An Exclusive Look Inside the Abandoned Maine School With a Shocking Past

Maine is a state of unprecedented beauty, warm people, and cool small towns.

However, there is a darker side to the state.  A side that is often hidden away.

If you dig deeper into the state’s history, you will find dozens of stories that will either chill your spine or make you sick to your stomach — sometimes both.

For many, the history of the Elan School is one of those stories.

The Elan One School

According to the Dark Downeast podcast, the school for troubled teens was started by Joe Ricci and Dr. Gerald Davidson.

The two were definitely a mismatched pair.  Davidson was a child psychologist working at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, while Ricci was a charming leader and recovering addict with a sordid past.

Despite the differences in their backgrounds, these two saw eye-to-eye and found they had a shared vision.

In 1970, they opened the Elan school in Poland, Maine.  The school, billed as a last resort for troubled teens, operated until 2011.  Over the years, many stories emerged of how some of the students were treated.  There were even allegations that many of the students were abused.

Despite investigations into these allegations, the school continued to operate until 2011, when it closed because it was deemed no longer economically viable.

You can learn more about the history of the school from the Dark Downeast podcast and from the documentary The Last Stop, which you can watch on Amazon Prime.

A few years ago, urban explorers from the J&M Explorations YouTube channel spent several hours exploring the abandoned school.

***WARNING - Never enter an abandoned building or home.    Not only is it illegal, it can also be dangerous***

Were you a student at the school?  Feel free to share your experience with us by sending a message inside our app.