"We have had people run screaming from the building," tour company business manager Marlene Lewis said. "The vibe there is so intense that people have actually become physically ill."
The school, owned by Meredith Elston and Joel Johnson, has built a reputation in the area for its malevolent murderers and school-age spirits.
"I would definitely call it the creepiest place I have ever been in," Andrews said. "We have loyal tourists who have been going on our tours for years and have told us they will not go when we visit the Milton School.
"Specifically negative entities (malicious or sad) can affect you in negative ways. People can become very sick, their legs can get heavy, or they can feel very tired. Positive entities will affect you in a positive way, such as an affectionate tug on your clothing. That may startle some people, but the manifestations themselves are harmless."
Antoinette's Haunted Alton Tours, formed in 1992, is the oldest ghost tour company in Alton. Formed by Lewis and Antoinette Eason as Right Brain Activities, the company has treated curiosity-seekers to Alton's cemeteries, the interior of the McPike Mansion, and other local haunts over the years.
This season, there will be two tours available. In addition to the "Milton Paranormal Investigation" tour, phantom fanatics also can travel through time on the "Ghosts of the Civil War" tour, visiting sites such as the confederate cemetery and Smallpox Island.
"We had decided months ago that we were going to do a Civil War tour this year," Andrews said. "It is extremely popular. History buffs not really interested in the paranormal love it because of the history, and ghost hunters who could not care less about history love it because of all of the active locations.
"We decided on a specialized tour for the Milton School for people who are into spending a little more time investigating and using equipment in the investigation (such as divining rods and EMF detectors)."
Other stops on the Milton tour include the Milton Cemetery, the Robert Wadlow statue and Wadlow's boyhood home.
On Oct. 6, the SyFy Channel will air an episode of "Ghost Hunters" featuring the old Milton School and Antoinette's Haunted History Tours.
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HAUNTED HISTORY OF THE OLD MILTON SCHOOL
While the stories may be merely legend...something, or perhaps more than one something, lurks in the dark shadows of this building. Could the story of the murdered girl be simply a piece of Alton “ghostlore”, an elusive tale created to explain why a place is truly haunted? Or could the events have been covered up to keep fear from running rampant through the community?
According to the legend, the events began one fall afternoon, a few hours after school had dismissed for the day. The building was deathly silent by this time and the shadows began to grow longer as twilight was now coming earlier with each passing week. The teachers and students had all left for the day, except for one, a young girl (who later generations of students would dub "Mary") who was finishing a seasonal bulletin board for her classroom.
By the time that she had stapled the last construction paper leaf on the board, the sun was beginning to dip low in the sky. Mary knew that she had better get home, before her mother started to worry. She gathered up her school books and hurried down the shadowy corridor to the doors by the gymnasium. She knew that she could push them open and leave the building and they would lock behind her. As she skipped down the last stairway and rounded the corner into the gymnasium, she heard a noise behind her. Curiosity about that noise was the last conscious thought that she ever had.
Mary was discovered the next morning in the girl’s shower room, in the basement of the school. Her small body was bloody and battered, her clothing torn and scattered about. Most horrific of all was that fact that the young girl had been brutally raped.
The hunt was on for the culprit, but the police had no leads. What sort of animal would commit such a terrible act? During her last moments, Mary had managed to scratch her assailant, as his bloody skin was still under her fingernails. The authorities warned school officials to be on the lookout for anyone with scrapes or scratches on their hands or face.
Did the harassment of law enforcement and the gossip of the staff at the school drive an innocent man to take his life? Probably not, but we may never know. A few days later, the body of the janitor was also discovered in the school. He was found hanging, the end of the rope around an exposed beam above an upstairs hallway. Beneath his dangling feet were an overturned chair and a scrawled note which read simply: I did it!
Many former students can tell stories of strange experiences in the old school and also tales of their friend’s encounters with “Mary”.
Years later, when Intaglio Design took over the building, some of the employees of the company began to notice some very peculiar things were going on in the place as well. Footsteps were heard in the dark hallways at night when no one else was there, items began to appear and disappear around the offices and soon, one of the staff members even spotted the apparition of a small girl. Was this the ghost of Mary?
This little girl even reportedly became very attached to one particular employee of the business, a young woman named Vickie (name changed). The spirit began to make frequent – and sometimes unnerving – appearances in her office, which was located at the bottom of a stairwell outside of the gymnasium. It was not uncommon to find that things in the room had been moved from place to place. She would also sometimes catch a glimpse of the girl out of the corner of her eye, playing quietly or sitting on the stairs near her office. On other occasions, Vickie would come into the office and find that someone had been tapping on the keys to her computer keyboard, leaving behind patterns of X’s and O’s. There had been no one in the office at the time.
While the ghost of the little girl was completely benevolent, and was in fact welcomed by Vickie – the problem was that she did not haunt the school alone! Another presence was also in the building and this one was described by Vickie as being very threatening. The staff believed that this other ghost was the janitor who had taken the girl’s life so many years ago. He was apparently still trapped in the building where he had committed this terrible act.
Vickie, who had grown attached to Mary, now nervously found herself being stalked by the janitor’s more malevolent ghost. According to reliable witnesses, Vickie became absolutely terrified by the unseen presence in the building. The majority of her encounters with the ghost took place on the stage area of the gym and down in the hallway behind the girl’s shower room. Near the shower room, other staff members also reported an unsettling presence that could cause them to become short of breath and feel a panicked sensation. On many occasions, glass items that were left near one particular former shower stall (which tradition holds is where Mary’s body was found) were reportedly found to be shattered into pieces. No explanation could be found as to why this was occurring. Eventually, Vickie became so frightened by the things that were going on that she simply refused to work in the building at night. Eventually, she left her job and although this was several years ago, strange things continue to happen at Milton School today. - from The Legends of Alton's Milton School by Troy Taylor
NOTE: Troy Taylor has written extensively on the paranormal activity in Alton, Illinois. I have covered a few of the locations previously, particularly the Cracker Factory.
Tragic Spirits Loiter In Old School's Recesses
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