Read time: 10 min.

A pair of massive, empty schoolhouses stand at the northern edge of Boston, Indiana, as silent witnesses to the town’s past. For decades, they were community cornerstones, gathering spaces, and sources of pride. Today, though, their abandoned presence is hard to miss whether you’re passing by or reflecting on what’s been left behind. My mom and I visited Boston last week, and we were blown away.

The town of Boston and its surrounds have a resilient educational heritage that spans more than two centuries. In fact, Wayne County’s first schoolhouse was built in Boston Township back in 1808! Several other log schools were constructed over the years until 1820, when Dillon Bridges built one near what would later become Boston proper¹. The town itself was officially laid out in 1832². 

Boston flourished until 1849, when a deadly cholera epidemic swept through the community. The outbreak left only three men alive and forced the rest of the residents to flee for their lives! Fortunately, the community refused to fade away: over time, locals built saw and sorghum mills and welcomed the arrival of the Boston and Straight Line Turnpikes. Officials established a new frame schoolhouse in 1881, but it was soon claimed by fire³. 

Boston’s new schoolhouse became accredited to teach upper grades in 1913, which paved the way for a significant upgrade. The following year, Wayne County’s school superintendent and county health officer carefully selected a site for a state-of-the-art high school that would be a “model of sanitary appliances and modern building facilities⁴.” Determined to build the best school possible, Superintendent Williams spent days studying the latest designs in neighboring counties before settling on plans for an eighty-student structure. Boston’s $18,000⁵ high school was rushed to completion⁶ and officially dedicated on November 21, 1914⁷.

Boston Township may have welcomed a new high school, but younger students still learned in aging one-room schoolhouses scattered across the countryside. With consolidation gaining momentum, officials took a bold step forward by announcing plans for a modern, $38,000 grade school at Boston in 1922⁸. The community eagerly embraced the change: 300 people gathered to celebrate when the new school was dedicated the following year⁹! With its opening, Boston Township bid farewell to its last one-room schoolhouses and closed the book on a bygone era.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck Boston once again on September 25, 1931, when a powerful tornado roared through town. The cyclone zeroed in on the seventeen-year-old high school, tearing off its roof and hurling it into the sky as if it were weightless. Walls crumbled under the force of the wind, sending debris flying and shattering windows as two hundred terrified students sheltered for safety. Two suffered serious injuries, while about fourteen more were left with cuts and bruises¹⁰. 

The tornado’s fury was yet another reminder of nature’s raw power, but Boston refused to be broken. Although the grade school was damaged, its hardy structure remained mostly intact and quickly became a vital space for students in the storm’s wake¹¹. Most high school students resumed their classes there, but others were sent to Richmond or even to one of the old one-room schoolhouses that the new building had made obsolete¹². 

It took more than a cyclone to tear down Boston’s spirit, though, and plans were soon made for another new high school. The $32,000 building would include a large basement with a cafeteria, home-economics, and science classes while the first floor consisted of an assembly room, commercial department, an office, and three classrooms¹³. The landmark was dedicated on February 4, 1933, with a program in the grade school’s gymnasium that highlighted “The Comparison of Schools of Boston Township 40 Years Ago and Now¹⁴.” 

The 1932 Boston High School is a stunning Art Deco building, with crenelations, limestone accents, and a stately projecting entrance. My favorite features, though, are the blocks above the building’s northern and southern bays, which read “ENTER YE TO LEARN,” and “LEAVE YE TO SERVE.” My mom, a recently retired high school English teacher, was taken by the sentiment. It wasn’t just words carved in stone- it reflected her deep sense of purpose over a lifetime devoted to shaping young minds. I could see the messages resonate as we drank the building in.

Boston’s pair of schoolhouses might have continued for years and years, but yet another tragedy surfaced. In 1944, the twenty-two-year-old grade school was gutted by a fire believed to have been caused by faulty wiring¹⁵. Undeterred, Township Trustee Earl Shaffer called for bids to build anew later that year¹⁶. Soon, a new grade school designed to mimic the 1932 high school was swiftly built to rise above the ashes of the old.

Completing a new grade school solved one problem but created another. The Boston Terriers basketball team had relied on the old school’s gym, but the new building didn’t have suitable facilities! Neither did the high school. Talks of a combination gymnasium-auditorium with a regulation-sized court, stage, dressing rooms, and showers began in 1945¹⁷, but progress stalled. It wasn’t until nine years later that the vision became a reality. Two hundred people packed the stands for the $118,000¹⁸ gym’s dedication on January 24, 1954. The Terriers christened their new home with a thrilling 43-40 victory over the Webster Pirates¹⁹.

Boston Township’s schools had come a long way from their earliest days. Aside from the new gymnasium, the 1950s brought even more change, although not all of it was welcome as a large-scale push for school consolidation threatened small communities. In 1958, Indiana’s State Commission for the Reorganization of School Corporations introduced new guidelines that required each district to have at least 1,000 students in average daily attendance and an assessed valuation of at least $5,000 per student²⁰. For rural schools like Boston, the mandates signaled an uncertain future.

