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History – The Middle Point School in Van Wert County, Ohio was originally founded as the Western Ohio Normal School in 1885 as a private venture by the citizens of Middle Point. It has also been referred to as the Middle Point Normal School and the Union School. This has made research into its history difficult. While we are not sure of its early history, we do know that the east annex was added in 1930 and the building was completely remodeled in 1932. It was during this remodeling that the third story of the building was removed. In 1952 it became part of the Ridge Township School District. It is unclear when the school closed for good.
Claims – Visitors to the building claim to hear voices and phantom footsteps, and to see shadow figures and creepers, especially on the second floor. In my conversation with the owner he also reported hearing the sounds of footsteps and what sounded like someone moving around in the building while he was inside working. One popular story for why the school is haunted has to do with a number of dead bodies being found in the school since its closing. While we did find that Middle Point crime rates are 33% higher than the national average, with violent crimes in Middle Point being 3% higher than the national average, we did not find any evidence that the school has been used as a dumping ground for the deceased. Our Findings - We investigated the middle point school in June 2020. Since there were no identified hot spots, after setting up 4 static night vision cameras we held EVP sessions throughout the building. While we did capture voices on the first floor, the phantom footsteps and the sound of a ball bouncing in the auditorium, the most active area was the basement. Is Middle Point school haunted? While we did not capture any evidence of shadow figures or creepers – and it is very likely people are instead seeing bats which we encountered both in the basement and on the second floor, we did capture evidence of the phantom footsteps and the voices. Middle Point school is definitely worth another look. |