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Year:1985 -- Chapel addition in 1995.
Location: 243 Cundles Road East, Barrie.
Status: Open and active normally, but closed for the summer and under
renovation at the time of our exploration.
Accessibility: On account of their scary uniform requirements,
it's fairly difficult to blend into the student body at Saint Joseph's for
long while it's open. Accessibility when it's closed should theoretically
be zero, but the construction going on around it has compromised that. A
lot.
Hazards: Nobody needs to get caught trespassing in a closed high
school at midnight next door to a police station to know it's a bad idea.
The biggest hazard you'd encounter, by far, is being apprehended in the act.
This is an active municipal building and authorities are likely to take a
very dim view towards anyone caught there. That said, we couldn't
resist.
Interesting features: I actually wasn't sure whether to put this page
under Buildings or Construction Sites,
because so much of interest involved the construction going on, which won't
be around much longer. Still, what isn't interesting about having an
entire high school to yourself? Most of the most entertaining rooms are
unlocked (for some reason), so there's lots to see.
Recommendation: I refuse to recommend that anyone break and enter
then proceed to trespass in a closed high school. But, yeah, it was kind of
fun. :D
July 10th, 2002
Static and I were headed back to our respective homes one summer night after having spent some time poking around local drains and construction sites with ReduxZero, when we passed Asher's old high school, the ignoble Saint Joseph's Catholic Secondary School. We decided to park nearby and go to look at some construction that was being done along the front of the building.
We didn't have to explore the mediocre construction site for long before we realized, to mixed delight, that several entrances into the school proper had been inexplicably left open. We debated the relative merits of entering an empty, probably secured high school that neighbours a police station at midnight, and obviously decided to go for it. The first entrance we tried had an alarming beeping sound coming from behind it, so we looked around until we found another. The second entrance didn't even leave any question as to whether or not the door was alarmed -- there was no door at all.
I reached into the school with the camera and snapped a photo either way down the hall, then scanned the pictures for any sign of security cameras or motion detectors. Not seeing any, we cautiously ducked into the hallway, waited to make sure we couldn't hear anyone else moving around, and then proceeded to happily explore our surprising new site.
The first set of doors we opened led us into one of the school's two gymnasiums, from which we were able to access supply rooms, change rooms and other such trite places. A high school doesn't seem like a very interesting place to explore but when you have it all to yourself it's actually sort of captivating.
We explored both gymnasiums and all the rooms off them, then headed to the
main foyer. By the time we had covered about half the ground on the first
floor, we still hadn't seen any security systems whatsoever. Amazing.The number of doors that we found unlocked was shocking. You'd think that if they were going to leave literally an open door into the building, they'd at least lock it up inside. Not so. A few computer labs were locked, as was the library, but among the places we were able to access with no problem were a science lab, several staff rooms and offices, and the chemistry supply room (which should be locked even when the place is open!). In the case of the latter, I didn't even enter it, for fear of it being the worst possible place I could be caught. Instead, I snapped a quick photo through the doorway and fled.
Our wanderings, in search of access to the second storey, brought us to a section of the school which was clearly cordoned off for construction. I think it used to be part of the cafeteria, but now it was a mess of cables, pipes, and broken concrete. Passing through to the other side of this nifty little area, I went to step into a lit hallway, from which there should have been a staircase to my left, then looked up -- directly into a motion sensor. I froze.
Static and I stared at the thing, which hadn't lit up to indicate activity, not sure if it was hooked up or not. Eventually we decided not to take our chances with it, since if it was functional it would have already noticed me, so we picked out the nearest exit from the school and took off, about seventy photographs richer.
Let me be the first to point out that this infiltration should never have been possible. If it had been our intention, we had an unprecedented opportunity to make off with, unchallenged, about a dozen computers, the contents of a full chemical supply room, an entire room full of sports supplies, and about two dozen cases of pop, just to begin with. If the entrance we used had been found by vandals or thieves, there wasn't even a security system in place to deter or monitor them. There wasn't even any attempt made at pretending there was useful security. I mean, for god's sake, the last construction worker out could even have leaned a piece of plywood up against the entrance, or something. Anything.
Oh well. It worked out pretty well for us. At any rate, while not being a particularly stimulating infiltration opportunity in comparison to, say, the Malt Plant, it was a fun surprise to end our night with.
So, yay!
-snee
And now, a photo gallery.
.