St Joseph's Orphan Asylum

This place is truly not talked about enough for how dark of history it has.
The asylum was said to have been built between the dates of 1879 to 1883. The place was in operation from the years 1854 to 1974 and housed more than 13,000 children. Although it was a roof over their head, this place felt anything but like home. This wasn't a sanctuary for the children, but rather, the opposite. It was an actual living, real life hell for them. The children who resided there had been subjected to unfathomable treatment. Dehumanizing experiences that would haunt them for years, years of physical and emotional abuse. The nuns would dangle the children over wells, force them to eat their own vomit and would be locked in rooms for days on end without food, a necessity we all need in order to live. They would be punished for something as small as not fully finishing a meal.
Even now, as survivors are now older, they are still haunted by the past they can’t seem to ever escape from. The memories of the abuse have stayed with them and they have struggled with relationships because of the tremendous amount of trauma they’ve endured at the St Joseph’s Orphan Asylum.

This historical incident was a huge case in the court room. The victims have spoken up and have demanded from the court, urging the legislature to eliminate the statute of limitations for civil claims of childhood physical abuse. An investigation in 2020 confirmed that there was abuse that occurred, no charges were pressed since they stated that, “the claims were too old.” Instead, they attempted to compensate for it by making an effort to help former residents get restorative justice from religious and government leaders. Four years later from the effort, the St Joseph's Orphanage Restorative Justice inquiry released a report that asked the responsible and guilty parties to release personal records and to adopt practices that ensures that these harmful actions never happen again.
Victims also lobbied in 2021 for Vermont to eliminate a law that put time limits on filing civil lawsuits alleging childhood physical abuse. With an effort to make the institutions to make things right, they refused to meet with the former victims of St Joseph’s Orphanage. They’re reasoning was, “We see no need for further inquiry.” the temporary Head of the Diocese stated. As disappointing as this was, this allowed the victims to still get their side of the story out and for their voices to be heard. There was a memorial held in January 2023 to honor the former residents.

As expected, as any place that has as much history as this one, it is most definitely haunted. I have been to this place myself. I had a paranormal experience that still haunts me until this day.
I was walking outside, it was a cold winter night. The night was silent, no one in sight and all I could see was my breath from how cold it was outside. I heard a little girl call to me saying, “Hello!” I turned around to see that no one was there. It was dead silent, 9pm on a Monday. I heard the little girl as clear as day. Chills went down my spine after I realized there was no little girl behind me, in fact, no one in sight. I didn't even see any children peeking from the windows. There was only radio silence.