It wasn’t unusual for old schoolhouses to be relocated over the years. Washington Township’s District 7 building in Delaware County certainly was! In 1874, the building was located on the west side of Gaston-Matthews Pike about half a mile north of West County Road 1000-North on the land of Samuel S. Carmine¹.

Thomas Helm, a local historian, related that the schoolhouse here was known as “Carman².” It was there in 1887 as well, on land owned by Mary Milholland³. The following year, Catharine Brady deeded a portion of her land at the northeast corner of the pike and 1000-North to the Washington Township trustee for the use of a school, and the extant structure was built shortly afterward⁴. In 1900, William McCormick owned the land surrounding the schoolhouse⁵.

The schoolhouse closed at the end of the 1918-19 season in order to consolidate into Gaston when Robert Bryant was the teacher at the building⁶. Later, it was converted to a dwelling. You wouldn’t know it was a once a schoolhouse by simply driving past!

In 1988, Bill Spurgeon listed the schoolhouse as the Miller school but Muncie resident William Cortright corrected him, calling it the “Carmin” school⁷. Cortright’s spelling seems to be the correct one based on deed records I found⁸. 

Sources Cited
1 Kingman Brothers. (1874). Map of Delaware County, Indiana. Chicago, IL.
2 Helm, T. B. (1881). Mount Pleasant Township. In History of Delaware County, Indiana: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers (pp. 268–269). book, Kingman Brothers.
3 Griffing, B. N. (1887). Mt. Pleasant Township. An atlas of Delaware County, Indiana . map, Philadelphia, PA; Griffing, Gordon, & Company.
4 Delaware County, Indiana. (1888 June 20). Deed Book 62. p. 17.
5 Delaware County Map, 1900 (2018, October 1). Map Collection, Indiana Division, Indiana State Library.
6 Delaware County Public Schools. (1918). School directory, Delaware County public schools, Delaware County, Indiana 1918-1919. Muncie, IN. 
7 Spurgeon, B. (1988, September 21). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 4.
8 Delaware County, Indiana. (1881 November 25). Deed Book 62. p. 199.