HISTORYThe Fairmount Children's Home was an orphanage located in Alliance, Ohio on 6774 Union Street NE. The main children's home was opened in 1874 following state legislature that allowed counties to joint together in forming children's home districts. On June 25th, 1874, the commissioners of Stark, Carroll, Columbiana, Jefferson and Mahoning counties met in Salem for discussion. This discussion created the Stark-Columbiana Children's Home District on February 18th, 1875, and issued bonds for 153 acres of land 3.5 miles south of Alliance. The farmland was owned by Thomas and Susan Rakestraw, whose son, Captain William Rakestraw, died in the Civil War. A formal opening of the children's home took place on October 20th with an open invitation. The Alliance Review published an article on October 28th, 1876, stating "This new Institution for the homeless children of Stark and Columbiana counties, four miles south of Alliance, is destined to much prominence as it is the first of the kind in Ohio where two or more counties have combined under State law."
Over the twentieth century, the orphanage gained reputation as being a miserable place to send Ohio children, mainly due to the cruel headmaster. It is reported that this headmaster beat the children mercilessly, even to the point of torture, and possibly responsible for the deaths of several children. A story is told that during a night in 1944, the children revolted against the headmaster and lynched him from a pipe in the basement. It is reported that the orphanage is haunted, with reports saying that the dead headmaster can be seen standing over the children during the night and follows them in the hallways. Class photos would be developed with what appears to be an apparition standing behind the children. The hauntings continued even after the orphanage was shut down and turned into a private home. During the late 1990s, it was abandoned and vandalized badly. On December 9th, 2002, the main children's home burned down and eventually demolished. It is unknown what caused this fire, but arson is the primary suspicion. Another building, a part of the children's home, still stands on the grounds abandoned that is often misidentified as the actual orphanage. SOURCES: Forgotten Ohio, Washington Township Historical Society |
ATTRIBUTESType: Building ➝ Orphanage Status: Demolished (main orphanage) Abandoned (second building) Accessibility: Easy LOCATIONAddress: 6774 Union Avenue
Alliance, Ohio 44601 Coordinates: 40°52'7.8636"N 81°6'14.6772"W HAZARDS• Unsafe flooring • Flooding SECURITY MEASURES• Nearby neighbor monitors building |
MISSION REPORTThe Malvern Exploration & Paranormal Society visited an abandoned building on the grounds of the former Fairmount Children's Home in Alliance, Ohio during the late night of November 19th, 2016. There was a blizzard during this time and everything was covered in deep snow. This was our first major trip to an abandoned place so our hearts were racing with excitement and adrenaline. We parked our car at the Fairmount Emmanuel Church and walked about 0.2 miles down Union Avenue, and every time a car would drive by, we would jump into a ditch and hide. We eventually cut through the Fairmount Gardens to come upon the old children's home.
We entered through a door that led into the basement. The basement felt very eerie and uncomfortable as we explored it and we had to crawl through and climb over holes to access certain locations and rooms. We headed upstairs to the first floor where there were many large, open rooms covered with graffiti and obvious vandalism. The entire building seemed very unsafe -- there were giant holes in the floor that you could fall through with one wrong step and in the walls that led to the outside. The floor was also collapsing into what seemed to be dark, long underground tunnels that led around the entire building. We continued exploring up to the second floor where the balconies were almost completely fallen through, and then up to the attic. We kept exploring between each floor to see if we could find anything new. As we were exploring the first floor, Seth was investigating the staircase that led to the basement, when he heard a strange noise causing him to jump and run to regroup with the other members. He claimed to hear a noise like a hissing of a sort but no wild animal was seen. The other two members didn't hear the noise, and while it could've been something paranormal, we dismissed it as being such. We left after a couple hours of searching and cut through the northern woods back to our car. In general, the Fairmount Children's Home -- or rather the other abandoned building on the property -- wasn't very big but it was however very eerie and dangerous, and we advise anyone to take caution when exploring this creepy place. |
DATE & TIMENovember 19, 2016 MEMBERS PRESENTCONFRONTATIONSNone PARANORMAL ACTIVITY• Strange, unexplained noise in basement • Indistinguishable figure seen in forest while leaving |
GALLERY
The pictures displayed below were taken by members of the group during the mission (November 19, 2016).