getty
getty
loading...

It's the Old City Orphanage in Marquette, formerly known as the Holy Family (sometimes called the Holy Cross) Orphanage.

It sounds like a plot for a horror movie...but former occupants - now grown up - claim the nuns were mentally and physically abusive to the children, administering cruel and extreme punishments.

One such tale recounts the story of one of the little girls who went outside to play during a fierce northern blizzard. Because she stayed out too long, and maybe wasn't bundled up properly & warm enough, the little girl caught pneumonia and died. As a lesson and warning to the other orphans, the nuns put the dead girls' body on display for them all to see - much to their shock and horror.

Built in 1915 and abandoned sometime around 1965, it stands deserted in Marquette as an eerie, gothic structure...a reminder of the cruel goings-on that took place within all those years ago.

It is said that on a quiet night, you can hear the moans and crying of the lost souls of the children who are now gone...

More From 99.1 WFMK