In the middle of October, 2006, the Grade Seven students at Brewer Middle School took a field trip to a building that they had seen from a distance for most of their lives, but had never visited up close. The tour guides were various city officials and the future developers of the old paper mill. It was raining quite hard and the students were poorly equipped with flashlight, which added to the overall effect of the visit. What follows are the essays, as written, by roughly half of the students. The essays are presented as written by the students, hoping to preserve their turns of phrase, their usages and their idiosyncrasies as writers.

Maggie Sullivan
When I first got off the bus I looked at the place. As I walked in, a cold chill went through me. I could tell there was something there. I felt bad for the place it was slowly falling apart with paint peeling off the walls, the holes in the ceiling with water dripping through, the broken glass sitting on the floor, the tools, rusty and old. Although, you could tell there was a lot of work in putting this place together.

This place was something amazing, but now left alone with nothing. The place reminded me of something that could be in a scary movie. Creepy but interesting in its own way. Although it felt like someone was watching you. All my friends were creeped out. And so was I. I'm not the type of person who gets scared easy but just being in there knowing this place is real and not just in a movie makes everything a bit more frightening then usual.

I didn't feel like I was in the little town of Brewer anymore. It felt like I left and went into an old dark and dreary place. I can still remember everything about it.

Finally we found our way out of the mill into the light of a rainy October day and headed onto the bus back to school as I thought to myself '' I never want to go there again''. But then again I think it would be interesting on Halloween night with a bunch of my friends. Anyways I strongly hope this place turns into something great with all its original character it really deserves it.

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