St. Mary's College/"Hell House"

St. Mary's College was a religious preparatory school for young men entering the seminary. It was founded in 1866 in Ilchester, MD and closed down in 1972 due to a lack of men entering the order. Upon closing, the school soon became a place of interest for vandals and curious young people. Many rumors circulated about the school such as "there was a psychotic caretaker who would release his man-eating dogs on trespassers, satanic cults were performing strange rituals on the grounds, people had been murdered, there were ghosts of former students haunting the building" as stated by this website on the history of the school. None of the rumors have ever been proven, although there was a caretaker on the grounds for awhile. In 1997, many of the buildings crumbled in a fire whose cause is still unknown. The site posted this Baltimore Sun article that reported on the fire. It stated that "Investigators with the state fire marshal's office are calling the blaze suspicious because the building has been vacant since the 1970s, according to Allen L. Ward, deputy chief state fire marshal." The caretaker was actually charged in shooting one of the trespasser's of the property as stated in this article from The Sun in Howard in 1996. I read and saw photos of the buildings being bulldozed in 2006 so it seems that not much is left at the site. I have never been to "Hell House" because I heard of it being torn down as soon as I learned of it. It is one of the most interesting buildings I have researched yet in terms of the history and myths surrounding it and I wish I had had a chance to explore it myself.

In other news, I visited the Enchanted Forest that I wrote about in an earlier post and it was a very neat experience. The park is completely overgrown and many structures lay in ruins. One of the most interesting things was a lake with a mountain structure built in the middle. A slide runs down the side that children used to use, but the steps leading up to it were destroyed. Graffiti covers many of the buildings left unfortunately and some of the steps in one of the castles were dangerously crumbling under my weight. The old turnstiles still stand and some are so covered in twisted vines that they won't budge.

-Building photo is from http://ellicottcity.net/.

-Newspaper clipping photo is from http://ellicottcity.net/.