Gore Orphanage is the subject of a local legend in Northern Ohio, which refers to a supposedly haunted ruin near the city of

Vermilion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color family and pigment most often used between antiquity and the 19th century from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide). It is synonymous with red orange, which often takes a moder ...

Lorain County Lorain County () is a county in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio As of the 2020 census, the population was 312,964. Its county seat is Elyria, and its largest city is Lorain. The county was physically established in 1822, beco ...

, Ohio. The ruin is a building that formerly housed the Swift Mansion and, later, the Light of Hope Orphanage, and is the subject of local urban legends, whereby the violent deaths of young adults and children are alleged to have occurred. According to the urban legends, supernatural activity has occurred in the building since its closure. Though historians have concluded that Gore Orphanage itself never existed, the Vermilion Chamber of Commerce has confirmed the existence of said orphanage, and discusses both the legend and truth of the orphanage. The legend claims that in the 1800s Vermilion, OH, U.S.A, a fire was set which killed many children and one woman, whose ghosts now haunt the ruins. Historians also have determined that Gore Orphanage is the name of a road, not a building, and many unrelated people, places, and events simply have been combined into a ghost story.

History of the Gore Orphanage legend

Location aspect

The location that is claimed to be the actual site of Gore Orphanage is in fact the remains of Swift Mansion, also called Swift's Hollow, which was built and owned in 1840–42 by Joseph Swift. Gore Orphanage Road is the only location in

Vermilion, Ohio Vermilion is a city in Erie County, Ohio, Erie and Lorain County, Ohio, Lorain counties in the U.S. state of Ohio, on Lake Erie. Its population was 10,659 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located about 35 miles west of Cleveland an ...

, whose name contains the words "Gore Orphanage." Originally, the road was called simply "Gore Road," referring not to blood or tissue (as the ghost story implies) but to a surveyor's error in a

gore Gore may refer to: Places Australia * Gore, Queensland * Gore Creek (New South Wales) * Gore Island (Queensland) Canada * Gore, Nova Scotia, a rural community * Gore, Quebec, a township municipality * Gore Bay, Ontario, a township on Manito ...

(a narrow strip of land) along this road. The word "orphanage" in the road's name actually refers to the Light of Hope Orphanage, which is less than one mile away from the supposed Gore Orphanage site.

Fire aspect

The printing building of the Light of Hope Orphanage burned down during the morning of November 22, 1910, but without any injuries. The Wilber family, who occupied Swift Mansion for a time, engaged in spiritual

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French language, French word for "session", from the Old French , "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general and mundane: one ma ...

s and eventually lost four young children to a local

diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacteria, bacterium ''Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild Course (medicine), clinical course, but in some outbreaks, the mortality rate approaches 10%. Signs a ...

epidemic; the séances and child deaths caused the location's reputation for being haunted. However, the Wilber children did not die in Swift Mansion. Place of Death listed as Berlin Heights, OH. The aspect of the legend regarding children trapped inside a burning building was likely inspired by the

Collinwood school fire The Collinwood school fire (also known as the Lake View School fire) was a major disaster that occurred at the Lake View School in Collinwood, Ohio, when a fire erupted on March 4, 1908, killing 172 students, two teachers and one rescuer. It is ...

of 1908, which occurred years after the Swift Mansion events and the Light of Hope Orphanage opening At

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. and resulted in the deaths of 172 children and a few adults. Swift Mansion itself burned down on the night of December 6, 1923, though there were no human casualties.

Paranormal aspect

The cries of orphans trapped in a fire, central to the legend, are claimed to be heard at the ruins of Gore Orphanage (Swift Mansion). However, investigators attribute the cries to the high-pitched hum of truck traffic on the nearby interstate highway, not visible from the area of the ruins. The

Ohio Turnpike The Ohio Turnpike, officially the James W. Shocknessy Ohio Turnpike, is a controlled-access toll road in the U.S. state of Ohio, serving as a primary corridor between Chicago and Pittsburgh. The road runs east–west for in the northern sect ...

(

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one of the ori ...

) bridges the Vermilion River approximately miles from the ruins. When a truck crosses the bridge, winds often carry the brief high hum to the ruins as a ghostly wail, unrecognizable as mechanical in origin. A local activity known as "

legend tripping Legend tripping is a practice in which a usually furtive nocturnal pilgrimage is made to a site which is alleged to have been the scene of some tragic, horrific, and possibly supernatural event or haunting. The practice mostly involves the vis ...

" involves teenagers testing one another's courage with ghost stories of haunted locations to which they travel by automobile. As early as 1905, teenagers were visiting the Swift Mansion before it developed its current Gore Orphanage legend, in search of the supernatural, due to its reputation for being haunted. In later years, the sounds from unseen truck traffic were added to the legend as ghostly cries.

Popular culture

A feature film by Principalities of Darkness LLC, is inspired by the legend. The film stars Maria Olsen and Bill Townsend. Season 5 Episode 9 of the television show ''

Supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

'' takes place at a fictitious hotel built atop the ruins of Gore Orphanage in Vermilion, Ohio. The protagonists, Sam and Dean Winchester, do battle with the ghost of Gore Orphanage's caretaker and several children who she scalped and murdered.

References