The 10 Creepiest Buildings In Texas Said To Be Haunted By Black-Eyed Children

It turns out that abandoned buildings are perfect for spooky spirits to inhabit.

Elana

• Published in Weird
• July 2, 2020

Texas is a south-western state in the United States ripe with history, both good and bad. The whole state is over a quarter million square miles and is home to over 29 million residents so the fact that there are multiple creepy, abandoned buildings is not entirely surprising because there's certainly plenty of space for spooky shenanigans.

While Texas's history is hundreds of years old (and there's plenty of Indigenous history beyond that, too) the legend of Black-Eyed Children is only as old as the 1980's (and even that is debated.) Either way, could there be much in Texas that gives more spooky chills than pale-skinned, black-eyed children haunting abandoned buildings?

1. The Rig Theatre – Premont, TX

The Rig Theatre was only open for a mere 30 years from 1950 to 1980 and it has stayed abandoned and creepy ever since. The nostalgic appearance of the old building can really draw the attention of young theatre fanatics... that is until someone encountered a black-eyed child not long ago.

A girl broke off from the teens she was exploring the building with when she approached what appeared to be a young boy. He lifted his head only to reveal black eyes and smiled as he telepathically said hello, which naturally encouraged the teens to quickly vacate the building.

2. Baker Hotel – Mineral Wells, TX

The once highly successful luxury hotel, Baker Hotel, was a booming business for Mineral Wells, Texas in the 1930's and 1940's... until disaster clung to the building and all who were intertwined with the business after a decade long decline into despair. Multiple attempts to revive the business were met with no success and even coincided the death of the original owner.

Today the building is a marked historical building but that didn't stop local neighbors from hiring a psychic to investigate because of claims that when it rains, black-eyed children run wild in the streets surrounding the old hotel. Local inhabitants claim that when approached by the black-eyed children they completely lose their minds, so everyone stays back.

3. El Paso Tin Mine – El Paso, TX

In the early 1900's the only place in the entire United States where tin could be mined was at the El Paso Tin Mine in El Paso, Texas. It did not take long for miners to extract all of the tin and the mine has been abandoned since 1915.

Not long ago, folks wandered the mines only to encounter a black-eyed girl who followed them around, screaming the names of their family members. The group decided not to stick around, claiming she was a distraction but she sounds awfully creepy.

4. Emhouse School – Corsicana, TX

This school was shut down in the 1950's and for years nobody wanted to visit it after a group of local teenagers broke in to explore only to find black-eyed children sitting at desks inside. Reportedly, after the incident occurred the trespassing teens were reported by their parents to behave as though they were "possessed by demons," hiding in their dark rooms, eating insects.

The building has been known in many cases for paranormal activity and even after being rebuilt into a castle it caught fire in 2020.

5. Toyah High School – Toyah, TX

The entire town of Toyah, TX has been abandoned, not just the high school. The town's population peaked all the way back in 1910 and today the completely empty town credits the black-eyed children with it's complete erasure of residents.

The local legends say that the children would wander the streets at night and peek into people's homes through their windows then returned to the high school where they gathered.

6. Jackson Square Apartments – Amarillo, TX

The Jackson Square Apartments were build in 1926 as the Palo Duro Apartments and saw far too many crimes and murders in it's prime time before becoming a haunted hub of spooky stories. One such local urban legend is the presence of black-eyed children who leave the apartments to knock on neighbors' doors, wanting to come in.

One of the eeriest stores of the local black-eyed children came from a cleaner who claimed he saw a black-eyed boy eating a dead raccoon.

7. The Hotel Ozona – Ozona, TX

According to theabandonedsouth: "Hotel Ozona was built in the early 1920s in a small Texas town. Many believe the hotel was abandoned during the 1940s or 1950s, but there are no records to prove this."

Local residents have made claims of black-eyed children sightings and a photographer who visited once went insane after visiting the abandoned building alone.

8. Abandoned Asylum – San Antonio, TX

The asylum in San Antonio, Texas has been abandoned for decades and is owned by the county today. A local boy who went missing was believed to be murdered by his aunt, but she claims she saw the boy drug under a bed by a black-eyed girl.

While everyone in San Antonio believed her to be crazy, the boy's family actually believed her. They claimed they'd also seen black-eyed children terrorizing the area and family and they believe that the sightings and abduction are actually what made her go insane.

9. Walnut Ridge Mansion – Gonzales, TX

Texas architect James Miller is responsible for this once elegant mansion, built in 1901. While no one seems to know precisely why the mansion was abandoned, it is heavily believed in the area that the current residents are two black-eyed sibling children.

Rumor has it that the two children wander the nearby neighborhoods knocking on people's doors and climbing their roofs to scratch at the shingles. After one resident was visited by the eerie mischief makers she hired a Medium who told her that the children "might be the spirits of friends and family caught in between heaven and hell."

10. The Cistern – Houston, TX

Once a water reservoir for locals to drink from, the Cistern has long-since been abandoned because the water became contaminated. Not many people visit the Cistern but ten years ago a leak was reported and as the local legend goes, an environmental officer called HQ and claimed to have seen a black-eyed girl walking around and he never returned home.

At one point, the city planned to demolish it since the leak was irreparable but it has since become a quiet tourist attraction. According to atlasobscura.com, "the thick concrete sidewalls creates an absorbingly silent atmosphere while also boasting a 17-second echo (although loud noises are prohibited)."

Elana