Friday, August 8, 2008

Public School Number Four...

Public School Number 4
Public School Number Four is an abandoned building in Downtown Jacksonville that has always intrigued me. The former school has wonderful brick architecture and a columned entrance. It has been abandoned for as long as I can remember and like any long abandoned building, it has gained some ghost stories. Books have nicknamed the building as "The Devil's School" to go along with the associated ghost stories.
The Devil's School
I don't know the whole history behind the school and why it was let to rot for decades, but my guess it had something to do with I-95 being twenty feet away from the front entrance. It's still a shame to let such a beautiful (and probably historic) building rot away, although I probably wouldn't be inclined to take pictures when riding by if the school wasn't in it's current state...

26 comments:

nsd said...

hello everyone,
i have been in the school before with a bunch of friends! i heard all the storys of gosts and what not but i didnt see anything like that BUT when we went dont to the celler were the bouler all are flashlights and are camcorder went dead or really dem "low battery" aside from that it was so cold down there i was an the verg of shaking! it was scarry cause there was so manny tunnals and little rooms what was goin thrw my head was to much of what was goin on down there but it was really cool and cant w8 to go get scared agean ha ha please feel free to e-mail me with any questions and comments mpally@live.com

Anonymous said...

hey.
yeah i went inside with a bunch of people. wasnt that scary cause it was a large crowd. ill go back again alone one day tho. the boiler room was alright. nothing unusaul other than the dark shadows in the corner of ur eye.

Anonymous said...

hey people,
me and a couple of my friends went to a place that has such a great history of spooky stuff that will make u not want to go there but if u do want to go it is an amazing place to go to me and my crew didnt not get scared once and it bumed me out but it was fun and i want to go back every chance i get and tagg sum more but if anybody knows where to get the truth about wat really went on there email me at fatmantrev@aol.com because i spend hours trying to find out the truth and i cant so plz help me no more and thank you for your time

Anonymous said...

I am going nuts trying to find the abandoned school that I believe to be along SR64 near Myakka, FL. It's right on the side of the road....drab looking cement or stone structure. If you're headed west it'd be on your left. I drove by it like 6 years ago when I was down there - I can't find any reference to it anywhere. Any info, please email me at brutalnetNOOOOOSPAM@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

where is this school at and how do you get to the school?

Marena said...

Ahhhh you guys. I think they have torn it down!!! I drove by TWICE and didn't see it....I realllllllly wanted to go in before this happened! If you guys have ANY stories pics or anything on this here is my myspace~ =)

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=346344477

Emily said...

Marlena, they definitely didn't tear it down. You must not be looking in the right place.

Anonymous said...

I was there last night with four friends and we ran into three other shadowy people, they scared the piss out of us almost fell down the stairs running away haha.

Anonymous said...

I'm still looking for people to go with me to the school. I haven't found people to go with me cause my friends are too scared to go. Anyway if anyone wants to go I'm still up for it, so email on myspace at myspace.com/airamyne and title the mail Public School Number 4, so I know what you're asking of me. Thanks

88photos said...

a friend and i drove from tampa to jacksonville a couple of days ago just for this school. we got in through a broken window in the front. upstairs was very cool. every wall in the entire buiding was covered in graffiti. downstairs was very dark and everywhere we walked there was a cold chill in the air. very strange considering its summer in florida!

photos located here:
www.flickr.com/photos/88photos

BekaBoo said...

