The Legend of Gore Orphanage Road, Vermillion, Ohio

OhioMythGhosts

Sep 26

If you take a trip to Lorain County, Ohio you might come upon a road where the ghostly cries of children echo among the trees. According to legend, these children were victims of a crazed man, giving the nearby road the name Gore Orphanage Road. But, did the legend actually happen?

Gore Orphanage

In the early 1900s, Mr. Gore and his wife built an orphanage on an isolated road surrounded by woods. As the orphanage filled up with children, the Gores had no clue they had a neighbor living alone in the woods who preferred his quiet isolation.

No one in the nearby town knew anything about the man except that he would randomly be seen yelling at seemingly no one prior to the orphanage being built. Once the orphanage was complete, the man turned his attention to it. Often he would yell toward it complaining about the noisy children but as the years went on, the Goressaw him as harmless.

In 1923, the man reached his boiling point, one night he yelled and cursed the children, wishing it had never been built. As usual, the Gores ignored him and tended to the children instead, but that would be a terrible mistake. Around midnight as everyone in the orphanage slept, the man returned, barricaded the doors, and lit the orphanage on fire.

According to the legends, the man watched as the entire orphanage was engulfed in flames and the terrified cries of the children within slowly died out. Following this, the man was never seen again or heard from again.

Other Versions

There are a lot of different versions of this story, more than I’ll list here, but here are some of the more popular variations.

In one version the owner of the Orphanage, Mr. Gore, was unmarried and known as ‘Old Man Gore’. Instead of the loving caretaker from the version above, here he was a horrible brute, who was often heard yelling at the children. One night the children angered him to such an extent he decided to burn it all down and collect on the insurance money.

Another version of the story claims the fire started by complete accident caused by one of the children accidentally tipping over a candle. Though this version doesn’t explain how the children weren’t able to escape the fire.

Finally, another popular variation blames the janitor of the orphanage for the fire, claiming he left the boiler on for too long which caused it to ignite. Again, this version doesn’t explain why none of the children tried to escape the fire.

But Did it Happen?

Despite the popularity of this legend throughout the decades including a movie in 2015, the story of a Gore Orphanage burning down is entirely false.

In reality, Gore Orphanage Road was originally called Gore Road and the “Gore” was not in reference to the surname of the local orphanage owner. When mapping out a piece of land, several surveyors will map it according to different pre-established maps and land patents.

If any of these contained an error or if any of the surveyors made an error when writing down measurements, this could result in a small piece of land that is unincorporated called a gore. Gore road was given its name because it passed through one of these pieces of land.

The Real Orphanage

In 1902 Reverend John (Johann) Sprunger and his wife, Katie Sprunger, opened an orphanage in the area called The Light of Hope Orphanage. During the time it was open, the road was renamed Gore Orphanage Road. While there were no reported deaths at the orphanage, the 90-100 children were treated so poorly that several ran away in the 13 years it was open.

The children complained of being beaten by Sprunger, forced to sleep in rat-infested beds, not given enough food, rented out as labor to other farmers nearby, and forced to eat food prepared in the same water used to clean their dirty clothes.

An investigation into Light of Hope Orphanage found some of these claims were true but since the state of Ohio, at the time, didn’t have any power in governing orphanages, nothing could really be done.

The bad publicity did cause many to pull children out of the orphanage and two years after the investigation John Sprunger passed away causing financial turmoil. Around 1915 the orphanage closed for good.

The Real “Haunted” House

Though the land the orphanage was built upon belonged to Sprunger, there was one mansion on the land called the Swift Mansion that Sprunger did not use. Constructed in the 1840s by Joseph Swift, he eventually sold it off to Nicholas Wilber and his family.

Like many families in the late 19th century, the Wilbers were into spiritualism and seances. There were rumors that Wilber’s children were psychic and, when performing seances, they were able to communicate with the ghosts of dead children.

In 1901 Nicholas Wilber passed away and the home was abandoned, almost immediately rumors that it was haunted were passed around. Many claimed the ghosts of Nicholas’ grandchildren, who died of a diphtheria epidemic were some of the ghosts seen there because they supposedly died there. In reality, none of Nicholas’s grandchildren died at the home.

But, because Wilber was known to perform seances that invited ghosts into his home, many believed the house was haunted and many visited the home hoping to see a ghost. In 1923, the home burned down, thought to be caused by some visitors hoping to see a ghost. Today the remains of Swift Mansion are what many believe are the remains of Gore Orphanage.

In the end, the legend of Gore Orphanage is just a mixture of several stories blended together to create a terrifying tale, one that never happened.