Comments on: The Collinwood School

By: Terri Hirling

Terri Hirling — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:43:42 +0000

I attended Memorial Elementary School from 1959 (1st grade) to 1964 (mid-semester 4th grade). As a child I was in awe of how big the building was and how old but beautiful it was inside. Even after visiting the site some years back after it closed, before it was demolished, it still seemed big even through my adult eyes. It was sad to see it sitting empty. I agree with the person who posted how unforgettable the auditorium was. It was like an old movie theater. I remember thinking that the halls were like a maze. The gym was located in the basement and felt like you were going into the bowels of the building, it seemed like a “cave”. I believe there was a pool area, but my memory may be faulty on that. I do remember, however, that there was a girls’ locker room which was always locked. We were not allowed to run through memorial garden. Again, my memory is hazy but I believe there was facility that patrolled the gardens in the morning, at lunchtime (when we left the premises because there was no cafeteria) and after school. Additionally, the memorial garden then doesn’t look anything like it does today due to rededication/remodeled. Some years after Memorial closed my mother was able to purchase a desk and chair for me when the furniture was auctioned off. Unfortunately, it was lost before I could make arrangements to remove it from a storage unit my ex neglected to pay for after we divorced.

By: Teresa L.

Teresa L. — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:58:08 +0000

I actually went to Memorial School from from 1973 to 1979, when it closed. I never experienced anything “supernatural” in all those years. It was a huge school! The main hallways on the first, second and third floor were about 20 feet wide! Afterschool, when everyone went home, it was kind of “empty building creepy,” but nothing more than that. The memorial to the Collinwood School is pretty small in my opinion. For awhile, it wasn’t kept up. When Memorial School was torn down in the mid 2000s, the new school was built on the exact same site, just to be clear. It pains me to think of the empty Memorial School full of garbage inside and out, but it was. I really miss it.

By: RIcky

RIcky — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 08:42:25 +0000

I grew up in Bedford a suburb of Cleveland. When I was about ten I learned about the Collinwood School Fire. I became obsessed with it. I had researched it and learned as much as I possibly could about it. Trying to find out what actually caused the fire. I also tried to put together the timing of the whole event and how so quickly so many died within feet of safety. I was obsessed with trying to understand why more children were not able to be pulled from the heap at the front doors. I looked up the front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer on March 5th 1908. I did scaled drawings of the building and floor plans with exits. I used to have my parents drive me to the memorial garden on March 4th. Then when I got older I would drive my self there. People thought I was nuts. When I got older I had a friend who’s grandmothers sister died in the fire. I just about chopped down their family tree to find out information on that day. Doing research I have also learned that it was probably not true that the doors opened inward but that one of the very front doors was fastened shut with a spring as well as the rear doors. I am now 38 years old I now live in South West Florida and sometimes when I go visit my family and friends in Cleveland, Ill make a detour to the site. I guess at the time I was ten I realized the scale of the tragedy and that it that could actually happen at my school. When I would go to the memorial garden I used to try to stand in the very spot where most of the struggle for life happened. When you do. you can feel the unsettled souls still in limbo to this day. On every March 4th I look at the clock a little after 9am an imagine how little time it took to change so many lives. in that little slice of history.

By: Roman

Roman — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:57:44 +0000

I went to school there in the late 60′s , for Vinny the school is and alway has been at 152nd St. and St. claire ave. The school did not burn down to the ground but the first floor was gutted !!!!!!! And by the way all them people did die there and that is why all schools in the countrys doors open out and can not be locked at all school hours !!!!

By: Mari 29

Mari 29 — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:18:25 +0000

I moved on lucknow in 2005 directly across the street from the newly built school Memorial, and i had a few strange experiences there, from lights switches clicking off as in being up and physically clicking down to waking up in the middle of the night in the dead winter to find my window open wide from the inside of the apt, and my bathroom filled with snow, to also hearing whiney crying noises outside of my window at night. so I do believe that their is some form of strange activity going on on that street.

By: Mic

Mic — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 01:41:14 +0000

I grew up in Collinwood and attended Memorial School in the late 70′s, the school was closed due to forced busing in 1979. I remember walking past the memorial to the students and teachers that passed in the Collinwood School fire on my way home everyday. The Memorial School I attended was one of the last great pieces of architecture. It was beautiful on the inside and the auditorium was unforgettable. Once the school closed, it was sad to see it literally rot away. It’s now replaced with a new, much smaller school. When I was 15, I worked in a nearby nursing home and took care of residents that survived the fire and it was amazing the detail they remembered about that day. I really miss the old neighborhood and it’s unfortunate that due to declining safety of the neighborhood, many have moved out. My mother-in-law still lives across from the school and I will say it still brings eerie mixed feelings of lives that passed and school yard memories.

By: ellie

ellie — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:24:15 +0000

does anyone actually still live in collinwood? come on people, get your facts straight.

By: Crystal Nika

Crystal Nika — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:45:29 +0000

I’ve lived being contacted by spirits my entire life untill i turned 12. Then i met this friend of my borthers friends girlfriend and she taught me how to use white magic. Which to me was bad, and i didn’t know anything about that! I always beleived in God and always went to church i stopped attending bcuz of the group i began to hang out with me, including my cousin and brother, started making fun of me. Anyways i began feeling the spirits then and seeing them and they followed me everywhere. I thoght i was going crazy! One night about 2:30 a.m. i woke up to use the bathroom and i see my mother sitting in the kitchen on a chair in the dark, i thoght nothing of it and went to pee. when i got out she wasnt there so i was like, what on Earth she usually tells me “Hey, Crystal!, don’t forget to turn out the light im goin to bed.” so i went to ask her what she was doin up so late and she says “Crystal, what are you talking about i was sleeping you just woke me up?, go to bed well talk tomorro.” so i did. I couldnt fall asleep for about an hour but i felt something cold only on my feet and i covered my head and went to bed. The next day we did talk and i told her and my dad what i was doing, witch craft, ouiji board, tarot cards all of that. They told me to stop and i did and a whole bunch of things happened then one niht i finally got tired of all the things happening to me i began crying i told the girl to leave me alone because nothing was happening or working for her only and just to me. I got on my knees and began to pray to Jesus and God, and asked them for help. The nexy day, was a saturday, and two ladies came to my porch and knocked on my door, they were from a church trying to get ppl to go. my father always told the to f*** off or something bad like this, but this time he told them to hold on a second, he came and got me and i began speaking to the women and the told what to do, which was burn everything or throw it in a garbage as far away from me as possible and i did and after three days everything stopped. Sometimes when spirits want to communicate with me and i feel them in an area where i am at, i just ignore them. I know how bad opening a door to the other side can be, God bless us all. Crystal 18-f, OH

By: R.M. Wood

R.M. Wood — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:42:04 +0000

This is interesting. I thought the outside doors opened out, but the vestibule doors, where everybody was trapped, opened inward. In any event, I guess none of the doors had a crash bar, they just had a knob.
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By: somarinna

somarinna — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:24:57 +0000

my social studies teacher told us this story one day. We were going to have a fire drill and this was kind of her way to tell us to behave because you’ll never know if it was a real one. She got alot into detail. Everyone was pushing and shoving amd screaming, that noone heard the instructions to get into a line so since the doors opened inward, noone could get out. When parents heard the school was on fire, they came rushing to the scene, and one girl was first and she gave up on trying to open the door because the people behind her kept pushing her and they were too strong. But when her mother came, her mother could not open the door, so her and her mother just looked at eachother through the glass and cried. They touched eachothers hand through little openings under the doorway and said i love you for the last time…