Creepy College

By Mark McConville

LOOK inside this abandoned college where specimens and skeletons of long dead animals have been left behind by disillusioned teaching staff.

Eerie images and video show the forgotten science labs where the creepy remains have been left in jars and boxes.

Other haunting shots show a common area with tables strewn across the floor, a fancy function room and a huge empty auditorium with rows upon rows of seats still intact.

The spooky pictures and footage were taken by urban explorers The Proper People at Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee.

“It’s amazing how an entire college campus could just become abandoned,” said group member Michael.

“While at the campus we explored several buildings, including their centre for performing arts, a dormitory, the student centre, and the science building.

“The science building was by far the most interesting and we could have stayed in there for hours. There were physics, chemistry, and biology classrooms all filled with equipment.

“The science building actually had to be seized from the school by the EPA several years ago, to perform a clean-up because it was found that they were improperly storing chemicals and radioactive materials within the building.”

The educational facility was a historically black liberal arts college founded in 1875 by the United Presbyterian Church of North America.

It has been closed since May 2015 when it initially suspended classes until Autumn 2016 after an enrolment of only fifteen students.

In truth, the school’s problems had begun long before that. It began to struggle financially in the 1970s before it had its accreditation withdrawn in 1997.

Enrolment plummeted and most degree programs were discontinued and campus buildings closed and abandoned. The Stewart Science Hall, where most of the footage was shot, has ongoing contamination issues.
“The main downfall of the college though was the lack of enrolment however,” said Michael.

“It was an HBCU, and these are seeing a decline across the country. Knoxville College is likely just the first of many that will end up abandoned.

“I love photographing abandoned buildings because there is just so much that I find visually stimulating within them. They also inherently tell a story, or part of a story, and therefore grab people’s imaginations.”