Poasttown Elementary School Investigation

On August 18, 1936, the voters of Madison Township passed a bond issue for a consolidated elementary school at Poasttown and an addition to West Middletown School. On September 7, 1937, the new school on Franklin-Trenton Road opened. This brought the end to the township's one-room schools. Pupils from Upper and Lower Browns Run, Dubbs, Pike and old Poasttown were assigned to the new building. The new school opened with 200 pupils; however all construction was not completed, so the building was not dedicated until April 15, 1938. The current building has 54 rooms. There were additions added on in both 1942 and 1952.

On July 4, 1910, two trains collided head-on killing as many as 36 people. The northbound Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton (CH&D) was on its home track. The southbound passenger train was the Cincinnati Flyer, No. 21 often called the fastest train New York City System (NYC) between New York City and Cincinnati. No. 21 had been detoured from its usual route.

Normally it would have been on NYCs Big Four Line through Middletown and eastern Butler County however that track was blocked by an earlier accident near the town of Gano. The result was that #21 was rerouted over the CH&D Line between Dayton and Cincinnati. At 1:02pm, it plowed into the freight train about 500 yards north of the West Middletown station near Poasttown. The passenger train was traveling between 50-60 MPH.

This crash did not happen far from the Poasttown Elementary School and there are many who believe that some of the spirits encountered at the school were actually caused by this tragic train crash.

Address: 6600 Trenton Franklin Rd., Middletown, OH 45042

Phone: 513-464-1330

Website: www.poasttownschool.com

Owner: Darrell Whisman

Hauntings: During our walk-through we were shown an old black and white photograph taken for the 50^th Anniversary. In the picture were teachers and faculty and there is also an image of a strange woman who nobody was every able to identify! No one knows who she is and she is dressed from another era.

In the Gymnasium, is a mural of an Indian on the wall that was painted in either 1988 or 1989 and it has never been retouched and looks as new as when it was originally painted. There have been lots of EVPs collected in this area but because it’s a gym, voices tend to echo very badly making this area not ideal for collecting EVPs.

Near the Cafeteria and Dry Goods Room, reports of shadow walking back and forth have been recorded. And right there a strange voice was captured on Kaczmarek’s camcorder. There was a team in the past who claimed to have captured a little girl on their FLIR just down a bit from the Cafeteria in the hallway. Not too many EVPs here however.

In the Boiler Room some people sit in a chair and feel like they’re being touched or pushed. Some have also reported dizzy sensations.

Disembodied voices have been heard throughout this location. They say, “Hello” or “Hi” in the main hallway.

In the Principal’s Office another group recorded stick figures with the SLS sitting behind the desk. Down the hallway a former janitor died in fire not long ago haunts this area and is thought to be somewhat grumpy. He actually worked in the building and the owner knows his name but in respect for his next of kin will not release his identity.

At the top of the stairs a little girl fell over the handrail to her death and has been named Sara.

There are over 300 dolls in the Doll Room. According to legend, dolls were made for when a child died. It was supposed to appease the spirit in the afterlife. This room is considered very active.

In the Mean Teacher’s Room, many have picked up a lot of REM Epod activity and our group also was no exception to that phenomena.

The Ghost Research Society investigated Poasttown Elementary School on July 21, 2017 and the team members included: Stan Suho, Kathie Para, Jim Piscopo, Michael Wright, Gregory Kos and Dale Kaczmarek

Equipment setup: One IR camcorder was placed in the Doll Room along with an EDI device which picks up a variety of parameters. A second IR camcorder was placed in the 2^nd floor hallway. Other devices such as REM Epods, EDI+ meters and Melmeters with proximity probes were also employed.

Experiments performed: EVP, Ghost Box and Ovilus X sessions were conducted in the Principals’ Office, Doll Room, Mean Teacher’s Room twice, a classroom that has a ball in the center of the room and a hallway near some open windows.

Personal experiences:

Greg Kos: After completing our tour Stan and I discussed placement of our IR cameras, Stan was going to set up his camera down the hallway outside the classrooms on the second floor. I really liked the doll room at the end of the hall on the second floor. After I set up my camera I used my EDI+ meter in conjunction with my voice recorder in the hall way during an EVP session with Kathi, Mike and Jim. Whoever was in the hall really seemed to like the blue EMF lights. Because of this I decided to place the EDI+ in the doll room next to a doll I picked out. I started singing Oh say can you see and it appeared that the dolls foot started to appear beyond the EDI+.

