Public School House Number 4

I can't find any useful information on this, so I was hoping someone here has heard anything about it.

In Jacksonville, Florida, there's an old school that burned down some years ago. Most of it was made of brick and concrete, so the basic structure is still there, but things like the wooden roofs and such collapsed completely. I found one paranormal research team that went there and took some photos, but apparently they never found a way inside since all the doors are boarded or concreted up to keep trespassers out. All they did was take photos of the entrance and dispute whether dust was orbs and blah, blah, blah.

There's some old stories, that are probably just rumor, about a janitor that took kids into the basement there and killed them. Also, I don't know if anyone got trapped in the fire and died there. Local concensus is that it's haunted...

Anyways, the other day, my friends and I managed to get inside through a high up window in the court yard, and found ourselves in the auditorium... debris everywhere... It felt very strange to me, but not to my friends. We didn't explore the rest of the school since we had no flashlights or other equipment and didn't feel like stumbling around in the dark in a place that was potentially haunted, or had places that we could fall through or step on.

Before we go back and explore again I'd like to know if anyone has any information on it, or has ever been there and seen or heard things for themselves.

I lived in a haunted house for 14 years of my life. If the place had a horbile act of violence attached to it, I would be very careful about going there. Bad memories like to repete like an old B movie flick. If the place is huanted, the entities there I doubt would be very happy to be there. There is a national haunted directory book but i bet you can look it up in google as well.

-Aza

I found a link. here you go

Haunted School house

Happy haunting...err i mean hunting


-Aza

Alright, thanks a lot for that link. That clears up the legends bit. After being in there, I definitely understand why it's called the most haunted place in Jacksonville. It has a very, very creepy feeling to it. More than likely we'll be going back there with flashlights to have a look around some time soon. We don't have any cool ghost hunter equipment or anything, but I'll post back here if we see anything of interest... If it really is haunted, we're bound to see something. After all, there's stories for us to explore.

The only thing is that if something bad does happen, our retreat will be slow and tedious...

OMG! Annie Lytle was where I attened 1st grade. It was a very creepy place.

Some say that there was a furnace explosion back in the '60s that killed several children, a few teachers, and a janitor.

I started first grade in 1959. The school closed in June of 1960 and never reopened as a school. We lived on Post St. near 5 Points right across the street from the church. The church still stands but the old apartment is a vacant lot now. We would cross ther street and walk throught the park to go to school in the mornings. There was an old underpass that would take us from the park, under I-10 to the school yard.

The underpass may or may not still exist but that is what you may want to investigate. Something happened there and we were no longer allowed to use it as our route to school.

I was only six years old, but I remember it being very creepy. The last Halloween carnival they had was held inside the school and I have to admit that it was the scariest one I had ever attended. I'll call my mom tomorrow to see if she remembers anything.

[edit on 6/26/2005 by darkelf]

Originally posted by darkelf
OMG! Annie Lytle was where I attened 1st grade. It was a very creepy place.

Some say that there was a furnace explosion back in the '60s that killed several children, a few teachers, and a janitor.

I started first grade in 1959. The school closed in June of 1960 and never reopened as a school. We lived on Post St. near 5 Points right across the street from the church. The church still stands but the old apartment is a vacant lot now. We would cross ther street and walk throught the park to go to school in the mornings. There was an old underpass that would take us from the park, under I-10 to the school yard.

The underpass may or may not still exist but that is what you may want to investigate. Something happened there and we were no longer allowed to use it as our route to school.

I was only six years old, but I remember it being very creepy. The last Halloween carnival they had was held inside the school and I have to admit that it was the scariest one I had ever attended. I'll call my mom tomorrow to see if she remembers anything.

Imagine that.

Have you been there since then? My friends and I go to 5 points regularly. It's a little bit of a poet's corner, I suppose you could say. The underpass is definitely still there. What do you know about what happened there?

It's funny how the facts get twisted into all these odd, out there stories. The fire was actually caused by some homeless people that were using the abandoned school as a shelter a few years back.

I don't know if you can imagine how it looks now. It probably looks the same from the outside, but the inside is crazy. The courtyards (or what I think were courtyards) are overgrown with plants. You can't even see the brick walls because of how much ivy is on them. The whole thing looks like something you'd see in a movie where the world came to an end and plants started growing over the old cities' ruins.

It's still creepy.





[edit on 27-6-2005 by CloudlessKnight]

Sorry about not getting back to you but I've been out of town all week. None of my family remembers what happened at the underpass. My mom thinks it was probably a rape as a lot of drunks used to hang out there at night. She's 77 now and that was a long time ago so she really doesn't remember.

I've not been inside since first grade butI used to drive by the school alot on my way to work back in the 70s and it still creeps me out. I remember it being dark and cool in the halls in the daytime. I guess that would make it creepy to a six year old. I hated school in first grade but we moved the same summer the school closed and then I didn't mind going to school.

I went to Annie R. Morgan for a year, then finished elementary school at Builtmore. Both schools were more open and airy than Annie Lytle. It's a shame what has happened to the building. Another interesting piece of architecture destroyed by vandalism.

