The Pike House
This location is not to be confused with McPike Mansion. Located on Belvin St. in San Marcos, Texas, Pike House started out as part of The Cornwell Institute, a Methodist school, in 1903. The school closed sometime time later and became Old Soldier and Sailors Memorial Hospital. When a new hospital opened down the road in 1956, the house converted in to a dormitory for the San Marcos Baptist Academy. It received it's now famous name when it was acquired by Pi Kappa Alpha in 1968 and turned in to a fraternity house for 40 years. In 1998, it was bought by developer Terry Gilmore with the intentions of being converted in to a private residence. Unfortunately, Pike House will never serve a purpose anymore.
In 2007, Nicholas Ryan (25) and a 15-year-old male for undisclosed reasons committed an act of arson, burning the house to ruins. What was left of Pike house was later demolished. Where a grand mansion once stood now occupies an empty lot. This one act may add to the other legends which swirled around it.
One in particular is most known. During the pledge process, some pledges were killed. The fraternity brothers had the remaining initiatives write down the events of that night in the pledge book. The book was then burned and nailed to the wall. Blood smears, Polaroids and police tape were left as monuments of the tragedy when the building was abandoned. Other tales state the building was a hospital for Civil War soldier and later an insane asylum ran by a doctor who performed strange experiments on the patients. There's even one detailing its previous encounter with fire and the children who died as a result of it. Is any of it true? Who knows. Maybe some of it holds a degree of honesty.
Ghosts were believed to roam the layout of Pike House. Now, they have open space to explore.
The house was a hot spot for urban explorers. Urban Exploration Resource site has several photos of Pike house before and after the fire if you would like to see it in its former glory: http://www.uer.ca/locations/show.asp?locid=24506.
In 2007, Nicholas Ryan (25) and a 15-year-old male for undisclosed reasons committed an act of arson, burning the house to ruins. What was left of Pike house was later demolished. Where a grand mansion once stood now occupies an empty lot. This one act may add to the other legends which swirled around it.
One in particular is most known. During the pledge process, some pledges were killed. The fraternity brothers had the remaining initiatives write down the events of that night in the pledge book. The book was then burned and nailed to the wall. Blood smears, Polaroids and police tape were left as monuments of the tragedy when the building was abandoned. Other tales state the building was a hospital for Civil War soldier and later an insane asylum ran by a doctor who performed strange experiments on the patients. There's even one detailing its previous encounter with fire and the children who died as a result of it. Is any of it true? Who knows. Maybe some of it holds a degree of honesty.
Ghosts were believed to roam the layout of Pike House. Now, they have open space to explore.
The house was a hot spot for urban explorers. Urban Exploration Resource site has several photos of Pike house before and after the fire if you would like to see it in its former glory: http://www.uer.ca/locations/show.asp?locid=24506.
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