A few weeks ago, Senior Editor Harley Rustad sent me a real estate listing over Slack. No note. No context. Just the link. This was odd—Harley, as far as I knew, didn’t moonlight as a realtor. Of course, I clicked.

On 157 acres of Niagara farmland, twenty-five minutes from Hamilton, sat a 57,650-square-foot compound: a “grand foyer,” a commercial kitchen, a gym with a rock-climbing wall and boxing ring, a library, a science lab, a soccer field. Marketed for “educational use, a corporate retreat, or repurposing,” it carried a $9.4 million price tag and the promise of “outstanding potential.”

But the photos told another story: dorms, hallways, a mess hall—all deserted. The place felt frozen, as if everyone had fled at once. It didn’t look like something to buy. It looked like the site of something gone terribly wrong.

And then it hit me. This was Robert Land Academy. Once a “tough love”........

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