Riverside is a very old section with a lot of history. My mom went to Robert E. Lee and like I said, she's 77. The downtown library may have newspapers dating back to the sixties, but other than that, I really don't know anything else that would help you.

Happy ghost hunting.

I visited there Monday night. Friends spent a lot of time prying open a nailed board on one of the entrances. We had to crawl through a nail infested hole because there was another board covering the majority of the doorway behind it. Others were blocked with concrete. The auditorium, where the roof caved in, is the coolest place in the building. At night, standing from the second story balcony, it's very surreal. We walked around the entire building- going into the restroom where all the urinals lined up was spooky. Along with what we assumed was the kitchen. There were some littered papers that looked like grade school work, but my friends decided it was later put there. The entrance into the basement was supposedly sealed off. We couldn't find it, anyways. But there was a hole we were told about in a room just off the hallway that had about an 8 foot drop down into a room in the basement. This is where we assumed the "dark rituals" took/take place. There was a set up of old army men toys and quarters for walls. Everything was brick and there was a lot of pipes. As you walked deeper, it got smaller and there were a lot of crawl-space archways leading to rooms. Getting through any of the maze, you had to bend over and be very cautious. Spooky, I would say, confirmed stories or not. The whole going into the basement is pretty small and light is a must. I couldn't get out without the help of two other friends. Next time I go it will be in a cooler month- certainly not in the peak of summer. The city tries very hard to keep it unreachable. In two weeks, they had sealed a whole made in the fence and reboarded a doorway. The house on the same property (said to be the crazy principals) looks scarier- when the heat isn't so disgusting I plan on going in there. Anyways, that's my story about school 4. ^_^

yeah ive gone in that school a bunch of times, i live on the Ga/fl border(st.marys ga) that place is creepy as hell

There was supposedly some mention of it in a book.

www.amazon.com...

hey, a few months back me and some of my friends went into school four. it was about one in the morning and we parked about a block away. when we got through the fence and up to the school i was freaked out. we went to the ritht side of the school and up into a window. it was a little hard for me to get in because i'm overweight and the window was about four feet over my head (about 9 feet off the ground) so after about three tries i gave up (also because i almost broke my ankle on the concrete slab beneath the window)

my friend wasn't happy and left me with a "fine stay out here and get raped for all i care" after about five minutes i called them on my cell and they came back and helped me into the window.

we explored around for a while, one of us had a machete in case of hobos and we had a bunch of flashlights. i swear this was the darkest place i'd ever been. looking around i thought it was strange that all of the windows were gone. not broken because there was no glass on the ground, just gone.

we walked around a little more than half of the first floor before we headed upstairs. at the time i didn't know there was concreat reinforcement under the rotted wood floors. so i was scared stiff being up there and treading carefuly. at one point the floor gave way to a carpet of soil and weeds. we passed by a bank of wide open windows and i looked out over the roof. thare was a huge tree (looked like an oak to me) growing on the roof. we also saw the colapsed roof of the auditorium. my three friends wanted to go in there (we were on the second floor at the time) but as the voice of reason i told them that was a stupid idea because the structural integrity of the floor worried me.

the beams of the cieling had crashed through the floor into the basement. speaking of, my friends were set on going into the basement. i was at this point severly freaked out, tired, and pretty angry at kate. the whole time (and i won't lie) i had been petrified asking when we'd be out of there. kate just said "every time you ask i'll make the time longer" like i was two years old.

well i got tired of it and told them i was walking back to the car so i left. every time i called them they would scream into the phone "help help me" stuff like that and then hang up. i wasn't freaked out so much as i was mad at kate. anyway they finally got out and kate wouldn't talk to me the whole ride home.

it probably wouldn't have been so bad if kate hadn't been yelling at me for being scared.

but for those of you who want in there's an open window on the right side of the building underneath it is a concreat slab and a small palm plant. there are two ledges on the wall you can use to climb up. the first is pretty wide but the second is narrow. you have to steady yourself on the first, get one foot on the second, and grab the windowframe (don't worry there's no glass) then push with both legs and pull with your arms and get your chest/stomach on the windowsill the rest is easy after that.

there is grafiti everywhere as well as random debris. also there is a hole in the wall on the side facing the creepy old house that goes into the basement as well as one in the floor of the principal's office (has a fireplace)

i hope this helps anyone oh and we didn't have a ghost expirence and no hobos atatcked us. but it was still the most terrifying time of my life.

