This wonderful school sits left behind many years of neglect. It is a sad thing to see such a structure left to decay. The new school was built just behind this, but many residents still remember when school was in session here.
I really don't know much about this place. I know it was built in 1911 and abandoned sometime in the early 1990's. I looks to have been added on to at least four times. There is the main building, a teacher's lounge and additional classroom added on, an added gym, and two external buildings. It sits in a small town so is never forgotten, but left to non-utilization. In other words, it sits without a cause. Well, I have seen this place and set out to check it out. To my surprise, we ran into a couple groups of other interested parties.......one of which was a former student who graduated years ago and wanted to show their children where they went to school. That alone justifies the cause, in my opinion. People are always emotionally attached to certain buildings. I mean, it's much easier to tell your kids stories from high school when you can actually show them where you went, right?
The old, veteran school sits off the road on a large hill.
Ok, here's how it goes. There were a few different areas. I will do my best to organize.
Exteriors
Before we go to the incredible interiors, it's important to view the outside of this beautiful architecture.
The front of the building.
To show the obviously added on later gym.
The backside of the gym.
The Main Building
Half of this building was in dire shape. In fact, most of the place was very unsafe, but we managed to get around most of it. This was mostly the basement.
Just inside the back entrance.
down the stairs to the basement.
The lower level was trashed.
A classroom. Obviously falling down.
The downstairs restrooms. Good think I went before I got here.
Looking down the hallway.
One of the decent classrooms downstairs.
Chalkboard.
Outside window.
At the end of the hall in the basement.
Another room in the basement.
Other side of the room.
Behind the chalkboard thing to another classroom.
These rooms were tucked behind every classroom. Detention?
Upper Floors
As you can see, the building was very unstable. The floors were pretty rotten, in fact, one room we didn't even attempt to enter. There were two upper levels. The layout was pretty normal. The back stairs went all the way to the third floor, but the front stairs only went as high as the main level and the basement. These aren't in order necessarily.
The main floor.
Looking to the left.
Looking down the hall to the right.
Another shot of the main hallway.
A room in such bad shape we didn't trust the floor.
A look to reveal the rotten ceiling.
Actually coming up from the basement to the main entrance.
A door.
The doors that led to the third level.
Some artifacts found in a classroom.
A room upstairs.
Another room.
A great hallway.
Another hallway. I think this lead to the teacher's lounge.
This room was actually fairly clean. I'm guessing it used to be home ec?
Another dark room.
Same room.
Same room with a slightly different angle.
Some office type room upstairs. Maybe a nurses station?
A door leading to a creepy hallway.
Said creepy hallway. Didn't believe me did you?
Another room upstairs.
Looking out the same room to see the roof of the teacher's lounge building below.
Another room.
This room was, well, interesting.
Same room.
Looking out to see the fire escape.
The Principal's Office
No trip to a school would be complete without a visit to the principal. We had had been bad for wandering the halls and now it was time for due punishment.
The whole office was one room. This looks like mailboxes and shelves.
The Principal's desk. You can see the new school through the windows.
The Teacher's Lounge and etc.
This building housed the teacher's lounge and and another building below. On the outside it had a "pantry" sign, and one of the rooms was definitely used to store food. This part of the building was added on later and only had two floors. The high floor was the teacher's lounge, and the lower level looked like some type of exercise room.
As seen from the outside.
The pantry as it was called. This was next to the lounge.
The back part of the room. You can see what's left of cabinet on the left.
Some artifacts left on the floor. You can see the very dated carpet as well.
The tv and chairs.
The disgusting room. Not sure what it was used for. .
Front wall of the same room.
A strange lighting fixture.
A closet door that, well, didn't open.
The Gym
They gym was very, very cool. You could access the gym from a variety of ways. The basement level of the building went right into to it, you could get there a couple ways from the outside, and the teacher's lounge building had a hallway leading to it was well. This gym had several purposes. It was, of course, used for gym type stuff like basketball, but it was also used as an auditorium. It was very dark in there and we naturally did not have flashlights....so the pictures are very bad...sorry
The outside of the gym
This door leads out of the gym to the basement hallway.
Ah, the gym.
The scoreboard still mostly intact.
One of the goals still hanging proudly with the stage behind it.
The gym had an upper balcony.
Had to get a picture of the hardwood floors.
Remember playing this game?
Some chairs and other things stored in here.
The door that leads out towards the front entrance of the school.
Behind the gym was the shower rooms. Very interesting.
And artifact found.
The bathroom with showers in the back.
Up close
The showers.
The door to the room.
The add-ons.
The two external buildings were very cool. One building was what appeared to be a T&I building, which also had a science room in the back, and the other building was a chapel.
T&I
The outside of the building.
Just inside.
The outer wall. You can see the chapel building to the left.
The middle room.
A side room.
The room in the back was the science room.
Another side room.
One of those gas things.
Back in the main room heading out. You can see the garage door.
The Chapel
This was very interesting to me. A public school with a chapel? I'm not sure how that works, but this was definitely a chapel. It was in a small rural town, maybe payer
The only exterior I have of the building. It wasn't really worth taking pics of anyway. It was all aluminum siding like into this photo.
Of of those gas things.
In the back looking to the front of the room.
In the front looking back.
The side of the room facing the T&I.
Another one of those weird light fixtures.
Some artifacts.
The back storage room. I could have spent hours rummaging through here. There was just so much stuff.
Back left of the room. You can see the outside wall of the gym through the window.
I can't begin to tell you how awesome of a find this was. It had everything including: peeling paint, decrepit room, nearly pristine rooms, stuff left behind.....you name it. It's sad to see such a structure left to neglect, but at the same time it's also very cool to see what neglect can do to something.