Everyone then came in to do a EVP session in the doll room and they needed the chair so when it was over I put the doll and the EDI+ back on the chair and shortly after we left the EDI+ started to move again All the activity was caught on my camera and most movement occurred from 2.00 hours to 2hrs 30mins.Throughout the filming in the doll room the activity on the EDI+ included vibration, temp changes and EMF alerts with the blue lights. I heard no evidence on my voice recorder both in the halls and the classrooms.

The entities seemed to be young children and for some periods they were really active with K-II and A REM Epod that Dale was using in one classroom during a FB EVP session.

Poasttown is a very interesting place and I would go back. I would love to spend more time there!

Kathie Para: It was a very hot night with a few scattered thunderstorms during the evening.

I personally didn’t get to cover as much ground as I would have liked to due to returning for a second EVP session in two areas of the building. But that leaves me very much open to a return visit, as I found it to be pretty active.

The most active areas I found were the main hallway on the second floor and the mean teacher’s room. We initially set up in the second floor main hall because there were two large open windows there. The temperature was in the mid to upper 80’s on this floor of the building so it seemed like a good place to set up. There were several noises heard there, as well as some shadow play. EMF meters were very active and reactive. We initially also used dowsing rods there with a lot of success. The most exciting event was saying the Pledge of Allegiance. My Melmeter had been fluctuating between .5 and 1.0 for most of the time. Other EMF meters had also been reacting. We had asked the “spirit children” to help recite the Pledge. When I finished saying the Pledge my Melmeter went up to 3.7 and I broke out in Goosebumps from head to toe, which lasted for quite a while. Not a common occurrence for me, so I was pretty excited. We said the Pledge of Allegiance in a few classrooms after that but got no response even close to that one.

The other active room for me was the “mean teacher’s room.” We had quite a bit of K-II and other EMF meter activity. We put a REM Epod on the teacher’s desk and a few minutes into our session it started going off like crazy. This actually kept up pretty much the whole time. My REM Epod rarely reacts so this was cool. We had a similar incident happen with the REM Epod in another grammar school which leads me to believe children are attracted to them.

Names we got from the Ovilus X were Paul, George, Jen and Chris. Jen came through immediately after the question “What’s your name?”

This place is definitely on my list of places I want to return to!

Jim Piscopo: We arrived at the school about 6:00 pm and were given a tour of the school. It was extremely hot that day and the inside of the school was like an oven. There was one air conditioned room in the school that we used as a command post. I set up my Sony camcorder with night vision in the principal’s office. After we all set up we went to the command post to cool off for a few minutes. We then started to do EVP sessions. Due to the extreme heat we would do one room at a time and then cool off for a bit. While doing a session it what was called the doll room a REM Epod we were using went off and stayed lit the whole time. We returned to the room later and nothing happened. We did get some interesting responses but have to review tapes to see what we got.

Stan Suho: Poasttown School, the second lap of our Ohio excursion; a large two story building with a big basement. We arrived early evening with a small crew and were given a walk through by our host. Since my batteries were pretty well drained from our Mansfield investigation the night before, I chose a one IR camera setup on the second floor hallway. However I started having problems because of the aforementioned outing. Our young and upcoming intern Greg setup at the end of the hall in what was known as the Doll Room. Since he was still in the learning mode, I let him have the good batteries. This turned out to be a good decision because he thinks he has captured on his video, one of the meters moving all by itself. This is great because we seldom get any activity on our IR cameras. Upon reviewing the video, it really does move to the right about 3-4 inches. I spent the rest of the night taking photos of the EVP team for posterity.

Conclusion; Nothing to report on my end but Greg certainly captured some paranormal activity.

Michael Wright: After the walk through Kathy, Greg and I went up to the second floor hallway and conducted a short EVP session, it was very difficult to hear because of the outside noises but there was some K-II meter and Melmeter activity. Greg’s EDI+ meter also kept going off.

After the session we met back up with the rest of the group and did another session in the doll room, there was not very much activity while we in that room.

We moved into a classroom and had some interesting experiences involving Kathy’s REM Epod, it starting going off intensely during a reenactment. We went back into the same room a little later and the REM Epod did not respond as it had earlier, The REM Epod was being activated by close proximity of cell phones but there was a difference in the way the pod responded to the cell phones and the way it went off during the reenactment.

Dale Kaczmarek: This was a very hot and uncomfortable building in late July to conduct an investigation with the exception of the break room that was air-conditioned. The temperatures ranged around the 84-89 degree range pretty much throughout the building and locations that were investigated.

There were some interesting words spoken in the Ovilus X in dictionary mode in various parts of the building including; class and three names, George, Jen and Chris. EMF meters, REM Epod and K-II meters went crazy in the Mean Teacher’s Room for a constant nineteen minutes.
When these devices were used in the next room, they did not react at all.

