Anna Knapp’s Halloween tour of horrifying horror, part three: Dent Schoolhouse

By Anna Knapp, RealWV

When spooky season comes around and I start researching haunted attractions to visit, I will always put one attraction on the list that is further away. This year, I visited The Dent Schoolhouse in Cincinnati, OH! Cincinnati is only about 2 hours away from Huntington, so my boyfriend, my mom, and I made a day trip out of it.

After traveling the most boring highway I have ever been on, we finally made it to Cincinnati! We did a little sightseeing downtown, ate a late lunch, and then we went to visit family friends who live in Cincinnati for a little bit before heading to Dent Schoolhouse.

This attraction is one I have wanted to visit for a very long time, and I was giddy with excitement finally getting the chance to walk through it. Dent Schoolhouse is not only haunted by scare actors, but it is also haunted by real spirits. Legends say in the 1940s and ’50s, kids started to disappear, resulting in the local folks storming the school and finding the children’s remains in barrels in the basement. The janitor, Charlie McFree, was the number one suspect, as the kids did not start disappearing until after he started working at the school. When the locals stormed the school, Charlie was able to escape and was never seen again, resulting in a cold case.

This attraction is just right off the road, located on the north side of Cincinnati. They offer free parking down the street from the haunted house and paid parking a little closer to the Schoolhouse. Once we parked, we made the short walk to the entrance, where we met security to walk through metal detectors. Once inside, we were greeted by Pumpkin Smasher and Zobo in the queue line. One of my many favorite things about this attraction is that they open an hour earlier on Saturday, so we got into the attraction at 6:30 and probably were the 10th group to walk through the Schoolhouse. Once the witch at the front of the line scanned our tickets, we walked into a beautiful second queue line. This line was made up of carnival-like booths with different Halloween animatronics and a whole wall of differently carved pumpkins. The attention to detail in the queue line made me even more excited to see what was going to be inside the Schoolhouse.

Before walking into Dent Schoolhouse, we met a very friendly clown in the carnival area who let us through a gate to meet a very “drunk” school bus driver at the front of the Schoolhouse. We were given the rules: no touching the props or the actors, no pictures/videos, and no running. I knew from the moment we walked into this haunted attraction that I was in for a wild ride. The Dent Schoolhouse is a 30–35 minute attraction that will have you jumping at every corner. The set designs were beyond amazing, the atmosphere was like no other, and the actors were top-notch! The scares in this haunted attraction were amazing, and the whole time I kept saying “WOW” because there was no denying the hard work that has been put into this haunted house. As we made our way through, we ended up in the basement to meet Janitor Charlie and hopefully escape his attacks. Luckily, we were able to get away, and we made our way outside, where we met some clowns and went through a bubble tunnel that left me with a pair of bubble pants afterward.

I don’t want to give too much away, but if you are visiting this attraction, I would recommend keeping your eyes up and keeping an eye on those mattresses as you walk by.

The Dent Schoolhouse is a 10/10, and it is definitely worth the drive to Cincinnati during the spooky season. They have all you could ask for to put you in the Halloween spirit. I cannot wait to go back next year!