4/21/18 My paranormal group, Hunters of the Unknown, investigated Poasttown Elementary School in Middletown, Ohio. Here are my thoughts on the night.
Poasttown is a very well-known haunted school. The motto is "When you leave ... you believe." Hundreds of paranormal investigators have stayed the night here and from what we were told leave with a lot of evidence. I had high hopes for this location.
Poasttown is a very well-known haunted school. The motto is "When you leave ... you believe." Hundreds of paranormal investigators have stayed the night here and from what we were told leave with a lot of evidence. I had high hopes for this location.
forgot the equipment at home!
We loaded in the Hunters Bus and headed out for the 5 hour drive to Ohio. En route I realized I forgot my bag of clothes, makeup, gym shoes, etc. at home. We were too far to turn back so I resolved to make the best of it. Joey had brought contact solution and I had an extra contact case in my purse. That's really all I needed. I could sleep in my clothes and we would leave early the next morning for home. Nobody really cared what I would look like after a night in an abandoned building but I was wearing flip flops. I had planned to change into gym shoes and socks when we arrived. Now I would have cold feet all night. Karen was kind enough to loan me a pair of socks and her sandals. Thank goodness because it was really cold in the building. I did remember my winter coat. Farther down the road I realized I forgot the DVR and IR cameras at home too. We have so much equipment to remember to pack but I can only blame myself. We were going to have to go old school tonight. On the bright side, we didn't have much equipment to set up and nobody had the agonizing job of reviewing hours of DVR footage. It takes a lot time to set up stationary cameras, run the cables back to the DVR, and set up the perfect angle and really, we rarely get any evidence from the stationary cameras. Makes you wonder if all that equipment is really necessary.
We had a quick dinner at Cracker Barrel near I-75. There are a lot of restaurants near this interstate or off of I-70 coming from the West. We stopped at a Bob Evans for breakfast near I-70 on the way home. The school is located in a city. There was a lot of noise contamination from the street outside, barking dogs, and nearby train tracks with numerous trains running through the night.
The owner, Darrell, and his wife live in a section of the school. He was there to greet us when we arrived. We signed a typical waiver. He provided a pen and small flashlight for us to keep. The flashlight worked surprisingly well for its size. I thought this was a nice touch. We took a short tour of the building, set up our limited equipment and Darrell was off to his home. We did not see or hear him the rest of the night. He was available by phone if we needed anything.
We had a quick dinner at Cracker Barrel near I-75. There are a lot of restaurants near this interstate or off of I-70 coming from the West. We stopped at a Bob Evans for breakfast near I-70 on the way home. The school is located in a city. There was a lot of noise contamination from the street outside, barking dogs, and nearby train tracks with numerous trains running through the night.
The owner, Darrell, and his wife live in a section of the school. He was there to greet us when we arrived. We signed a typical waiver. He provided a pen and small flashlight for us to keep. The flashlight worked surprisingly well for its size. I thought this was a nice touch. We took a short tour of the building, set up our limited equipment and Darrell was off to his home. We did not see or hear him the rest of the night. He was available by phone if we needed anything.
history and claims
During our tour we learned the school, originally Madison Elementary, was built in 1937 and is 36,500 square feet. The school closed around 2000. The owner, Darrell, went to school here. The janitor, Lou, sometimes roams the halls. He died in a fire nearby. A shadow man is seen in the boiler room. A little girl fell over the railings during "horse play" with other students and fell down the stairwell but he didn't indicate if she died. There were 2 train wrecks in 1891 and 1910 both on the 4th of July. The building was used as a triage center during these tragedies. Our tour guide showed us the "hotspots." Some of the rooms have loose leaf binders in them where people write down any experiences they have in the room. There is a Doll Room with hundreds of dolls in it. This used to be the Music Room. It was interesting to learn that one of the teachers, Mrs. Johnson, was still living.
There is a large break room that is heated for storing our equipment and you could potentially sleep here although there were only tables and chairs, no couches in this location. The break room has a coffee pot, refrigerator, and microwave. There is a working bathroom for both men and women.
The building is large with a lot of rooms to cover. There is a basement, main level, and second floor. We mostly stuck together throughout the night except at the end of the night Karen, Tristan, and I went to the Doll Room and the special needs classroom to conduct the Estes Method. The Estes Method is where one person is blindfolded, wears noise canceling headphones and listens to the spirit box running while another person asks questions. The person blindfolded says whatever they hear over the spirit box. We've only tried this method a couple of times. We did get a few direct responses. Evidence review is complete and the final video is up on the Hunters of the Unknown page.
There is a large break room that is heated for storing our equipment and you could potentially sleep here although there were only tables and chairs, no couches in this location. The break room has a coffee pot, refrigerator, and microwave. There is a working bathroom for both men and women.
The building is large with a lot of rooms to cover. There is a basement, main level, and second floor. We mostly stuck together throughout the night except at the end of the night Karen, Tristan, and I went to the Doll Room and the special needs classroom to conduct the Estes Method. The Estes Method is where one person is blindfolded, wears noise canceling headphones and listens to the spirit box running while another person asks questions. The person blindfolded says whatever they hear over the spirit box. We've only tried this method a couple of times. We did get a few direct responses. Evidence review is complete and the final video is up on the Hunters of the Unknown page.
i slept alone in the doll room
The building was really, really cold and this was the end of April. Thank goodness for the break room to warm up in. Overall the night was pretty quiet for us other than a couple hits on the K2 meter and Chris thought he heard a child's voice near the stairs where the girl fell. We do have audio recorders to review and I hope to catch some EVPs, as the place is well know for spirit voices. Joe, Joey, and Tristan slept in the RV. Chris and Karen slept in the principal's office since there were couches in there although they said it was really cold and I decided to brave a night in the Doll Room. I figured with such a dull night maybe I could sleep in the creepiest room in the building and hope for some activity. So I set up my cot, sleeping bag and electric blanket near the hundreds of dolls eyes which stared at me while I slept. I stayed toasty warm in the freezing building with the electric blanket. I hoped being alone in this unnerving room might bring out some spirits but nothing happened at all. I did have an audio recorder running all night. Who knows what I may find on audio speaking while I was snoozing.
Here is my live Facebook video filmed before I attempted to sleep.
Here is my live Facebook video filmed before I attempted to sleep.
As with some locations, you don't get much action. The building and owner are great. Maybe another night will prove more exciting for us. If you want to investigate Poasttown yourself check out their website. Currently, there is a Save Poasttown campaign, as Darrell is in danger of losing the building. We donated to the fund to have our logo painted on the hallway wall. Here is a photo of us by our logo.