Hi everyone.
I just got back from School 4, known as the Annie Lytle Elementary school. That place was awesome! Ive heard all the stories like how the principle was a cannibal and when children would fall asleep in class the teacher would send them to the principle office. Well their he gutted the children out and hung them in a closet, eating their insides. And how janitors would molest the kids. The boiler story is the most common one, none being true however. Me and 3 other people went down there and ran into a large group of our friends, so we had about 15 people altogether. We went down to the boiler room, you have to go down into a hole to get to the basement [[where the boiler room is]], but my friends put a ladder in the hole so now its easy to get in. Well you got to climb down and go through broken pipes hanging and you got to walk low bc of the rafters above you. The boiler room was crazy. It was real cold in there while every other room was burning hot. Well we climbed a window out of there and went back outside. The other group left so it was just me and my 3 people. We decide to go back in to check out the 2nd floor. We didnt have anything but our phone lights and lighters [[GO OUT WITH A FLASHLIGHT]] so we had barely any light. Well as we got to the second floor things became weird. Someone painted what looks like a black jesus in the middle of the wall and its facing directly at you when your walking up the steps, so it looks like someone is standing there watching you. That tripped me out. As we walked we kind of splitted up, well i jumped out the window and onto the roof. I walked all the way straight then made a right. I walked back into the school to find another stairwell. Well when i walked over to it i smelt like crack being cooked or smoked - seriously. I knew something wasnt right, ive heard stories about bums being in there and stuff and we had no protection on us. I called everyone over there and they could smell it too. We decided not to walk down the stairwell where the smell was coming from bc the smell kept getting stronger and we didnt know who the hell was down there. I get freaked out an wanna leave, so as we start heading back down to the audotorim we smell like a fire kinda smell. My boyfriend walked into one of the classrooms and looked out the window and said he saw brush outside on fire. Well where he saw that was outside in the front of the school. Bc when you walk straight down the middle of the audotorim you go back to the hall and go to the room to your right. In there is a busted window and its facing the highway. We hauled ass after we seen that fire. Now here is the crazy part. We drove back around the school to see if we could see the fire and we saw nothing. We damn sure saw it and smelled it- very strong. Maybe tomorrow ill watch the news and see its been burned down all the way - wouldnt that be crazy? But yeah i dont think its haunted.. its a really interesting place.

Anonymous said...

I swear i went into that place i didnt think it was that freaky i was to afraid of a gang bang inside but the boiler room i almost peed my shorts that place was freaky and way to bad smelling and so much for heat and cell phone service down there i will may go back i may not

Anonymous said...

it has been years since I have been in sch 4... Maybe about 6, maybe 7 years, I can't remember exactly, but it was the first and only time I have ever been in there. I was asked to pose for a magazine article and I accepted the offer, so we had security and escorts clear the building, and then we went in, did a small tour, and then I left to do hair makeup and wardrobe and came back and it was just when the sun starts getting on a more horizontal axis, the lighting was beautiful in there.. The majority of the pictures were taken in the auditorium, and the balcony in the auditorium. When we shot for the article there was tons of trash and steel beams jutting through everything in the auditorium, but no roof, the roof was completely missing.. If any of you are familiar with the balcony in the auditorium, picture this, a woman laying on her side with her arm propped up and hand holding up head, with a victorianish style dress with a train almost 12 ft long (mostly lace) hanging over the ledge of the balcony.. It turned out to be great pictures. It was scary as hell laying sideways on the wall of a balcony that's like 15 ft or so in the air with a long train pulling you down lol.. Anyway's so we finished up with most of the spots that the photographer wanted to snap, and the light outside was diminishing, so he wanted to take one last set on the roof.. We were standing on a part of the roof that you could see some kind of chimney in the background.. on the chimney there was a clock spray painted on it.. Don't ask me how that person got up there to spray paint it because it looked impossible to reach to me. But anyway's, we took the pics up there, and finished up and left.

After the photos were developed, everything turned out good, the pics were awesome (all in black and white of course ;-)) but then I got the the last set of pictures, from the roof, and I was thumbing through them, and for whatever reason, I noticed that the spray painted clock was not on the chimney in any of the pictures.. it really creeped me out, because i just remember making notice of it and talking about it and wondering how someone could get up there to spray paint it.

But other than that, there was no weird stuff. no howls in the wind or cold air or anything.. Which of course I was there in the afternoon, so there was less of a creep factor.. But honestly, I think it's just an old building.. really old and from what I am hearing and seeing from more recent pictures, a building on death row, and the assholes that own it or whatever are trying their best to execute it. I've heard a lot of talk of them tearing it down to build condos there. All I have to say, is really? Condos? That building would be doing better off for the city and the history of our city sitting there rotting to hell than tearing it down to build low grade effing condos.. I wish that they would realize the value of importance to the people of the city. I live in historic San Marco presently, and if in the years coming, my Jacksonville ended up diminishing, and there was no cultural or historical feel left to the city because of retards like that tearing down our REAL city, I think I would have to leave Jacksonville, for good.