In 1962, the separate school districts of Richmond, Wayne Township, and Boston Township merged to form Richmond Community Schools²¹. That November, the newly established school board set its sights on Boston High School by exploring plans to demote it into the district’s fifth junior high²². The plans became final, and with them came the end of an era. On June 11, 1963, Boston High School’s final graduating class -just fourteen seniors²³– walked the stage as the page turned on nearly a century of tradition.

Boston’s school buildings soldiered on, but the tides quickly turned. Between 1970 and 1980, Richmond Community Schools lost students at a faster rate than the city’s population declined²⁴! As enrollment dwindled, every junior high in the district found itself operating below capacity. Boston Junior High was hit the hardest. With just 234 students in 1981, it was only 77% full. Even if every one of them was reassigned to the district’s other junior highs, there would still be space for nearly 300 more in those facilities²⁵. The writing was on the wall- Boston’s days as a school were numbered.

By 1981, Richmond Community Schools was left with little choice. Declining enrollment had stretched resources thin, and maintaining half-empty buildings was no longer sustainable. That year, the district approved a sweeping reorganization plan, sealing the fate of several longtime schools. Boston was among those slated for closure, along with Warner, Southview, and Joseph Moore elementary schools²⁶. For students, teachers, and families, the decision was more than just administrative- it was the end of a chapter filled with memories, traditions, and a sense of identity that would not be easily replaced.

For a time, Boston’s old school found a new purpose. The U.S. Army Reserve leased half the building, keeping part of it alive with activity. In the early 1980s, there was even talk of Northeastern Wayne Schools -headquartered sixteen miles away in Fountain City- sending elementary students to fill the empty classrooms²⁷. Unfortunately, the plan never materialized. The Reserve had packed up and left around 1985²⁸. Forty years later, the school stands silent, used only for storage. Even though its halls no longer echo with students’ voices, the massive structure still looms over the quiet town, a lingering reminder of what once was.

To most who simply pass through Boston on State Road 227, Boston’s schools must look like another pair of abandoned buildings, relics of a fading past that blur into the quiet landscape. Passersby see the crumbling bricks, the peeling paint, the way nature is beginning to reclaim the edges, and they move on by without a second thought.

Fortunately, the schools tell a different story for those who stop to take a moment to stand before the buildings and let their presence sink in. Boston’s schools were more than just places of learning. Now, their emptiness anchors the town in a different way. They’re a reminder of change, of a time when small communities felt fuller and more self-contained. For some, the empty schools may be a symbol of an era that slipped away. For others, it’s simply there- an unavoidable monument to the past, standing watch over a town that has grown quieter in its absence.

Sources Cited
1 Interest In Schools Shown By Earliest Settlers of Boston (1923, February 24). The Richmond Palladium. Pp. 2-3. 
2 Fox, H.C. (191). Memoirs of Wayne County and the City of Richmond Indiana. Volume I. Western Historical Association [Madison]. Book. 
3 (See footnote 1).
4 Picks School Site (1914, May 29). The Richmond Palladium. p. 1. 
5 Boston Dedicates New High School (1914, November 11). The Richmond Palladium. p. 2. 
6 (See footnote 4).
7 Boston Dedicates New High School (1914, November 24). The Richmond Palladium. p. 8. 
8 Erection Of County Schools Past Year Costing $1,200,000 (1922, August 29). The Richmond Palladium. p. 7. 
9 Early and Modern Schools Contrasted By Denver Harlan (1923, March 29). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 10. 
10 Cyclone Hits Boston; Many Hurt (1931, September 26). The Richmond Item. p. 1. 
11 Boston School May Open By Dec. 1 (1932, November 1). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 1. 
12 Boston’s New School Ready In November (1932, June 29). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 1. 
13 (See footnote 12). 
14 New Boston High School Dedicated; Hines, Bate Speak (1933, February 5). The Richmond Item. p. 2. 
15 Plans Studied on Replacement of Fire-Gutted Boston School (1944, April 16). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 13. 
16 Notice To Bidders (1944, July 18). The Richmond Palladium. p. 8. 
17 Preliminary Talk Held on Proposed Boston Gymnasium (1945, April 10). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 5. 
18 Boston Gym Bids Are Due By April 28 (1953, April 9). The RIchmond Palladium-Item. p. 1.
19 In local history (2004, January 4). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 17. 
20 Delaware County Committee for the Reorganization of School Corporations. (1959). A Comprehensive plan for the reorganization of school corporations of Delaware County Indiana. Muncie, IN; Delaware County Committee for the Reorganization of School Corporations.
21 Emslie, W.R. (1962, June 1). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 7. 
22 School Board Studies Plan For Junior High At Boston (1962, November 29). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 1. 
23 Final Boston High School Graduation Set June 11 (1963, May 31). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 18. 
24 Beaver, C. (1981, March 29). Losing the numbers game. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 11. 
25 (See footnote 24).
26 School redistricting an ongoing corner (1983, December 4). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 11. 
27 Hunter, A. (1982, April 20). Southview School rental leaves Boston option for Northeastern. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 1. 
28 Pratt, B. (1984, December 11). RCS approves land sale for plaza. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 19.