Status: Abandoned/partially demolished

When I first found this GREAT abandoned junior seminary, there wasn’t much I could write about it because I was unaware of its history. The Salesian School remained on my site for a couple of weeks and people started to contact me and give me all the information I could possibly need to do a writeup. I’m very grateful for this because if not for them, I’d still know nothing about this forgotten school that I’ve fallen in love with.

After doing some research and communicating with people, I found out that the land was bought by the Salesian fathers in 1925. The Victorian mansion had already been built in 1905 by Grant Hugh Brown who called his estate “Brownleigh Park”. He also constructed the water tower and bridle paths which are also existing to this day. He was extremely interested in boxing at Madison Square Garden, so he built an arena to hold boxing matches. It burned down in 1938. Eventually Brown lost the estate and before it was bought by the Salesian fathers, it was a rehabilitation center for soldiers and the ownership changed hands a couple of times. The fathers constructed the school in 1931 and it was used as a grammar school for boys, a junior seminary, and a summer camp for many years until 1985 when it closed its doors due to lack of enrollment. There were a few failed attempts by companies and the town itself to buy the land, and the structures stand decaying today.

I became aware of this place a few years ago because I’ve passed through the town of Goshen, NY many times and the lonely looking, rapidly deteriorating buildings of this once religious boys’ school seemed to call my name from behind the rusted gates and wild overgrowth. Unfortunately, I never quite had the nerve to explore it on my own. That’s why when some friends and I went on a New York state trip, the Salesian School remained in the back of my mind.

I’m not quite sure what the lure is of this place or why I’m so drawn to it, but I often find myself intrigued with abandoned and forgotten religious sites. I have to say, it was everything I hoped it would be. There was much to see inside the main school building, and the grounds were spectacular. It had everything from monuments to a tower to a grotto to a priest cemetery. It was a shame we were losing daylight or we would have strolled around the overgrown paths to see what else it had to offer.

Another downside of this place was that the gorgeous Victorian mansion at the forefront of the grounds was so badly decayed that the concrete wall on one side of it was cracked in half and buckled and a bathroom on the second floor had fallen completely through to the bottom floor. All of us in our group decided it would be best if we didn’t risk our lives just to see what was inside, for it would have been VERY unsafe. Besides, passers by could plainly see us from the main road making getting caught too easy.

I’ve made a few return trips to the Salesian School, including one with my friend Dave who is a film student and was eager to shoot there. While we were there, we discovered some things I hadn’t seen before, like the staircase to the basement and a chapel. In my opinion, the chapel was the most interesting part and I have no idea how we could have possibly missed it the first time. Unfortunately, the chapel was stripped of most of the typical fixtures including the pews and most of the paintings on the walls and ceilings. It didn’t matter, though–it maintained a very creepy feel to it. Even creepier was the way my pictures of it turned out. It seems we weren’t alone in the chapel that night, and believe me, it makes me shudder to think about it. You’ll have to see the “ghostly images” and judge for yourself.

Check out the forgotten cemetery on the Salesian School grounds…

USEFUL SALESIAN SCHOOL LINKS

When I first looked on the internet for history behind the Salesian School, also known as the Salesian Junior Seminary, to find out when it closed, every search engine I used came up with nearly nothing. However, this story does end with a somewhat strange twist. When I typed the keywords “salesian school goshen ny” into Google, it only came up with a site containing this picture of a priest and students from the Salesian School in the summer of 1955 in front of the Italian ocean liner, the Andrea Doria–the very same ship my father would survive the capsize of a year later. Odd.

And on a more amusing note, I learned that this seminary does have one very famous alumni, even though he only went there for a short period of time. The one and only George Carlin. Read the interview.

After doing a lot more searching, I found a couple of sites pertaining to the history of the Salesian School and its alumni. If you’re interested, check out this article. I also found this page by an alumni of the school, which contains class pictures and pictures of it when it was in operation.

I received an email from Richard P. Cunningham in which he sent me this article. The article takes a while to load, so please be patient. It seems there was an unsolved murder at the Salesian School, which I was completely unaware of. A little boy was allegedly pushed from the roof in 1964 and new questions are being raised about his death. Chilling…

- Ember, 2003