Anonymous said...

I really hope they don't tear it down. I want to go there before they do. It's one of the coolest buildings I know of in Jax. Does anyone know the adress?

Anonymous said...

Even boarded up and covered in weeds/vines it gives the building character. From what I've been reading up on the school, however, is that they aren't planning to tear it down. They want to rebuild it historically. The owners plan to just use the building as something else. They just don't have the funding they planned when they originally purchased it. So it's taking longer than expected. Especially when people keep going in there and tagging the place. Hello. Illegal for a reason. Breaking and entering and vandalism. Without a good lawyer thats at least 5 years behind bars. With an awesome lawyer that's 500 hours community service. And you still pay the amount to fix it. I feel sorry for the first schmuck to get caught in there. You can get caught for everything that's ever been done to that building cuz you can't prove otherwise.

Anonymous said...

School 4 is DEFINITLY HAUNTED. Me and my younger sister and 2 of my friends went. We also had sum friends meet us there, at first it was not scary at all because it was group of about 10 people. So since it wasn't scary we were tagging up the place having fun after that we started exploring. The first floor was nothing out of the ordinary. We did not go in the boiler room because it's like 3 feet tall and I was told it smelled really bad. After that we went to the second floor and my friend started taking random pictures.

We then splitted up (me, my little sister, and 2 friends) and went our own way. We climbed on the roof on the second floor. Then there was an ackward silence. My friend said she heard something while nobody else heard nothing. Like 2 minutes later I heard somebody breathing really loud (no it was not anybody that I was with).

Since the windows by the roof on the second floor were all busted me, my little sister, and friend saw something moving. All of us ran back inside the hall way to see but there was nothing there...at first. We all stood together then my friend saw something moving on the wall all the way at the end of the hallway the opposite side of the stairs. She yelled telling me to look at it, then I pointed my flashlight and saw nothing. As soon as I put my flashlight down I saw an orb like figure(like the ones in pictures that are "ghosts") moving along the wall. That's when all of us got scared and halled ass out of there.

Once we got in the car we started looking at the pictures. I saw something glow in one of the pictures on the top right corner. The picture was taken on the second floor by a classroom looking down the hallway the opposite way of the stairs. Then my friend took a look at the picture and NO LIE, NO BULLSHIT, NO NOTHING! Their was a figure of A LITTLE KID WAVING AT US!

It was the scariest thing I had ever seen! I am never going back there again!

Anonymous said...

one thing is they cant not destroy public school number4 one reason it it been in the 19060 i think. Is that history i do not think they should destroy it and make some condos . I think we should talk to are mayor and tell him it is history. Jacksonville Fl. is historical state and i think public number four should stay. it a black school.

Anonymous said...

The place is bad news im telling you gang's beat and kill bumm's down there as a means of joining there gangs if you go down to the boiler room and take a left where it says nazi's you will see blood and bones in the far left corner between 6 stones in a circle, the spirits there are not of children and if your lucky/unlucky enough to have one contact you odds are it will play on your emotions and trick you into believing it's a child so you let your guard down all types of horrible thing's have happened there and if your real skeptic about anyone dying in there check two places which almost always have activity first the most obvious the far left side of the boiler room yes you have to go inside the hole! and second a particular class room which still even has kids school work on the ground littered all over the place with chared remains of desks books you name it, they like to hide when you are up stairs you can hear them downstairs when you are downstairs they are upstairs best way to catch them is to have 2 groups 1 up and 1 down with 2 camcorders, and for some reason late in april around 5:30pm-10pm is the most active most people go around midnight- 4 am but through my experience you only have a higher chance of gitting robbed at those times! do not forget to bring a high powered flashlight or 2 for the camcorders, (burning white sage attracts them) in a bad way!

