Tipton County’s old Swingtown School has stood just west of US-31 on the grounds of the Kelley Agricultural Historical Museum for thirty-six years. I’ve been dying to learn more about the building since my mom and I passed it a couple weekends ago, and here’s what I’ve uncovered so far.
The Swingtown School once served students in Liberty Township’s District 9. Built in 1887, it took its name from the nearby unincorporated village of Swingtown- sometimes called Swingtown Corner1. The name traces back to the Swing family- in 1903, Milla and Lindsay Swing owned land near what’s now the intersection of County Roads 325 North and 400 West2.
The Swingtown schoolhouse was built using the T-shape plan popular in the late 1880s and 1890s. The layout featured a front entrance framed by two cloakrooms that led into a large, perpendicular classroom. Though modern at the time of its construction, the school became old hat as newer consolidated schools were built. I don’t know the date the Swingtown school finally closed, but it probably consolidated into the high school at nearby Sharpsville, which was built in 1908 and rebuilt twenty years later. The schoolhouse had been shuttered for some time by 19313.
The Swingtown school was closely associated with the New Hope schoolhouse, which stood a mile east. Students from both institutions put on joint reunions throughout the 1930s4! Unfortunately, as best I can tell, the New Hope schoolhouse is no longer standing. Fortunately, the Swingtown school met a different fate.
In the late 1980s, plans were set in motion to relocate the old schoolhouse to the growing Kelley Agricultural Historical Museum near Sharpsville. Before the move, volunteers carefully documented the building’s layout to ensure historical accuracy. The school was then dismantled, transported, and meticulously reassembled to preserve its original character5. Today, it stands as a key feature of the Kelley Museum, which also showcases a 1914 round barn6 and a variety of other historic buildings.
Sources Cited
1 Here Greeting Friends (1932, December 20). The Tipton Daily Tribune. p. 3.
2 Tipton County, Indiana (1903). Kendall and Fielding Real Estate [Tipton]. Map.
3 School Reunion (1931, august 3). The Tipton Daily Tribune. p. 3.
4 Swingtown School Also (1930, August 9). The Tipton Daily Tribune. p. 5.
5 Millett, L.A. (1994, April 14). Kelley Museum offers view of county’s agricultural past. The Tipton County Tribune. p. 1.
6 Barn moved to Kelley Museum (2000, April 6). The Tipton County Tribune. p. 1.
I have never heard of Swingtown. And now I have that song by the Steve Miller Band running through my head.
I had never either. Apparently, it never amounted to enough to even feature a post office in someone’s house or barn. Probably just a grocery store and a school, along with a smattering of houses. Steve Miller came through to me as well!