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The Salem schoolhouse in Lafayette Township is one of Madison County’s most unique. The Elwood Daily Record trumpeted it as “by far the handsomest country school in the county¹. I haven’t seen another nearby that matches its design! 

Josephus W. Layne -later superintendent of Evansville schools and a member of the state board of education- taught at an early version of the building as a seventeen-year-old in 1867². In 1875, a frame building was erected at the northeast corner of today’s county roads North 500-West and West 700-North, a mile south of Frankton³. The extant schoolhouse, its replacement, was built in 1904 for $7,000.

Along with the Prairie, Keller, Beech Grove, Elm Grove, Closser, and Florida schoolhouses, the Salem school closed in 1932 when Lafayette Township’s six-room Leach consolidated school opened near the center of the township⁴. 

Today, the old District 3 schoolhouse is a home. After removing its aluminum siding in a recent renovation, the present owner discovered the names of former students written on its brick walls⁵.

Sources Cited
1 Fine New Building (1904, June 11). The Elwood Daily Record. p. 4.
2 Josephus W. Layne (1896, October 2). The Elwood Free Press. p. 1.
3 Jackson, S.T. (2009, November 14). In History: Township schools set by districts. The Anderson Herald Bulletin. Web. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
4 Leach School to be Dedicated Next Tuesday (1932, August 19). The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 1.
5 Jackson, S. T. (2021, August 24). Madison County schoolhouses. email.