Longstown One-Room Haunted Schoolhouse
Over fifty-years ago I first heard stories of a ghost haunting the schoolhouse in Longstown. In 1962 our family spent our first summer on a farm near Longstown. Seitz’s corner grocery store was located a very short bike ride from our farm. That store was where I heard about the haunted schoolhouse on several occasions.
This post is a continuation of last week’s post: Rocky start for Longstown One-Room Schoolhouse. Longstown one-room schoolhouse is perhaps the schoolhouse in Springettsbury Township written about the least. The Longstown One-Room Schoolhouse location is also not well documented and was a mystery for many; their typical guess was “probably near the Tilden U. B. Church.”
This past summer I searched every conceivable map for a schoolhouse symbol near the Tilden church along Edgewood Road; with no success. My first break came last month when a longtime resident of Longstown assured me the schoolhouse was located much further from the Longstown crossroads; telling me it was several houses east of Eagles Nest Restaurant. I followed up by asking if there was anything unusual about that schoolhouse. It was kind of eerie when he told me, “Some claim weird things happened in that schoolhouse, as if it were haunted,” however he could not provide any details.
He was absolutely correct about the location. I verified that place via the discovery of a schoolhouse symbol on the 1941 York County Highway Map, produced by the Pennsylvania Department of Highways. The unincorporated village of Longstown had a Post Office called Tilden from 1886 to 1903; thereafter both Longstown and Tilden were used until the village name reverted back to Longstown in the mid-1900s. I’ve annotated the map section with road names and summaries of schools within The Independent School District of Springettsbury Township.
Pinpointing location of Longstown One-Room Schoolhouse
Deed searches on several of the properties east of Eagles Nest Restaurant resulted in the discovery of a 1912 deed where Benjamin Horn and Sarah J. Horn, his wife, sell a lot to The Independent School District of Springettsbury Township for $150 (Deed Book 18O, Page 155). This lot is along the public road leading from York to Longstown and the deed string originated from the lot at 2655 Mount Rose Avenue. Using the York County Property Viewer, I’ve pointed to the location where the Longstown schoolhouse stood on that lot.
The fussy image of a schoolhouse, via a 1938 historic aerial photo, pinpoints the indicated “dotted” schoolhouse location. The next available historic aerial photo, in 1955, no longer shows a schoolhouse. In 1941, The Independent School District of Springettsbury Township sells the school lot to Luther P. Marks and Thelma E. Marks, husband and wife, for $1,500 (Deed Book 28S, Page 696).
These facts led me to conclude the schoolhouse was torn down in the 1940s or early 1950s. If any of my readers can provide details of when the schoolhouse was torn down or anything associated with weird happenings in that schoolhouse; please let me know. Also a photo of this schoolhouse is elusive; if any of my readers know a source, let me know.
Links to related posts include:
- Rocky start for Longstown One-Room Schoolhouse
- Ghost mystery of Longstown Schoolhouse solved
- Aden’s place reveals Tilden a.k.a. Longstown
- Upheaval at the One-Room Schoolhouse
- Windsor Township Barn was a store for Country Folks
- Locations of five One-Room Schoolhouses that closed in 1952; and The Avalong Connection
- Stony Brook One-Room Schoolhouse (1913-1952)
- Photo of Students that attended Stony Brook One-Room School in 1949
- Lefever’s One-Room Schoolhouse impacted York Suburban
