An Abandoned Schoolhouse

Workers found this tintype in the basement archives of the Eliza Stephens College in Jamesport, Rhode Island after a fire in the mansion housing the college destroyed much of the special collections. The subject and date of the image are both unknown, but many suspect this to depict a schoolhouse that once served communities of impoverished immigrants living on the edges of the salt marshes spreading north of the city.

The “Marsh School” ceased to operate after a flash flood claimed the lives of a teacher and nearly one dozen children in 1876. Swamp dwellers thought the ruins, which remained standing into the 20th century, to be haunted by the ghosts of those victims.