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| Recent Photo from the Wade Center |
Anyway, the Wade School in Bluefield is one of those locations that keeps popping up on sites listing Haunted Places in West Virginia, so I decided to look into the legends for myself. What I found is that the Wade School in Bluefield was built in 1921. It was designed and built by William Thomas Owen, Jr., who had arrived in Bluefield with his family in 1909 and is responsible for building several opulent homes and other structures in town, including the Peery Building. Owen passed away a mere three years after the completion of the school (on Halloween!), and is buried in a local cemetery.
The Wade School was originally built to house the junior high students, and featured a popular football field out front where many local games were played. In 1957, the school switched from housing the junior high students to the elementary students. It remained in operation as a school until June 2000 when the county began a massive school consolidation project.
Wade School's fate was uncertain at this point. Bluefield State College was not interested in the building as it was originally thought they would be...so it sat empty for several years until 2005 when a non-profit organization was developed in order to convert the former school into a community resource center.
Today, the Wade School is now the Wade Center, an outreach ministry that caters to the needs of at-risk children in the community. The former classrooms were turned into computer labs, tutoring rooms, and places to teach art classes. Recently, the Wade Center went through another round of renovations, and reopened in December of 2012. There's no word yet as to whether anyone associated with the Wade Center has experienced these ghostly manifestations, but we in the paranormal community know that renovations tend to stir up any latent energies that might be present. Combine that with the energy of many school-aged children, and you've got a recipe for a haunting....
Ghost stories that are being quoted online are very short and nondescript, and presumably come from a time when the school was operating as a school. It seems as if the sounds of children running up and down the halls when no one is around are observed, as well as the apparitions of these ethereal children. It is also included in these entries that a female teacher of the school was decapitated...and that three students apparently fell over dead for no reason.
And that's where I need YOU readers! I've started pouring over the Mercer County death certificates for 1921 until 1969 (when online records cease). I haven't gotten very far yet, as its a slow and tedious process. If you have a name or date that one of these deaths may have occurred...or if you've had your own ghostly experience at the Wade School, I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to comment below, or reach me by email at theresarhps@yahoo.com Interestingly, I found an African American teacher who died, but not by decapitation...and several junior high aged students who died...but apparently not at the school. One girl was shot, and the other's cause of death was listed as diabetes. I'll keep looking and update if I find anything!
Like this entry? You might also like:
*Mercer County Airport
*Bluefield State College
hello i live in wv and i used to live like 5 houses down from the wade center my sister used to babysit kids that attended the wade center a couple of times. so i went to the wade center alot and everytime i went there i never noticed anything paranormal going on..i think it just gets its reputation from being an old building i mean it is creepy and old big school with unused rooms of course it's going to get a reputation. but for me and my sister nothing ever happened there paranormal wise
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information! For the most part, I do think that most of what is published online about this (and many other locations) is simply legend and misinformation. But...as I've found several times in this field, many legends begin with a grain of truth. I've tried to make it my mission to track down that grain of truth, while at the same time sharing some history that may otherwise be forgotten. Thank you again for sending in some information....since I don't really live close enough to a lot of these locations to have first-hand knowledge, local people sending in their knowledge is invaluable to helping preserve (and often debunk) the legends and history of these places!
DeleteI have spoken to people in and out of The Wade building over the years. Many of them have witnessed the sound of children laughing and speaking after hours or on days that no children were there. It has also been claimed that people hear footsteps and heavy doors opening and closing when no other person was on the premises. No one has claimed to see anything or witness anything dark. Only playful whispers of the past.
ReplyDeleteI went to school there I saw many things....I was terrified when I went to school there
ReplyDeleteOmg me too I was in elementary for a short time then moved but it was creepy but I don't know if anything paranormal went on. But I do remember someone telling us a story about the boiler room and a man falling down the stairs.
DeleteSomeone once told me they saw ghosts of children there, while others have witnessed nothing strange. I suppose it depends on the spiritual sensitivity of the visitor.
ReplyDeleteGeez. I also went to this school and so did my grandfather . I've gave heard of any deaths there but you never know . I've always thought the school was creepy .
ReplyDeleteIf you want to investigate a school that has many claims of Paranormal Activity the school would be Central High School it is in Bluefield West Virginia. Many people for years on have claimed this school is haunted . Also another school is Ramsey Middle School it's also located in Bluefield w.va
ReplyDeleteThe rumors are true. The old Wade School is very haunted. I was fortunate to witness it firsthand.
ReplyDeleteMy son went to Wade School 1-6 and never came home with stories like this. Very interesting to read your story though. I would love to hear what you find out. Many students went there to school. When it became the Wade Center it was so important for many grade school & teens to go there and the help they have given to these children. Thank you for this wonderful share.
ReplyDeleteI believe that i had a paranormal experience in 1998 or 1999, i was in first or second grade. At this time it was an element ary school. I was in the downstairs bathroom, everything was fine, i went to was my hands and i woke up to a teacher saying i had cracked my head off the floor but i didnt even know what had happend
ReplyDeleteI began school at Wade in the first grade. My mom attended it grades 1-9. We admired the old building & attended the closing ceremony. Mum still has a hand sized 1950s memory book from there. Don’t recall what it contained. Neither of us had any paranormal experiences at Wade.
ReplyDelete