Read time: 11 min.

I’d been driven by the sad remains of Muncie’s Lincoln Elementary School for years before I learned about its past. Later, I realized I worked with a colleague who managed the property. He let me in to explore the structure in 2019. As I stepped inside, the air was heavy with the musty scent of nostalgia and asbestos. What was left of Lincoln School had transformed into a chamber of memories.

Lincoln’s old gymnasium was striking: although I’d found it in a state of neglect and abandonment that the stillness seemed to amplify, the place was once a hub of energy, along with some lascivious later uses I wasn’t aware of at the time. Here’s its story:

The early history of education in Center Township outside of Muncie is muddled. By 1874, twelve districts had been laid out across the township¹, even though classes weren’t necessarily conducted in all of them. Ten schoolhouses were spread around the area by 1887² but a handful of suburbs sprung up outside Muncie’s bounds over the next twenty years that needed larger schools. Avondale was one of them.

Located on Muncie’s southwest side, the community featured a frame schoolhouse operated by Center Township³ erected sometime before 1890. That July, the building was expanded when a four-room addition was constructed⁴. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by a fire during lunch hour on February 12, 1895. The estimated loss was $2,500⁵, but since Avondale was part of Muncie by then, city officials approved a $20,000 building with ten rooms to replace it⁶.

The replacement was named Lincoln, and Cuno Kibele, probably Muncie’s most notable architect, was commissioned to design it. It featured brick and stone massing, an asymmetrical western front, and a bell tower that reached sixty-six feet into the sky⁷.

The building was stunning, but it proved too small only six years after its completion. In 1901, Avondale’s fifth-graders spent their schoolday cooped up in its attic thanks to the crowded conditions⁸! The building was remodeled and received new heating, ventilation, and sanitation systems over the next several years⁹.

In its early years, Lincoln served as a sort of proving grounds for the deployment of new educational initiatives. The school housed one of Muncie’s first kindergartens, named in honor of early educator Alice Tyler¹⁰, and an innovative reading room with tables, chairs, and about two hundred books was set up in 1906¹¹.

That said, the Lincoln School of those early days bore little resemblance to the building most people remember and the part I got to explore. In 1921, the building’s tower and peaked roof were removed in a project that added fifteen classrooms, an assembly hall, and four recitation rooms to the east side of the school.

As the original had been, the renovated building was designed by Cuno Kibele. He planned the new wing so harmoniously that the only way to tell you’d left the old building and entered the new one was to notice the transition from wood to concrete floors¹²!

Most notable among Lincoln’s features was its new kindergarten, which shared the building’s basement with its manual training and mechanical drawing rooms. The new school was formally dedicated on February 17, 1922, in a ceremony attended by six hundred people¹³. One of those people was Webb Hunt, the school’s principal.

Hunt had served at Lincoln since 1906. Eleven years after the school was expanded, he helped convert the building’s basement into Muncie’s new Lincoln Branch Library. Formally dedicated in 1934 by Judge L.A. Guthrie14, the library featured a $500 desk from Ball Brothers¹⁵. Hunt, who became one of Muncie’s most prominent civic leaders, retired in 1941¹⁶.

Hunt’s library lasted for twenty-six years before it ran out of space. In 1960, officials opened a 3,500-square-foot facility, the Webb Hunt branch, just east of Lincoln School near the northwestern corner of Memorial Drive and Hoyt Avenue¹⁷. The new library lasted forty-two years before it consolidated into the new Maring-Hunt Branch at the old Wilson Middle School, but the building remains.

Lincoln was expanded again in 1965 when a $125,000 structure featuring a gymnasium/cafeteria, a kitchen, a stage, and locker rooms was added to the east side of the building¹⁸. Officially christened the Charles Lykins Multi-Purpose Room in 1967, the new structure took its namesake from the longtime school principal who took over after Webb Hunt retired¹⁹.

By 1979, Lincoln housed Muncie Community Schools’ Adult Basic Education program. It emphasized reading and math skills on Monday and Wednesday nights to help participants earn their G.E.Ds²⁰. Life as an elementary school is hard, though, and it had been a long eighty-four years for Lincoln. Along with the Roosevelt school nearby, it closed in 1980 so students could attend classes at the brand-new South View Elementary, a cutting-edge facility.

Muncie Community Schools moved quickly to demolish the 1895 and 1921 portions of the old school. The 1965 addition was retained and renamed the Lykins Center to house Muncie’s Mid-day School and a clothing bank²¹. The arrangement wasn’t long-term, and the school board moved to sell the property in 1982²².

In 1985, United Steelworkers of America Local 12213 purchased the building to serve as a union hall²³. The next two decades saw it used as a voting precinct²⁴, bingo hall, music venue, a swingers club called Klub Layden²⁵, and a restaurant. In 2005, Muncie’s building commissioner said the building had changed substantially since he last played basketball there, making special note of all the mattresses²⁶! I visited the building fourteen years later.

My co-worker, the property manager, let me into a side door next to a maintenance room. The building was pitch black inside, but relics from its entire history were openly visible when I explored it. The main multipurpose room measured about 60×75 feet, and the first thing I noticed was its floor. It was painted black, but I’d never seen a basketball court so wavy. It’s hard to believe that the Lincoln Flyers once played on it! 

