This long-abandoned school in southeast Ohio originally served two neighboring villages. Named after both villages, it was known by students as J-T High. It's school colors were red and white and it adopted the Cardinal as its mascot. No date of construction is known but it looks to me like it was built in the first quarter of the twentieth century. In 1964, a third nearby village was incorporated into the district and the school was rechristened. No longer referred to as J-T High, it served all three of the former coal-mining towns along Sunday Creek until a new township school was built in 1973. In the 42 years since, the old school building has deteriorated significantly. The final students who attended the school would be approaching their sixties now. Despite being in the midst of three villages, there isn't much around it, providing an isolated feeling. I have visited this school in the past with my old camera but my pictures were, for lack of a better word, crappy. So I returned and am much happier this time around.
1.
DSC08513 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
2. The gymnasium doubled as an auditorium. A partially collapsed roof has allowed plant life to take root inside.
DSC08466 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
3.
DSC08468 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
4.
DSC08510 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
5. The first floor hallway. Unsurprisingly, this school is in really rough shape and portions of it are very unstable. In one of the rear rooms, my foot and leg went through the floor up to my knee.
DSC08473 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
6.
DSC08474 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
7. The view from the stage.
DSC08483 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
8. This was the back room behind the stage where my foot went through the floor.
DSC08485 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
9. Here I accidentally scared a few birds who were busy doing bird stuff in the stairwell.
DSC08490 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
10. A few of the classrooms have minor fire damage.
DSC08492 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
11. Many chalkboards are still (mostly) intact.
DSC08493 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
12. The second floor hallway which allows you to look down on the gymnasium.
DSC08496 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
13.
DSC08498 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
14.
DSC08499 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
15. Doors to the basement
DSC08506 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
16. There really isn't much downstairs except a couple more classrooms and a couple empty mechanical rooms.
DSC08507 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
17. A final picture before we head back outside.
DSC08508 by
KMD1720, on Flickr
As I've probably said before, rural schools are my favorite abandoned places. A lot of them have character, something greatly lacking in more recently built learning institutions. The schools I attended were about as architecturally boring as possible up until college. Unfortunately, this particular building hasn't held up well against time and it probably won't be too much longer the floors of its hallways and classrooms have fallen through.
