{"id":3216,"slug":"collinwood-school-fire-site-cleveland-ohio","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Collinwood is the school — the '08 fire that killed 172 children, the Lakeview that's the site. The stairwell was the chimney — the oiled floors that fueled, the packed exit that trapped. The Thompson boys were the brothers — the Niles who ran back, the Thomas who was lost.","The 19 were the unnamed — the common grave at Lake View, the bodies that couldn't be known. The codes were the changed — the panic bars that were invented, the fire drills that are law. Collinwood is the worst — the school fire that's the record, the Collinwood that was the village.","The file keeps Collinwood: the 1908 fire, the 172 children, the Thompson brothers, and the code changes.","Collinwood is the archive's Cleveland file — the school fire."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Collinwood is the archive's Cleveland file — the deadliest school fire.","A school keeps its stairwell — the file's suggestion being that Collinwood's hold is the trap: the 172 who couldn't leave, the Niles who ran back, and the codes that were bought."]}],"name":"Collinwood school fire site","aliases":[],"type":"SITE","type_label":"Site","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","LOCAL_FOLKLORE","DISASTER"],"groups":["dark-history","legends"],"desc":"March 4, 1908—the fire that killed 172 children.","full_desc":"Collinwood school fire site is a site in Cleveland, Ohio. March 4, 1908—the fire that killed 172 children. Its accounts name only a collective — the collinwood children. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 1 legend, 1 documented fact and 1 named or described presence — documented record and retelling kept side by side. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Cleveland","county":null,"state":"Ohio","postal":null,"region":"Midwest","lat":41.478462,"lon":-81.679435,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":"Historic site / memorial","research_notes":"dark2 batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":59.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":3242,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"The children are reportedly remembered. The presences go by the Collinwood children in the file. Collinwood school fire site's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. 'Collinwood school fire' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. The name gives the haunting a face, and the sightings give the name a job.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"The Collinwood children","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Collinwood school fire","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collingwood,_Ontario","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":3243,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Reported a presence at the site. Collinwood school fire site in Cleveland, Ohio carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. Witness accounts, no evidence file: the claim is anecdotal and stays that way. 'Collinwood school fire' carries the account. The figure remains the site's most-repeated sighting.","evidence":"ANECDOTAL","evidence_label":"Anecdotal","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Collinwood school fire","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collingwood,_Ontario","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The March 4, 1908 fire is documented; 174 died. A documented history gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that spine. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. Sources including 'Collinwood school fire' carry the record. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":"1908-03-04","confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Collinwood school fire","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collingwood,_Ontario","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"The children are reportedly remembered. Collinwood school fire site in Cleveland, Ohio carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. It's a documented legend: the telling is real, the contents remain folklore. Sources including 'Collinwood school fire' keep the claim in circulation. It's the version the place will be remembered by, whether or not it's the true one.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Collinwood school fire","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collingwood,_Ontario","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The Collinwood children","claimed_identity":"The Collinwood children","verified":null,"summary":"The children are reportedly remembered. The accounts name only a collective — the Collinwood children. The reports at Collinwood school fire site are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. The name travels further than the proof; the sightings keep renewing the lease.","behavior":"The children are reportedly remembered.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Collinwood school fire","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collingwood,_Ontario","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Site access varies; verify before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Collinwood school fire","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collingwood,_Ontario","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":2,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}