In 1880, Pipe Creek Township’s District 5 schoolhouse was located about an eighth of a mile east of the present-day intersection of North County Road 900-West and West County Road 900-North in Madison County, on the land of C. Quick and Company¹. The school was not visible on a map produced twenty-one years later, although William R. Hawkins owned the 160 acres immediately north of its former location. Jasper Huffman owned the land that the schoolhouse was situated on². 

Apparently, the schoolhouse took its name from William Hawkins³, and the present District 5 school was erected at some point during 1880 and 1901, when it evidently closed. 

Despite its early closure, it seems as though the schoolhouse was reestablished prior to 1904. That year, Emma Jackley was the teacher⁴.

Newspaper references to an active Hawkins School end around 1906-1908, so the school was probably one of Pipe Creek Township’s earliest to close. Despite that, the thoroughfare that passes it was called the Hawkins School Road up through 1917 and possibly even today⁵ by locals.

Today, the building has been added to and, believe it or not, is a home. 

Sources Cited
1 Kingman Brothers. (1880). History of Madison County, Indiana with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches. Chicago, IL.
2 Atlas and Directory of Madison County, Indiana (1901). The American Atlas Company. Cleveland. map. 3 Jackson, S. T. (2021, August 9). Madison County schoolhouses. email.
4 In The Country Schools of Pipecreek (1904, February 9). The Elwood Daily Record. p. 1.
5 Places to Register (1917, June 4). The Elwood Call-Leader, p. 7.