A vestige of early childhood nightmares, the Haunted Schoolhouse in Akron, Ohio is a cornucopia of evil witches, fiery dragons and terrifying monsters all packed into a three-story brick schoolhouse once known as Thomastown Elementary.  Every evil you might have expected to find had you dared return to your school house at night lurks in the former hallowed hallways of learning, from haunted cemeteries, Dracula’s castle and Frankenstein’s laboratory to a wicked monarch’s dungeon of terror.

Purchased from the Akron Board of Education in September of 1974 by Don and Cindy Johns, the imposing old edifice seemed the perfect place to bring to life every tortured nightmare that any child has ever had. With around 50 live actors, the uncanny detail of Hollywood movie style sets and enough lighting, sound and special effects to make a cinematographer drool, the Haunted Schoolhouse has wowed the crowds from all over Ohio and beyond for 38 years and counting.

In 1981 the Johns family purchased the adjacent Guggenheim Air Institute and opened the Haunted Laboratory, four floors of spine tingling experiments gone awry at the hands of a resident mad scientist. The centerpiece of the building is a four story wind tunnel through which you can view flashing lasers, Tesla coils and spinning black holes.

The haunting continues outside, on three sides of the Haunted Laboratory, with maimed corpses (careful, some are live!), derelict school buses and chainsaw-wielding maniacs lurking in a construction area.

Congratulations to The Haunted Schoolhouse…The Victim’s Choice for one of the “Top 31 Haunted Houses in America” at HauntedHouseRatings.com.