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Moses Y. Beach Elementary School
At the very crest of a hill on North Main Street in
Wallingford sits the deceivingly unassuming Moses Y. Beach Elementary School. The claims of hauntings that flow from
this very old site are almost too many to list. Suffice it to say that the site appears to be a prime location of poltergeist
activity, replete with blaring music, lights, fans and computers being turned on and off, doors and drawers opening and closing,
as well as book carts from the library rolling down hallways and the sounds of footsteps late at night. There is possibly
even a history of full-body apparitions at the school as well as voices inside locked rooms or on the other ends of inactive
telephones.
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| Moses Yale Beach |
The History
Moses Yale Beach was an exceptionally gifted man. He was an inventive
genius, cabinetmaker and a successful newspaper man who gave back freely to his community. In a letter to the township
in 1868, he wrote:
"I offer this lot through you to the Central
School
District, as a gift, stipulating
that it shall ever here-
after be used for educational purposes
only."
Upon this site in 1870, the first school was built. The Wallingford
High School was a multi-story structure which appeared to be able to easily house two to three hundred students and staff.
According to some sources, the first tragedy to occur at the school was when a young student fell through the roof and was
killed due to his injuries. Later, in 1878, a freak tornado ripped through the region and, being that the school was
situated on higher ground than most other buildings in the area, the school was reduced to rubble. According to some
sources (those that have not been verified) this storm occurred on prom night in 1878.
The school was rebuilt and renamed North Main Street Elementary School.
During emergency measures in the aftermath of a subsequent unspecified disaster, the auditorium of this newer school was actually
utilized as a makeshift morgue (this story has actually been verified by newspaper articles at the time).
In 1941, North Main Street Elementary School was torn down to make
way for the present-day Moses Y. Beach Elementary School. Despite the new construction, it appears that the significance
of the site's past has come to haunt its present-day incarnation.
In addition to the varied poltergeist activity is the reported incident
of neighbors calling the police in the late evening complaining of loud music and lights coming from the auditorium.
When the police arrived and entered the school, they approached the doors to the auditorium (which are situated directly opposite
the front doors of the school as you walk in) seeing the lights beneath the doors, shadows flitting by, and hearing both the
music and the voices. When they opened the doors, the lights went out suddenly and the music abruptly ceased.
It is for this reason that the police department no longer sends only one officer over to the school at night when someone
complains of music or lights. Additionally, the alarm company which maintains the security system refuses to dispatch
a lone agent to the premises when a respondent is necessary (both of the above statements have been independently verified
by informant sources).
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| Wallingford High School in 1875 |
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| The tornado-ravaged school in 1878 |
The Investigation
As skeptical as GHOST members were, we had
to admit that the evidence to suggest a haunting in this location was pretty overwhelming. Regardless, we arrived at
the school with our sights set on finding the truth. Particularly, we were immediately skeptical of the "boy-on-the-roof"
story simply because it sounded far-fetched that a student would actually have climbed onto the roof. We were skeptical
of several other reports, particularly of the one regarding a janitor who had walked into the auditorium one day to find a
student cowering in a corner and pointing at the far wall bleachers saying, "Look at the lady in white by the coat rack.
She's crying." Apparently, the little girl had seen a ghost.
We entered the office and the ladies there were kind enough to
point to the wall where artifacts concerning the school's history were displayed. One striking photograph of the school
in 1878 was intriguing, as it showed the multi-level building with students posing for the photograph, most upon the ground,
but some, remarkably, were posing upon the outer ledge on the fourth story (see photo above and close-ups below).
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| Children on the fourth-story ledge of the school |
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| Not a very safe practice . . . |
The photograph became even more striking, however, when
a close-up of a hazy form on the roof, took the shape of a boy, hands in pocket, facing away from the camera! The resident
teachers and staff had never before noticed the figure on the roof and GHOST members were doubly
intrigued.
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| The lone boy on the roof . . . a ghost? |
In old photos, particularly death portraits (photos taken
in the late 1800s to early 1900s, where dead family members were dressed up and posed for posthumous posterity) there have
been incidents of the dead person's supposed spirit appearing in the picture, many with their backs turned toward the camera.
Some paranormalists surmise that this is a symbol of death. Could the figure in the photo on the roof be the spirit
of the little boy who fell to his death? If you look carefully at the full-scale photo of the school, you can plainly
see that the boy's hazy figure is the only one on the roof. It is also very interesting to note that all other close-ups,
including those not pictured here, showed the other students in fairly vibrant shades. The figure on the roof was the
only hazy form.
A police source continuously referred to the haunting at the school
as a "friendly" haunting, where there were no feelings of dread. If the boy died and he hasn't become aware of the fact
that he is in fact dead, he may, in his mind, just be playing with the other children. And if he was playing on the
roof when he died, he would have been a mischievous child. Of course, a mischievous child could be our mischievous poltergeist,
pranking the others who work there.
In talking to two parents of former students, issues have been brought
up regarding the former custodian who apparently found the frightened girl in the auditorium. According to these parents
who asked to remain anonymous, the janitor in question was somewhat of a strange man who apparently "saw things on a regular
basis". Creepy Connecticut does, however,
take into consideration the fact that the parents had not been working inside the school and were not exposed to any
of the elements to which the custodian may have been privy. It is very possible that the janitor had information
not known by others.
What's Next?
There are many other staggering and terribly intriguing claims,
but those which can neither be verified nor investigated without proper permission from the school's superintendent.
Creepy Connecitcut has already notified the superintendent
of schools for Wallingford, but he has failed to return our calls.
Perhaps, there's nothing at all going on at Moses Y. Beach Elementary
School . . . or there's a spectacular opportunity for us to experience a full-blown haunting.
Perhaps, we'll never know. We'll keep you posted.
GOOSEBUMP FACTOR: 10
Barry A. A. Dillinger
November 8th, 2005
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