I definitely heard a low male voice in the hallway just outside the classroom that had a ball in the center of the room. There were also noises heard in the corner of the Mean Teacher’s Room during our follow-up session there as well as noises coming from down the hallway by the open windows. Several investigators believe that they saw some shadow play at the end of the same hallway.

Evidence collected:

Hall second floor another noise.MPG – while conducting an EVP session in the 2^nd floor hallway another noise was heard and recorded.

Hall second floor loud noise.MPG – while conducting an EVP session in the 2^nd floor hallway a loud noise was heard and recorded.

Hall second floor noise again.MPG – while conducting an EVP session in the 2^nd floor hallway, yet another noise was heard and recorded.

Hall second floor noise.MPG – while conducting an EVP session in the 2^nd floor hallway, a noise was heard down the hallway.

Hall second floor noises.MPG – while conducting an EVP session in the 2^nd floor hallway, noises were heard and recorded coming from down the hallway.

Hallway sound Poasttown.MPG – Piscopo’s static IR camcorder positioned facing the Principal’s Office records a very loud door slam in the hallway.

Jen Poasttown.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in dictionary mode in the Mean Teacher’s Room, a question was asked, “Is there anyone here that wants to communicate with us? Can you tell us your first name?” The Ovilus responds with, “Jen.”

Key ring sound Poasttown.MPG - Piscopo’s static IR camcorder positioned facing the Principal’s Office picks up what sounds like a key ring rattling nearby.

Loud noise Poasttown.MPG - Piscopo’s static IR camcorder positioned facing the Principal’s Office picks up a loud noise inside of the room.

Mean teacher’s room noise.MPG – while conducting an EVP session in the “Mean Teacher’s Room”, a little noise was heard and recorded.

Moving shadow Poasttown.MPG – during the initial walk-through of the building a black shadow quickly darts from right to left and near the top of the frame.

Nearby noise Poasttown.MPG - Piscopo’s static IR camcorder positioned facing the Principal’s Office picks a noise very close to the camera.

Noise cough Poasttown.MPG - Piscopo’s static IR camcorder positioned facing the Principal’s Office picks up what sounds like a cough in the hallway.

Out of here Poasttown.MPG – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode in the Principal’s Office, the Ovilus immediately said what sounds like, “Out of here.”

Strange laugh Poasttown.MPG – during the initial walk-through of the building, a strange laugh is captured in the background near the old library.

Strange voice Poasttown.MPG – during the initial walk-through of the building, a strange voice is heard immediately after our guide stops talking.

Time lapse doll room Poasttown.MPG – Kos placed an EDI+ meter on a chair next to a doll in the Doll Room and placed an IR camcorder to monitor it. An amazing thing was recorded as the EDI+ meter actually moves from left to right over the course of approximately 37 minutes. What you will see here is a condensed and time lapse version of the actual meter moving. In real time, it’s almost impossible to discern any movement. Nobody was in or near the Doll Room at the time of this event.

Whisper Poasttown.MPG – while conducting an EVP session in the Doll Room, a faint whisper can be heard in the background. (I cannot be 100% sure that this wasn’t spoken by an investigator in the room during the session.)

Whistle Poasttown.MPG - Piscopo’s static IR camcorder positioned facing the Principal’s Office records the sound of someone whistling in the hallway. (I cannot be 100% sure that this wasn’t created by one of the team.)

Words spoken by the Ovilus X in dictionary mode:

Principal’s Office: Lord, key, soccer, suit, manual, real, class, wood, dinner, plant, alive, attitude, communicate, piece and thick.

Doll Room: Explain, flow, movie, key, yours, thick, seen, indicate, passed, George, know, couch, task and Oremus (which means “pray for us” in Latin).

Mean Teacher’s Room: Orb, cupcake, soil, Jen, bunny, tied and along.

Classroom with ball in the center: Stone and soil. While in phonetic mode two words were spoken: Terrible and here.

Hallway by the open windows: Chris, memory, two, tilde, cards and communicate.

Conclusions: This was a big and unique location with lots of history. I think we would have enjoyed it more during a cooler time of the year as almost everywhere we investigated was extremely hot and stuffy save for the basement, a long hallway that had open windows which carried a nice breeze and the room where we stored our equipment which was air conditioned! Many more EVP sessions and experiments could have been performed if it weren’t for the extreme heat in the building. Our way around that was to conduct an EVP session and then cool off in the air conditioned room before trying another session. That seemed to work very well!