One last set of ten old gyms as they appeared in Sanborn Maps

Ted Shideler 2 Comments
Read time: 7 min.

Growing up in the heart of Hoosier Hysteria, it was probably inevitable that I’d fall for basketball. What I didn’t expect was how deeply I’d get hooked on the places it was played. Long after the final buzzer, I’m still thinking about balconies, locker rooms, and oddly shaped floors. Recently, I’ve been digging through old Sanborn Maps to trace how high school gyms were first built, how they evolved, and what those changes say about the communities that packed them. Here’s a little more of what turned up.

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Ayr-Way East in Indy

Ted Shideler 10 Comments
Read time: 6 min.

After a recent trip to the moribund Washington Square Mall in Indianapolis, I found myself fixated on the modern Target out front. More specifically, I wondered about what had come before it. Fortunately, I had reason to head back soon after and took the time to look a little closer. An old Target practically stared me in the face! Its oversized, boxy entrance was a dead giveaway that it started life as Ayr-Way.

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I clinched Muncie’s Thunderbolt trifecta with unfortunate results

Ted Shideler 4 Comments
Read time: 4 min.

Most of Muncie’s outdoor warning sirens are bland, modern Federal Signal 2001-SRNs. Three, however, are different: they’re yellow Federal Signal Thunderbolts that date back to 1958. I’ve finally tracked all of them down, but the last example -perched at the old Riley Elementary School- has fallen silent. Its Cold War voice is broken. 

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Anderson’s empty State Theater

Ted Shideler 7 Comments
Read time: 6 min.

The old State Theater is a gem. In almost any small, midwestern city aside from Anderson, Indiana, it likely would have already been reborn! Instead, it sits in the long shadow of the Paramount just to the north, an astounding atmospheric palace that was fully restored three decades ago. Even so, the State’s story and significance are no less vital.

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Rees: a pioneer cemetery in Delaware County

Ted Shideler 3 Comments
Read time: 6 min.

Of all of Delaware County’s pioneer burial grounds, few carry the weight of history quite like Rees Cemetery along the old Muncie–Richmond Road. At first glance, it’s easy to pass by without a second thought. Look closer, though, and the ground tells a deeper story: nearly two centuries of early settlement, loss, and survival are bound up in this modest acre. That makes Rees Cemetery not just one of the county’s oldest burial grounds, but one of its most revealing windows into the lives and deaths that shaped Delaware County from its earliest days.

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Muncie’s former Garfield School

Ted Shideler 2 Comments
Read time: 6 min.

As a post-industrial city sitting squarely in the center of the Rust Belt, Muncie was once home to a fantastic variety of smokestacks. Many no longer exist as the factories have been demolished, but one of the best that remains sits behind the old Garfield Elementary. Some version of the school has been a landmark for more than a century! Fortunately, it’ll soon become home to something new.

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