There is something about abandoned buildings that sets people on edge, and they always seem to have ghost stories of all sorts. In this case, I am referring to Pine Haven Elementary in Jamestown, TN. In a small city outside Athens, TN sits Jamestown. While the town is known for its beautiful scenery, the abandoned elementary school is known for murder and deception.

There are multiple versions of the story, most of them agree on the bare minimum; a boy was accidentally murdered in the bathroom and hidden under the floorboards. Not the most family-appropriate story to tell, but an interesting one all the same.

Allen Sircy, author of “Southern Ghost Stories: Franklin, Tennessee” authored an article for the website “Southern Ghost Stories” about the legend. In his deviation of the story, the victim actually died after his body was hidden, “from exposure after being trapped under the building all night.” (Sircy, Southern Ghost Stories, Feb 5, 2022)

Ghost City Tours’ Instagram post about it claims there were multiple boys. There are TikTok videos of people exploring the space, which should never be done since it is not only dangerous but trespassing. The only reason it is being mentioned is because of the unique insight it gives to what the space looks like today. There is nothing to hint that something could have happened, but the articles about it all agree on one thing.

Still image from video taken at Pine Haven School. (Contributed/Tennessee Decay Youtube)



If you go into the bathroom and look into the mirror, you’ll see a boy standing behind you.

Interestingly enough, a podcast by the name of “Haint n Holler” did an investigation into the story back in 2021, stating, “No one I spoke to within town authority would discuss the legend of the Pine Haven Bullied Boy with me at all. Such a stain on a quaint bit of rural Tennessee is unseemly, after all.” (“D”, Haint N Holler, 2021)

For most towns, especially the small ones, they take pride in their local legends, gory or not (ETSU’s plethora of ghosts being a great example) so one wonders if there is more to the story.

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