~DCR

DarkCloudRider, Me and my friends just went to School Four last night and i must say i was pretty terrified. We had gone to the old Solite Plant and i thought that was bad but when me and my friends walked up to the school i knew it was going to be 100x worse then Solite. My brother, who was with us had been there like 5 times and they used to go in on the backside through the courtyard i guess was what it was, but they had put concrete blocks over where the window was. so we went to the front entrance and used the same window that you were talking about (glass was there though because the window that flapped open had been busted). The school is really creepy especially the auditorium with the collapsed roof, and the basement which was really creepy because you have to jump through the hole that leads down there and the room you have to walk just gets shorter and shorter and it sucks for tall people. after walking around down there for like 20min trying to find where the ferrnis room which it litterally felt like a ferrnis throughout the whole school because it was so damn hot, but while we were down there we swore we heard foot steps but i beleive it might have been one of us hitting one of the walls or something but needless to say i was pretty freaked out. Over all School Four was pretty bad ass and im going again very soon to check out the rest of the up stairs!

omg im dying to goto school number four i live about 15 minutes away from it me and some buddies drove around it but thats as close as i've gotten to it. even being on the outiside was a little creepy. but yeah i really wanna go in

i went last dec. and it was super cold me and my friends jumped the fence near the car place and went through the hole in the basement very dark down there. hit my head when the floor gets higher dummy me tired to stand up and im like 6ft tall put all that togher not good. we check out the first floor not much there then we went up stairs check out the auditorm from teh balcony weird feeling because with the flashlights off(ps keep them off unless u abolusty need them) all u see is pitch black. then we went on top of the first floor on the south side theres a rope to go to the roof i didn't go up bieng my first time but some of my friends barly made it up. and they almost fell through the whats left of the roof above the audtiorm. then we left through the open window on the north side i think we go luck the cops didnt see us because they were driven by when we approched the window on the street. we then went to the old "keepers house" not much there but a rdm brand new bathroom. we found some stairs to go upstairs but the were inacceible as far as we could tell but we didnt look very long do to the fact that my genius friends that left us earlir scared us but acting as the cops sounded very convincing we ran so fast i dont even rember what happen afterword we jumped a gate with barb wire and lucky me cut my right middle finger. ironic. so we rushed to walgreens to stop the bleeding and my friends car died thank god it was only 9 at night and the guys that scared us gave us a ride back to our other cars and i got stiches the next moring. got a good scar from it and it still hurts 6 months later. sadly havent gone back sense i've heard that all the holes/entarance have been boarded up so i have no clue about any chances of gettin back in.

I have been in school for i think about3 times the whole time i llved in riverside, i now live in orange park. all the times i went were during the day (we skipped school alot) even though it was day time you still get very eerie feelings from that place.I have never encountered anything per say in that school, just the really eerie feeling of gloomy. there was one time me and two of my girl friends were going to go check it out, but I really don't know what happen one of my friends stopped right across the street from it and wouldnt budge at all we had to drag her back the the park and she jsut would act normal at all, it wasnt till we got to fuel that she started talking again and it was like nothing even hapened, even to this day i have no clue what she saw or heard.The other times we went into the i guess what was the prinpcal office and there a hole in the floor we went in that not much really down there. we never went in the basement beacuse we wanted to stick together, there another way in besdie the way you guys said a way thats ten times easier , if you go in the little court yard i guess that what you can call it use the stair ledge and jsut step across from there to the window. now i have heard all the rumor's about i guess the fire and all that but there another one that was said to that i hear, thata a deasie was like i guess the plauge and they boraded up the school with all them in it but it doesnt matter, i really don't think its hanuted beacuse people dide I think its more of what ever the people did in there tamptered with something and brought something in it beacuse there not an evil feeling but in some parts the other parts are just really gloomy. with all thats going on no one will be able to check it out anymore beacuse thier tearing it down to expad the over pass, which i really think is dumb beacuse that school is prak of jacksonville's history

This post got me interested. But since I live an ocean away... could someone please make some pictures when they go in there? I would love to see it.

I don't think anyone can get away where near it now, they boarded that place up really well, I feel like fighting with the city about tearing it down beacuse its part of our history , its part of who we are you know. I wish that one day i could go back into it beacuse it would be amzeing to go at night and just sit there and find something be it good or bad beacuse that school has cought my eye more then once before and after i entered it. I'm just hopeing to get inside at night once more before its reduced to a pile of rubble

Yeah I understand that boarding up is for public safety but often it's to bad. I like abandond buildings for photography. I mean even if they are not haunted they always look so weird. Sometimes everything is moved and smashed and other times it feels like you are in a timecapsule where everything stayed just like it was with a thick layer of dust on it.

ok I am looking for a few good men and another girl to go with me to check out school number 4 aka Annie Lytle Elementary School. I want at least 3 guys who won't chicken out. I've never been there before but have directions to it. I want a smooth talker just in case we get into any trouble and another who is a quick thinker to get us in and out in a hurry if need be. Hit me up if you want leave me a message if you are interested at my myspace page it is www.myspace.com/airamyne

ive heard all kind of stories about it. i had a few friends who went but that was before i met them and they described it and said something about a hoole in the floor and if you drop down its a pasage leading to the boiler room were the janitor supposedly killed the kids. over all it was a great story and ive wanted to go since then. i used to live in orange park but now im by the airport on the northside but if i could find some friends that arent to scared i'd go.

ive also heard a lot of satanists performing sacrifices on animals there and pentagrams everywere. you can see all the graffiti on the outside if you pass by off I-95.

they also said something about an abandoned train yard station or warehouse but i dont really remembermuch about it.