When my husband and I went looking for images to use in my 1st ever book trailer for my first novel in the RSH series, Goo of the Gods, we stumbled upon this abandoned school building, which was built in 1931. On that early, foggy morning, I knew it had to be a school because of the exterior pendulum style entrance with a clock nested at the top. The old abandoned structure is surrounded by high fencing, but what was most encouraging is there is little graffiti. Most of the windows are shattered, so you can see clearly into 2nd and 3rd floor ceilings that give the impression of classrooms throughout the structure.
The building sits center stage in a park that the city has had obvious controversy over. Cleanly painted benches decorate well-kept walkways among crumbling masonry of almost a hundred year old walls. The back of the school overlooks a nicely mowed soccer field with plenty of room for parking. Despite the chill of the early Sunday morning, a handful of villagers walked about the park getting their early morning exercise-some with their canine companions. We stopped to ask a friendly villager about the building who told us that the city wasn’t sure what it was going to do with the old Salesian School.
I admit I had to look up the term “Salesian” online. It is a generic term referring to a particular group of Roman Catholic priests and missionaries whose work involves enabling impoverished children by providing vocational and technical training through its thousands of schools including colleges across the globe.
The Grim & Charming:
In 1964, a nine-year-old boy had been reported to have fallen to his death off the third story roof. But what’s spookier is a coroner, who declared in 2003 that the distance from the child’s body to the school wall was too close to suggest a fall. From this story, we are to assume that the child had either been pushed or thrown from atop the building. Of course, there is no concrete supporting evidence in either case. But this is not the most grim of stories relating to this school.
The school is condemned. It has withstood fire and a partial collapse to a side wing, but it may not survive the city’s decision to demolish the building. If there were ever a time to see the abandoned building, which is also surrounded by a Mausoleum from previous owners in the 1800s and a cemetery (later post on the cemetery coming), that time is now. The Village of Goshen is an adorable and charming small town with plenty of metered parking and cafes serving home-style cooking on Main Street. You’ll also see the school from Main Street, and if you dare to venture further beyond the main town, and make a few more turns, you’ll come to an old burned down farm house, once home to a serial killer. But that’s another story.
Links (because knowledge is power against all evil):
Opacity Site 17 | Salesian Missions | Village of Goshen
D.P. Joynes is a genre-crossing author hosting fairy tales and folklore and, occasionally, torn teen puppy love in realms of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror. Find me at DpJoynes.net.“I’m a coconut with maudlin sentimentality.” Connect with me on Facebook or Goodreads and don’t forget to hit the follow button to explore more paranormal activity with me and my body guard, a.k.a. Grim and Charming.
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