Gore Orphanage

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling.
You can assist by editing it now. A how-to guide is available, as is general documentation.
This article has been tagged since January 2007.
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.
This article has been tagged since January 2007.
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject.
Please help recruit one or improve this article yourself. See the talk page for details.
Please consider using {{Expert-subject}} to associate this request with a WikiProject
This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article.
Please improve it or discuss changes on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions.

Gore Orphanage is a legendary, supposedly haunted ruin near the city of Vermilion in Lorain County, Ohio. It is widely regarded in urban legend as a haunted area filled with supernatural activity. However, as usual, the legend has very little to do with any actual events.

Contents

[edit] The Legend

Gore Orphanage was originally a mansion built in 1840 by Johnathan Swift, and was repurposed years later as an orphanage called Light of Hope Orphanage, where many children learned farm and agricultural skills. Old Man Swift, the owner of the orphanage, was widely known for his terrible demeanor and cruel treatment of the orphaned children. He was rumored to have killed many of the children and put their remains into the fireplace. One night, long after the orphanage had fallen into disuse, the mansion was set on fire and the children's screaming could be heard for miles around. The fire was believed to be started by Old Man Swift, but nobody could be sure. It is said that if you go to the building's foundation today, you can still hear the sound of children screaming or pleading for help, the great door of Swift's Mansion opening and closing, and the footsteps of Old Man Swift walking towards you.


[edit] The Truth

The house that now lies in ruins was indeed a former mansion built between 1840 and 1842 by Johnathan Swift, a wealthy Massachusetts farmer. It was an upper-tier house, quite exquisite for its time and location. However, Swift invested his earnings and life savings into worthless railroad stock, and was forced to sell the house to New Yorker Nicholas Wilber, the leader of a group of Spiritualists. Oral history is quite unanimous about his hosting elaborate seances at the mansion. Soon after occupying the house, four of the Wilber children died over the course of seven days at the height of a local diphtheria epidemic, and the seances were usually incantations which featured the spirit-tapping of young children.

This is where legend begins to diverge from fact. While many local citizens insist that the children were buried in the Swift Mansion, supposedly explaining its supernatural activity, they were actually buried in a local graveyard. Further, exaggerations grew that all four children "died in their mother's arms" and that she subsequently "went insane, setting the tables in the places for the dead children and beckoning them to go to bed."

Nicholas Wilber died in 1901 and the house sat vacant. Soon after, people from around the area began sneaking into the house to examine it, vandalize it, and render it an urban legend. Later, "children would be challenged to sleep in the house without being haunted by 'the children'." The house began to slip into disrepair soon after the public fascination and abuse began, and was slowly torn apart. It wasn't until 1923, when efforts to restore the manor were beginning, that the house was vandalized and set ablaze. The culprit was never found. Since then, it has been continually vandalized and remains a popular hang-out for teenagers.

There was never an orphanage in the area, and the name Gore comes from the name of the geographical shape of the area, a valley called a gore.

[edit] Location

"Gore Orphanage" is located in Vermillion, Ohio. Originally Johnathan Swift's mansion, named Rosedale, it acquired the name "Swift's Folly" for being located at the bottom of a ravine named Swift's Hollow. The actual area is part of the Lorain County Metroparks. A park ranger's station is located just up the road from the location and explorers are often found and told to leave the area.

[edit] Light of Hope Orphanage

The details of the Light of Hope Orphanage have become entwined with the local legend of the Swift mansion because of the extremely short distance between them and their many similarities.

Reverend John Sprunger, a Lutheran minister from Bern, Indiana, bought many abandoned farms in 1902 and set up the Light of Hope Orphanage. It was funded by his congregation and the good will of others. The institution was created to teach orphans the value of hard work and train them in farming and housework. It operated uneventfully for twelve years. Swift's mansion was supposedly used as one of the boys' dormitories, but that has not been documented.

However, after Reverend Sprunger's passing, the orphanage fell into disarray and never recovered from the personal and financial loss. It was soon bankrupt and disbanded, and the children were relocated. Legend relates that one of the dormitories may have burned down and an unknown number of children died, but local historians dispute this ever happening, and that it is simply a mistaken tie-in with the incidents at Swift's Hollow. However, its location on Gore Road, and the fact that it was an orphanage, supply a title for the legend.

[edit] Links to other Ohio legends

The story has been linked with Collinwood, Ohio, where 176 students were killed in a fire at the school. It is also connected to the false Helltown legend.

[edit] Reference

Mark Moran and Mark Scuerman (2004). Weird U.S.. Barnes and Noble. ISBN 0-7607-5043-2. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../g/o/r/Gore_Orphanage_0bc8.html"