The main feature of the old gym was its north-facing stage. I aimed my camera at it and framed the shot the best I could, but shooting in the dark was tough- I didn’t realize we’d kicked up so much dust until I looked at the photos! If Lincoln was anything like my elementary school, the area under the stage was used to store folding chairs.

I decided to turn around and take a couple photos facing south. After I got home, I saw that the wall opposite the stage still featured pocket tables and benches that custodians would have pulled out to convert the gym into a cafeteria. My elementary school employed similar tables in its gymnasium; maybe they all do.

It’s hard to tell what design scheme, if any, the building utilized as a school, but I’ve read that Lincoln’s school colors were blue and white. I brought a fresh Spalding in hopes of sinking a free throw, but both the basketball goals were long gone.

The building’s kitchen sat off to the side of the stage. Unfortunately, it was ankle-deep with trash, broken toys, and moldering clothing. The stage was more interesting, and my mom remembers climbing its small flight of stairs dressed up like an Easter egg during a Girl Scout pageant!

The building’s locker rooms featured that ubiquitous green tile nearly every school built in the 1950s and 60s seems to have made good use of. Ducts hung from the drop ceiling like hungry snakes, and I wondered if I should have brought an N95 mask or a respirator.

A hallway wrapped behind the stage and led to the west side of the building. Several small closets lined the wall, each featuring plywood partitions with holes left over from the school’s days as a swinger’s club. The southwestern corner of the building once served as its main entrance. It connected with the 1921 structure to the right of the photo.

I only spent about half an hour at Lincoln. I left the empty gym with a sense of reverence for the ruined space. In its abandonment, the remains of Lincoln School seemed frozen in time. The building served as a reminder that there’s meaning to be found in the echoes of the past, even if it’s discovered in a utilitarian addition to an old schoolhouse.

I’ve always been attracted to abandoned spaces where people used to congregate, but I’m not sure why I felt more connected to the remnants of Lincoln School than any of the 250 one-room schoolhouses I’ve been to. It’s been four years since I visited, but today, the only physical echoes of Lincoln’s past are at Maring-Hunt Library. In 2021, Open Door Health Services purchased the Lincoln property to build a health center²⁷. What was left of the school was demolished the following June to make way for it.

I’m glad I got a chance to explore the place now that’s been torn down. Eighty-four years of students went through Lincoln School, and fifteen years used its multipurpose room. That’s a lot of people with recollections that defy the building’s unassuming appearance towards the end of its life! In the end, my visit reminded me that even the most ordinary places can leave an indelible mark on a community.

Sources Cited
1 Helm, T. B. (1881). History of Delaware County, Indiana: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. book, Kingman Brothers.
2 Griffing, B. N. (1887). An atlas of Delaware County, Indiana. map, Philadelphia, PA; Griffing, Gordon, & Company.
3 Spurgeon, B. (1992, November 12). Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 6. 
4 Kemper, G. W. H. (1908). A Twentieth Century History of Delaware County, Indiana, Volume 1 (Vol. 1, p. 252). book, Lewis Publishing Company.
5 A Noon Blaze (1895, February 12). The Muncie Daily Herald. p. 4.
6 (See footnote 4).
7 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. 1911. Sanborn Fire Insurance Company. Indiana University Libraries. Web. Retrieved 9/9/23.
8 People of Avondale Complaining Of School (1901, December 27). The Muncie Star. p. 5.
9 (See footnote 4).
10 Muncie’s Free Kindergarten Has Accomplished Great Results (1910, June 16). The Muncie Press. p. 4.
11 Bouton, B. (1980, February 17). Moving Day at Roosevelt, Lincoln Schools. The Muncie Star. p. 37.
12 (See footnote 11).
13 Lewellen, K. (1922, February 18). Remodeled Lincoln School Thrown Open To The Public. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 8.
14 Dedicate Branch Lincoln Library (1934, June 6). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 4.
15 Lincoln Branch Library Opens (1934, June 6).  The Muncie Star. p. 12.
16 Webb Hunt Is Dead at 80 (1956, January 14). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 1.
17 Lincoln Branch Library Move to Be Saturday (1960, February 21).  The Muncie Star. p. 31.
18 Shores, L. (1965, August 8). Muncie Schools Ending Busy Building Season. 
19 To Dedicate Lykins Room (1967, March 7). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 14.
20 Hawkins, R. (1979, October 6). School ‘dies’ but program lives. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 7.
21 Story clarified (1982, June 24). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 3.
22 LaGuardia, J. (1982, June 23). Muncie school board plans to sell former Lincoln School. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 23.
23 North Metzger, Juli (1985, August 30). City Schools Sell Property to Lone Bids. The Muncie Star. p. 26.
24 Roysdon, K. (1992, October 30). Quirks will surprise even longtime voters. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 6.
25 Werner, N. (2005, September 18). Neighbors discover swingers next door (2005, September 18). The Muncie Star Press. p. 1.
26 (See footnote 25).
27 Stefanski, C. (2021, July 10). Open Door Health Services expanding to 2 new locations. The Muncie Star Press. p. A1.