Madison Elementary was a school in New Carlisle, Ohio, USA which was built in 1919 and was closed in 2001. Students were moved to other schools in the area and the building was sold by the school board. It was bought by a local youth service and was re-established as a youth centre for a number of years. In the four years as a youth centre, it saw hundreds of local young people use the facility and gave a number of local youth groups a location from which to base their efforts.

In 2005, however, the former Madison Elementary was closed for good and left abandoned. A variety of plans were muted for redevelopment ranging from residential to recreational however nothing significant happened on that front and it continued to lie derelict. Converting the building for government offices and a community center was estimated to cost between $3.2 and $5 million. The New Carlisle City Council put the building up for sales in the hope that a developer would purchase it however none was forthcoming, even when the price of the property was lowered to $50,000 in 2014.

Madison Elementary has seen quite a lot of vandalism in recent years. In 2014, an arsonist spray-painted a circle and wrote “boom” on the roof of the school before lighting a fire that burned through the concrete sub-roof of the building. With costs of repairs estimated at $320,000, the city decided to demolish the school. They received a Community Development Block Grant from the State of Ohio which will be used for the demolition.

The school became a favourite amongst urban explorers in the Ohio area and beyond with frequent reports of trespassing by local police however they seldom took the matter further. Anti-social behaviour surrounding the former school was dealt with much more harshly. The YouTube videos below are from 2010 when a local urbex group in Ohio visited the former school and comes with the following description:

My grandfather offered to let me and my friend explore this abandoned school. Of course I couldn’t decline that offer. The school is called Madison Elementary, built in 1919 and is located in the small town of New Carlisle, Ohio. It was an interesting trip for my dad because he attended school here. The place was pretty much stripped but was still interesting and my dad was able to find some of his old classrooms.

Location: New Carlisle, Ohio, USA

Abandoned: 2005