The sad transformation of one building: from a promising seminary to a banal haunted house (12 photos + 1 video)

The example of this impressive building clearly demonstrates to us the fact that human memory is fleeting, and how strongly the mind is attracted to everything mysterious and incomprehensible.





St. Mary's College was opened as a seminary in the 19th century, but a century later, when the number of students had dropped to a critical level, the school was abandoned and gradually fell into disrepair.



Currently, St. Mary's College has a reputation as Hell House in Maryland, where followers of secret organizations are believed to gather to perform dark rituals. What sinister secrets does the abandoned college hide, and what separates fiction from reality?

From the refuge of sin to the center of holiness





St. Mary's School was built in 1868. The bluff offered a stunning view of the Patapsco River in Ilchester, Maryland. The building originally housed a tavern and a small hotel. When the building was given over to the church, students began to be housed in the old buildings, where wine once flowed like a river and not the most legal transactions were made.



The seminary, built in the Italian Renaissance style, had classrooms, seminarians' bedrooms, a beautiful chapel and a wonderful green area with gazebos. The library contained as many artifacts as books: ancient coins, religious manuscripts, even fossils.



In the first decades, a small number of students studied at the college, but then the number of people wishing to receive holy orders grew to 150 people.



Nuns also studied at the institution. In 1893, a congregation was created to help those in need in the community, which still functions today.

Gradual decline



In 1972, the seminary moved to another location. Much of the land was transferred to a state park. In the early 1980s, an attempt to convert the main building into luxury apartments failed. In 1983, someone tried to found a non-denominational monastery and spiritual commune here, but the attempt was also unsuccessful.



In the end, the historical and once beautiful building fell into complete disrepair. On Halloween night in 1996, vandals set it on fire, reducing it to a crumpled shell. Now the walls of the remaining building are covered with graffiti. One gazebo has become an inexhaustible source of urban legends and horror stories about ghosts and secret occult societies. The partially preserved building houses a metal cross, nicknamed the “Altar of Hell House.”

Legends of Hell House



Residents of the surrounding area have heard stories of satanic cults, ghosts, restless souls and animal sacrifices. One legend tells that a mad priest stabbed several schoolgirls to death, and according to another version, he raped several nuns.



The priest managed to escape, but the nuns became possessed by demonic forces, which then killed everyone in the college. According to another version, the nuns were found hanged with a pentagram drawn on the soil under them with the blood of the unfortunates flowing out.



As mentioned, the school was built on land that was originally an inn and tavern, which may also contribute to the presence of ghosts in the area.



None of these terrible events, of course, actually happened. These are all inventions of people who want to tickle their nerves. But, having visited the Hell House, people who are so carried away by legends about possession, demons and other horrors, in principle, can be understood.