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. 

A Mysterious Shipwreck

M’Lass was an early steel-hulled fishing barque constructed in the late 1880’s. Her captain, Hubert Juniper, was uncharacteristically well-educated and well-spoken among the ranks of New England fishing captains. His popularity with the young ladies of Boston certainly contributed to the public attention surrounding the barque’s launch from Providence, Rhode Island in 1889. A young, handsome captain of a technologically-advanced ship in a profitable industry—it was a perfectly American story.

That optimism turned, however, when the barque failed to put into port after several months at sea. A search ensued, but came up without any leads. The dark New England sea had blunted hubris by claiming yet another ship.

All had forgotten about Juniper and M’Lass until October 25, 1890, when the residents of Jamesport, Rhode Island woke to find the barque beached just north of the wharf. All hands were gone, but the ship showed curious signs of habitation—plates set with now-spoiled food in the galley, clothes spilling from chests, and ropes dropped to the deck as if in mid-pull.

A scrap of newspaper from The Jamesport Jubilee, 12/26/1957.

Demolition crews discovered the clipping in a trunk in the basement of 12 Admiral Way, Jamesport RI—a property leased to Ms. Allison Popper in October 1957. Popper, who was known to have occult affiliations, is thought to have penned the sigil that appears below the tower. Ms. Popper committed suicide early the following year by jumping from Executioner’s Rock into the Jamesport Bay.

The meaning of the sigil, and the reasons for her suicide, remain a mystery.

But what is one more mystery?