Fairview Grade School

Tomorrow (October 13th, 2017) is a rather special day for Halloween enthusiasts! Not only is it Friday the 13th…but it is also National Haunted House Day! National Haunted House Day falls on the second Friday in October and is held to celebrate the artistry and hard work associated with the Haunted House attraction industry. Each year, all over the country, dedicated volunteers and employees work to transform their spaces from the mundane to the macabre. I’m a huge fan of these attractions and being a paranormal investigator in addition to a Halloween enthusiast, I’ve noticed something over the years—a HUGE number of these ‘fake’ haunted houses can actually be found within buildings and locations with a REAL haunted history!

The Scareview Grave School began life as the Fairview Grade School. When the original 1877 school (located near where the West Side Volunteer Fire Department is now located) had outlived its usefulness, a new brick school was built in the Virginia Heights area. Construction began in 1926 and the school was opened to students around 1927. Fairview continued educating the youth of St. Albans West until the mid 1990s.

After that, the school largely sat unused. The West Side Volunteer Fire department would use it for training, but it would be several years until that same fire department would breathe new life into the aging building—by turning it into the Scareview Grave School! Scareview is one of the premier haunted house attractions in this area, and is my absolute favorite! The price is extremely reasonable, and you’re going to see and experience things that are just as, if not more, scary than you’d see in the big dollar haunts. The staff is entirely volunteer and you can tell everyone there loves doing what they do. Oh, and the profits go to help benefit the fire department and local food banks, so its a total win. If you’d like to know more about the haunted house itself, you can check out my REVIEW and/or the official Facebook page for Scareview Grave School.

But, like I said earlier, this particular haunted house is especially awesome because it may actually be haunted! Over the years, several psychics and paranormal investigation teams have scoured the halls of the former elementary school in search of things that go bump in the night. Unexplained noises and sightings of actual apparitions are among the reported activity. According to a Topix post on the old school, it is claimed that a little boy who died by falling down the basement stairs is the main ghost on site, but there may also be the spirit of a little girl.

If you haven’t made the trip to see Scareview yet, I REALLY recommend it! It’s an excellent haunted house, made even spookier by the fact that there may be more than just volunteers and props ready to jump out at you as you travel the multiple floors!