Watch Me Eat said...

I find this a bit funny. 18 comments of people bragging about breaking into an abandoned building and talking about how it's haunted. Why is it that supporters of ghosts and the paranormal always have horrible spelling and grammar on internet comments?

Anonymous said...

has anyone experienced seeing a little girl? in the basement area?? if you have comment back to this telling me what you saw..

megan said...

i liked school 4, but i only ever went at night completely pitch black. nothing scary except cold air every once in a while. we didn't have a flashlight either so we couldnt really do too much on exploring. there was only 2 floors and the boiler room that i could see to be able to get up to. i didnt even see a way to get to the upper floor......the stairs that used to go up there just pretty much fell apart just like the ceilings. when i went into the boiler room i couldnt go too far cause all we had were lighters, but it was a little creepy only because of the coldness. it smelled musty and the only reason it was so cold was because it was underground and dead air. duhh.....no spooks. also, the story that i was told behind this place was nothing unusual for the most part. for one nobody molested or ate anybody. what happened was that there was a big fire in the school and a bunch of kids died including teachers. then when they went to fix up the place they turned it into a storage site. and supposedly after the got the place completely renovated, when the delivery guys would come in the pick up supplies freak accidents would happen and they would get hurt and end up in the hospital from falling or the ladder would just not be there anymore. so eventually the city was like well this cant keep happening. so they condemned the place. after the place was condemned bums would come in and sleep and live there and then "satanic" cults would kill them and "sacrifice" them to satan. but they boarded up the place to keep people out. (didn't work obviously) when i went there i went with 3 friends and we had to for one sneak around the cops that would pass by the place every few minutes and then sneak by the cameras and neighbors watching the place and then climb in the hole in the fence and then we had to do was climb up something (i dont remember exactly what it was) and pry a board off. i dont know about now because the last time i went was in 2005. i also found some old school papers and a childs backpack (probably planted there by someone because it had something red smeared on it"haha, blood...lol") write me if you have any more pics of school 4 other than whats already on google. i miss the place and id like to see it again meganj4212@rocketmail.com

Anonymous said...

I believe the city is in limbo as what to do with School # 4.Alot stories behind it....maybe you should call the city and ASK for the REAL reasons instead of speculating!

Aside from the obvious trespassers going in to damage the school with their immature graffiti along the walls and fake pentagrams to scare people after them, nothing has ever been documented about satanists performing some ritual other than school kids trying to impress friends to say they've been IN the place. WOW...you saw the pentagram too! Who cares?

When Johnny Law finds you in there for B&E you won't get a slap on the wrist. It's CONDEMENED for a reason...ASBESTOS is the main one next to all the mold and mildew that's grown over the past 40 years....its locked up to protect YOU ding dong dingys from going inside cause once you get sick from being in the place, you know you can't sue the city. YOU broke in willngly, knowing the risks.

Funny how people write about cameras and neighbors, having to dodge police driving by! Jesus...it's right off PARK ST., under the overpass for 95 and I-10! Cops always drive by and there are NO neighbors...just a few buildings, most empty,closed down and vacant too!

Unknown said...

You guys are all idiots. There are no ghosts in there or anything the least bit scary. I have been there a ton of times day in and day out with no flash light at night. Been in the basement "boileroom" and nothing the least bit scary. If you wanna see pictures that I have taken from the place and another abandoned school in jax and more from North Florida go here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30799582@N03/sets/72157625331987574/

Anonymous said...

man ive been in there its wierd we were armed with 3 12 guage pump action shot guns cuz there was 3 of us wat we found was satanic kids up on the roof a hobo sleeping in a classroom and we found a knife in the boiler room

Anonymous said...

Okay everyone, I just went there today. It's still up. Actually it's in jacksonville Fl. off of I95and I10 on a little road called chelsea. Near the town of 5 points.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it's off of the park st exit. I lived in san marco and worked at baptist health, and I LOVED going to this place... You will never see anything else like it. Actually met some other guys exploring it, went over the whole place, basement and all... this place is still standing.