

With over 100 paranormal groups that have investigated the old school, there have been a variety of theories as to the otherworldly activity. The two prominent claims are that of the disastrous accidents whose victims were brought to the school grounds only to suffer and die and the other of the children returning to one of the locations where they were most fond of during their lifetime. These theories seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum but aside from the grumpy old man, most of the evidence is that of children who are laughing and playing. Most of those who have had paranormal experiences within the school tend to lean toward the latter explanation, especially due to the lack of harmful energy and generally warm and welcoming feeling. The worst activity that had gone on record is a paranormal team member being forced to leave after feeling extremely nauseous.

 

 

Regardless of the true reasoning for the haunting, it’s clear that there is something extraordinary left here that likes to make itself known to visitors. The energy and activity are so strong and evident that even the most skeptical of visitors tend to leave with a brand-new perspective and their own paranormal experiences. Whether the spirits of the past are those of happiness of children or tragedy of disaster victims, the Poasttown Elementary School is a hotbed of energy and seems to be a beacon for those in the afterlife.