Indiana is sprinkled with remnants of its old high schools—some still standing tall, others remembered only by a simple plaque or weathered boulder. In rural Randolph County, Stoney Creek High School leaves behind a unique trace of its history: a lone lintel resting quietly in front of a modern home.
The first school in Stoney Creek Township was conducted by Moses Hodson in 1826. The schoolhouse stood between Joab and John Thornburg’s land1, in the area of what’s now South County Road 1100-West between West County Road 300-South and 400-South2.
Aside from those maintained by the township, early schools in Stoney Creek Township were also established by religious societies. By 1851, the Poplar Run Friends Meeting operated school in their meetinghouse, and another early schoolhouse was conducted by the Cedar Creek Friends Meeting. By 1865, both operated as public schools3. An additional schoolhouse, known only as School Number 10, existed in the township as early as 18634.
By 1874, Stoney Creek Township was home to ten schoolhouses. Unfortunately, their numbers began to dwindle as consolidation took place. The township’s first accredited high school opened at the District 8 building in 1915, but a consolidated school was completed the following year5.
Situated across the road and just south of the District 8 schoolhouse, the Stoney Creek Consolidated School was built on a five-acre plot and designed by Samuel Bartel of Farmland. The building featured a 24×56 foot gymnasium in the basement, along with rooms for manual training and home economics, a cafeteria, and utility rooms6. Three 28×24 classrooms took up the building’s first story, while the second floor featured a single classroom, a sewing room, and offices. Folding doors enabled several of the classrooms to combine into a 600-seat auditorium7.
The schoolhouses of Districts 1, 4, and 7 closed to send their students to the new structure in 1916, and District 3 followed suit a year later. Still, further consolidation was a fraught proposition in Stoney Creek Township. In 1955, an attempt to combine it, Green, and Monroe Townships into a Lee Driver Consolidated School Corporation failed. A second plan to combine the three townships into a new district called Monroe Central passed the following year8.
Stoney Creek students in grades 7-12 transferred to Farmland during the fall of 1958, but the consolidated school continued to serve as an elementary until three years later. The school was eventually demolished, and a house was built atop its basement gymnasium in 19669. Today, all that’s visible of the old Stoney Creek School is its lintel, which sits out front.
Sources Cited
1 Tucker, E. (1882). History of Randolph County, Indiana. book. Chicago, IL; A.L. Kingman.
2 Griffing, B. N. (1874). Stony Creek Township. An atlas of Randolph County, Indiana . map, Philadelphia, PA; Griffing, Gordon, & Company.
3 Hinshaw, G. (2008). A History of Education in Randolph County, Indiana. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
4 (See footnote 3).
5 School Opens After Two Years of Strife (1915, September 14). The Muncie Morning Star. p. 8.
6 Fine School Planned (1916, February 3). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 2.
7 (See footnote 6).
8 Plan Survey to Determine School Site (1956, August 31). The Muncie Star. p. 16.
9 Baxter, C. (2014, October 5). when my parents built the house there my dad left the gym just like it was! It was so cool [Post comment]. Facebook.
