Backstory
Finishing construction in Spring 1892, the sprawling Churchill Estate was built just outside of Providence, Rhode Island. Emmet and Mary Anne Churchill moved into the 18-bedroom homestead with their three sons that summer. Just one year after they settled into their new home, the youngest son, Bryant, took up the art of taxidermy, turning their drawing room into his very own taxidermy workshop. Eventually covering all the walls with his creations, Bryant became more focused on death and destruction.
Tragedy struck the Churchill family when Bryant added heavy amounts of arsenic to the well which provided water to the servant’s quarters on their property. This led to the death of two staff members who lived on site and worked for the family. The night of the incident, Mr. Churchill witnessed Bryant sneak into the servant’s quarters with a wheelbarrow and investigated. He learned of the deaths and Bryant’s plan to move the bodies into his workshop to be taxidermied. Because he was close friends with the Sheriff, Mr. Churchill convinced the police investigators that the arsenic was naturally occurring in the well and that the situation was a very sad accident.
Knowing that their son was capable of such evil actions, the Churchills were afraid to let Bryant go on participating in the outside world. They consulted with psychologists, educators, and medical professionals to help Bryant, and in 1901 they transformed a wing of their home into the Churchill Reformatory School for Troubled Boys. The school was the subject of much criticism as it attracted the troubled young men from wealthy families who saw the school as an alternative to formal prosecution for horrendous crimes and bad behavior.
The two other Churchill boys took over the operation of the school in 1933 when Mr. Churchill passed away after serving as Headmaster for over 30 years. In 1961, a mysterious structure fire claimed the lives of all the young men and overnight staff inside, including Bryant Churchill who was nearly 80 years old. The Churchill brothers. left the building abandoned.
The 100-acre plot of land that the former school sits on still belongs to the Churchill family and was inherited by Emmett and Mary Anne Churchill’s great, great, great grandchildren in 2018. The property is now utilized for ghost tours and is a “must see” for both tourists visiting the Providence, RI area and ghost hunters alike. In 2022, Forbes placed the former Churchill Reformatory School for Troubled Boys on the “Top 24 Most Haunted Places in America” list and noted that the ghost tours there are “spectacularly spectral”.
Tragedy struck the Churchill family when Bryant added heavy amounts of arsenic to the well which provided water to the servant’s quarters on their property. This led to the death of two staff members who lived on site and worked for the family. The night of the incident, Mr. Churchill witnessed Bryant sneak into the servant’s quarters with a wheelbarrow and investigated. He learned of the deaths and Bryant’s plan to move the bodies into his workshop to be taxidermied. Because he was close friends with the Sheriff, Mr. Churchill convinced the police investigators that the arsenic was naturally occurring in the well and that the situation was a very sad accident.
Knowing that their son was capable of such evil actions, the Churchills were afraid to let Bryant go on participating in the outside world. They consulted with psychologists, educators, and medical professionals to help Bryant, and in 1901 they transformed a wing of their home into the Churchill Reformatory School for Troubled Boys. The school was the subject of much criticism as it attracted the troubled young men from wealthy families who saw the school as an alternative to formal prosecution for horrendous crimes and bad behavior.
The two other Churchill boys took over the operation of the school in 1933 when Mr. Churchill passed away after serving as Headmaster for over 30 years. In 1961, a mysterious structure fire claimed the lives of all the young men and overnight staff inside, including Bryant Churchill who was nearly 80 years old. The Churchill brothers. left the building abandoned.
The 100-acre plot of land that the former school sits on still belongs to the Churchill family and was inherited by Emmett and Mary Anne Churchill’s great, great, great grandchildren in 2018. The property is now utilized for ghost tours and is a “must see” for both tourists visiting the Providence, RI area and ghost hunters alike. In 2022, Forbes placed the former Churchill Reformatory School for Troubled Boys on the “Top 24 Most Haunted Places in America” list and noted that the ghost tours there are “spectacularly spectral”.