Jacksonville Urban Legends and Folklore

The Devil's School: Legend Tripping with Annie Lytle Jacksonville – Brooklyn

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The former Annie Lytle Elementary School, alias Public School Four, has been called the "most haunted place in Jacksonville," a reputation MetroJacksonville.com has covered before. With urban myths abounding, the abandoned landmark is the premier local site for "legend-tripping": the right of passage in which young adults brave locations associated with frightening legends for purposes of initiation, rebellion, or simple entertainment. 

Legend-trippers started flocking in soon after, attracted by two key qualities: the formidable edifice is foreboding, and yet highly visible. It can be seen from I-95, firing many a youthful imagination and ensuring that well-placed graffiti will be seen by thousands. Around the 1980s, the age of heavy metal and moral panics about satanic cults, the building gained a reputation as a haven of diabolical activity, increasing its legend-tripping cachet and earning it the nickname "The Devil's School."

Legend-trips begin with an "introduction", where trippers recount legends about the destination. The "Devil's School" is reputed to be haunted, and has accumulated several outrageous legends accounting for this. Common variants tell of schoolchildren killed by a boiler explosion; by a psychotic janitor; or, most absurdly, by a cannibal principal who devoured students sent to the office. As with most tripping situations, the stories have no basis in reality and vary from telling to telling; their true function is to set the appropriate mood for a trip into the tenebrous unknown.

Next comes the "enactment", or what actually happens on the trip. This may involve "sensing" the resident spirits or performing some designated activity. As nearly any photo of the building shows, enactment at the Devil's School often involves graffiti tagging. Finally, departing trippers craft "retrospective personal narratives" about their experience to include next time around.

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