DESCRIPTION

The Martha Washington School for Insane Girls, Seattle WA on Lake Washington, is rumored to be one of Seattle’s most haunted places. Rumors of Violence, Poor treatment, Suicide, and even murder pervade the history of the facility. Despite the persistence of these stories, Seattle seems to have all but forgotten this dark portion of its children’s history.

Sterile though the historical timeline below this essay may be, this School has a story that is still trying to be told, with locals bearing witness to having heard strange noises, the sounds of running footsteps, and even screams on the grounds, today a city park. These spirits, if that’s what they are, as further said to inhabit the trees, some of which are clearly almost a century old, and rumored to have been planted by patients/inmates of the “School”. Bullies and would be Muggers etc seem to fall victim to the ghosts, while troubled teens, particularly teenage girls are said to derive a dark sense of comfort from them.

While I’ve so far been unable to find a record of the school’s darker side that names names or gives specifics of who dies when and how- I think that is perhaps a little less important, and no more scary to hear about, than to simply recall what routinely went on in State run institutions of this sort throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. While the normal world turned slowly around them, patients of Asylums, Conservatoriums, Hospitals, University Hospitals, and more were regularly experimented upon. Sometimes with therapeutic aims, other times, the motivations were much less clear.
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Details:
Historylink.org File on the Martha Washington School
Name: Parental Home for Girls
Location: 3404 (N)E 68th Street
Building: Wood
Site: 1.23 acres
1914: Opened on April 1
1918: Renamed Girls’ Parental School
1921: Closed
1922: Leased to Ruth School
1933: Leased to Medina Baby Home
1945: Site sold in September
Name: Girls’ Parental School
Location: 6612 57th Avenue S
Building: 2-story brick
Architect: Floyd A. Naramore
Site: 9.87 acres
1921: Opened
1928: Residential annex added on site (n.a.)
1930: Addition (n.a.)
1931: Name changed to Martha Washington School for Girls
1957: Closed as Seattle Public School; site leased to state
1965: Closed as a residential school
1968-69: Alternative program site
1970-71: Alternative school site
1972: Sold to City of Seattle
1983: Used by the Cornerstone Montessori Academy
1989: Buildings demolished
Use of Martha Washington School site in 2000
Martha Washington Park

Submitted by Steve from the Baked and Awake Podcast