Jericho Trinity Church and School
This old church hasn’t greeted parishioners in years, but there may still be holy spirits lingering
Paranormal Activity at
Jericho Haunted Trinity
- Heavy footsteps are heard in the church
- Disembodied voices and ITC responses have been noted in the church bell tower
- Motion detectors have been trigged by unseen forces in the school’s basement
- Footsteps are heard in the attic of the convent house
- Disembodied singing can be heard in the school
- Motion detectors have been triggered around the church altar
- EMF anomalies have been encountered throughout the complex
- Strange lights have been seen throughout the property
History of Jericho Trinity Church and School
On the eastern side of Wisconsin’s large Lake Winnebago, you won’t find many tall buildings. The area is dotted with small villages and hamlets, simple communities of a few homes and maybe a gas station.
But while this region isn’t a place for skyscrapers, many of these little towns do have one thing shaping their skyline: a church steeple. And the tiny town of Jericho, Wisconsin, is no exception.
The looming form of the town’s Holy Trinity Catholic Church stands tall over the town. Though it has been dormant for decades now, the old Jericho Trinity Church complex remains the center of local activity.
Since its closure, ghost stories have proliferated around the church and its nearby convent and school. Today, these tales have turned Trinity into a hotbed of paranormal claims and a budding destination for ghost hunters in the region.
Timeline of Jericho Trinity Church and School's History
Swipe or use timeline points to see Jericho Trinity Church and School through the years
1871
In the 1800s, the area to the east of Lake Winnebago became known as The Holyland. From the 1840s on, German Catholics settled in the region, building close communities centered around their faith. Along with Jericho, little towns like Marytown, Johnsburg, and St. Anna sprouted up, each with biblical names and roots. And in each town came a church.
In Jericho, the first Holy Trinity Catholic Church was built in 1871. The wood-frame church soon filled up with German families. And it wasn’t long before they outgrew the first building.
1881
In 1881, a larger church on the same property replaced Jericho’s smaller church, which became the local Catholic school. For the rest of the century and into the 1900s, the larger wood church served the Catholics of Jericho well. The late 1890s even brought the addition of a convent house and formal school building to the growing complex.
The flourishing congregation of German Catholics believed they had a long and bright future at their little countryside church. But, by the 1910s, disaster was on the horizon.
1914
One day in 1914, an agricultural fire outside of Jericho blew sparks through town. A few landed on the church’s roof, and in no time, Trinity was up in flames. The church was a total loss, but the community vowed to rebuild it. A more fireproof brick church opened in 1915, the church still seen today.
In the years that followed the fire, the complex continued to modernize. The church built a four-room brick school in 1930, replacing the aging 1890s school. For six more decades, Jericho’s church hummed along, spreading faith through the region.
2005
Though it underwent renovations in the 1960s, Jericho’s Trinity Church was showing its age by the 1990s. In the 2000s, facing a lack of priests, the local parish closed numerous churches in the old ‘Holyland’, Trinity being one of them. The church closed in 2005, with the convent and school having been dormant for years by then.
In the following years, locals and interested explorers began reporting odd, ghostly things around the church. More recently, the tales have attracted ghost hunters and turned the complex into a paranormal hotspot.
Who Haunts Jericho Haunted Trinity?
Since opening up to ghost hunters, Jericho’s old Holy Trinity Catholic Church has taken on the name ‘Jericho Haunted Trinity.’ Not only was the abandoned complex once known as Trinity Church, it is also comprised of three supposedly haunted buildings.
Based on stories from visiting ghost hunters, it doesn’t seem like one of the buildings is any more haunted than the others. The school, convent, and church together serve as a true trinity of paranormal activity. But just what sorts of haunted happenings take place around the property?
Spirits in the Sanctuary
The old church building itself, along with being the biggest structure in town, is said to be home to numerous spirits and paranormal claims. One of the more common claims around the main floors is the sound of loud footsteps echoing through the sanctuary and basement.
Witnesses suggest the footsteps are coming from boots or some other type of heavy, clunky footwear. Perhaps a product of the church’s ghostly footsteps, motion sensors are said to be tripped by unseen forces throughout the church. While the activity is spread throughout the building, it is noted as especially common around the church altar, with motion detectors going off even with no one in the main sanctuary.
Voices From Beyond the Grave
While the specters in the church may best be identified by their heavy footfalls, visiting ghost hunters have also reported disembodied voices in the building.
Particularly around the bell tower, potential EVPs as well as ITC responses through Spirit Boxes and Ovilus devices have been recorded by investigators. Jericho’s old church is also home to ghostly lights that suddenly appear and disappear during the night. Most of these ghostly lights are noted as plain white, but in at least one instance, strange red lights have been spotted around the church building.
Jericho’s Creepy Convent
Once home to nuns and church staff, the former convent house of Jericho Haunted Trinity is now home to ghost hunters.
The house is in the process of being refitted into a lodging space for visiting paranormal explorers, complete with a few bunk rooms. Though the house is meant to be a base of operations, it has its share of unexplained activity.
Phantom footsteps are a regular report at the convent, mostly from the attic. While these footsteps are purportedly a bit lighter than those heard in the church, they can still be heavy enough to hear from the second floor.
The attic is often the focus of many ghost hunts in the convent, as disembodied voices and unexplainable EMF spikes have also been noted up there.
Specters in the Schoolhouse
At the far end of the property sits Jericho Haunted Trinity’s decommissioned schoolhouse, the third den of hauntings on the property. In the center of the school’s top floor, visitors have reported the sound of distant, ghostly singing.
Interestingly, witnesses suggest the school isn’t home to just one phantom singer, but rather a whole choir of them. The choir-like singing isn’t known to happen often, but other voices can be heard there too.
The school’s basement is also a noted paranormal hotspot. Like the church altar, the school basement is said to be an area where motion sensors will be triggered by unseen entities.
Could these motion sensors be capturing the movements of ghostly school workers, or maybe the spirits of curious students straying from their classrooms?
Jericho Haunted Trinity’s
Ghostly Future
Following almost two decades of emptiness, Jericho’s old church complex has a long road to restoration and stability ahead of it. Currently managed by a regional ghost hunting group, Warhorse Paranormal, the property has seen a flourish of recent development.
The convent house is currently undergoing refurbishment into a visitors’ bunk house. But beyond that, work to preserve and stabilize the school and church is ongoing as well.
All of the progress is driven by the property’s renewed identity as Jericho Haunted Trinity, supported by revenue generated from ghost hunts and paranormal tours. Booking a ghost hunt at Jericho Haunted Trinity is as easy as reaching out to the property’s Facebook page, Jericho Haunted Trinity, to check availability and rates.
As the complex continues to be redeveloped with ghost hunters in mind, it may well become Wisconsin’s next in-demand haunted hotspot. Perhaps, with time, Jericho Haunted Trinity will rebrand Wisconsin’s old ‘Holyland’ as the state’s new ‘Hauntedland.’
