Crushed by Bleachers: The Haunting of the Old Portland High School

Many Michigan high schools have their own unique ghost stories, with ghostly janitors, teachers, and even students still walking the halls. And this is one of them.

At one time, the old 1881 high school in the Ionia County town of Portland seemed to be a site that contained some paranormal activity. The legend says a fourteen-year-old female student was crushed when the gym bleachers collapsed on her. Instantly, the blame was cast upon Henry the janitor, as he had been told to fix the faulty bleachers and had not gotten around to it yet.

The reason could be the school didn’t yet acquire the implements he needed, or they had him on some other ‘errands of mercy’, but it didn’t matter. He got the blame. Not long afterward, the janitor disappeared and was never found. The rumor spread through town that the girl’s father did away with him; wanting to hide the body and any evidence, he set the school on fire. This is why some long-time residents believe the school burned down in 1918.

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It was re-built in 1919 and re-opened in 1920. Ever since the re-building, the girl’s apparition is said to roam the school hallways, and the spirit of the janitor remains as well.

For 16 years from 1992 - 2008, the old school was called Old School Manor and used for housing. A change in business did not deter any ghosts, however. Tenants of the Manor reported household items being stacked, food taken out of the refrigerator and placed in other rooms, slamming doors, disembodied voices, scratching sounds, and more of the usual weird unexplainable stuff.

People said they could hear the old school bells at any given time...but they had been disabled long ago.

A young girl’s image has been seen, dainty footsteps were heard, and some say they have been slapped on the back. The spirit of the janitor has been known to cause trouble; he would put messages on a female tenant’s computer, stating that her husband was messin’ around with one of the other female tenants.

According to an article on californiapsychics.com, a woman stated “He started to terrorize my 2-year-old granddaughter one day. When my daughter found her in a corner she asked her what was wrong, and why was she holding her hands over her face? She said ‘Henry wants us to move. He said this is his house.’ This was not the only communication that Henry (the janitor) had with this child. He would follow her everywhere in the apartment, and once she said to her Mother, ‘Wait! Wait! You just shut Henry in your room! Open the door! Quick, he gets mad!’”

The Manor was eventually shut down, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016, and re-opened in 2018 as Portland School Apartments.

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