I’ll be the first to admit that my timing isn’t always great when it comes to photographing old buildings before they disappear. I’ve documented more than 250 schoolhouses over the years, but it’s the ones I missed that tend to stick with me. Thankfully, I wasn’t too late to see the big one in Jonesboro once more. I stopped by twice just in time to capture the empty high school before it goes away for good. Demolition bids are due today1.
Jonesboro was founded in 18372, shortly after Obadiah Jones ventured to Grant County from Ohio. Apparently, Jones and his brother Daniel laid the new town out as an idealized version of their native Dayton3! I didn’t spy a Grecian temple courthouse when I drove through recently, but I did notice the wide, brick-paved Main Street. It’s a lasting hint of Jonesboro’s early ambition.
The first high school in Jonesboro was built in the 1880s and served students from grades 1-12. Unfortunately, that original building -a two-story structure with a massive entry arch, raised basement, and tower- burned down at the turn of the century. A replacement structure, the extant one, was put up in 19034.
The second Jonesboro High School is another two-story building with a raised basement and attic. Some features, like its heavy stone base, sills, and entry arch take cues from the Richardson Romanesque mode of architecture. Others, like its brick walls, asymmetric floor plan, and hipped dormer windows are more representative of the Prairie School style. However it might be described, the building is impressive. It seems to fill the entire windshield as you curve into town from Muncie Pike!
The Jonesboro Zebras began playing basketball in the early 1920s. At first, two classrooms were connected to form a makeshift gymnasium that barely had enough room for a scorer’s table. A real gym that fit 1,200 patrons was completed in 19245, and the expanded building served as the city’s high school until 1948. That year, the school districts of Jonesboro, Gas City, and Mill Township consolidated to form the Mississinewa Community School Corporation6. As a result, a new high school was built on the west side of Gas City7. Twenty-seven kids were part of Jonesboro’s last class8.
By 1950, the old Jonesboro High School had been renamed to honor John Chambers Knight9, a prominent doctor who lived and taught in the area. The building was expanded with four-room addition in 195410, then an eight-room addition in 195811. Unfortunately, tragedy struck the following year when a sixteen-year-old using a match to find his way through the darkened gymnasium accidentally burned it down12. A replacement all-purpose room was built in short order13.
The J.C. Knight School carried on without much fanfare for the next eighteen years, but classrooms throughout the district became increasingly overcrowded. In 1977, officials responded by building a brand-new high school just north of Gas City to help relieve the strain. The former high school was repurposed to serve students in grades seven and eight, which vacuumed the upperclassmen from J.C. Knight14. The original 1903 section of the Knight building had been home to those pupils, and it seems to have seen little use -if any- after the transition.
Mississinewa Community Schools continued to use J.C. Knight’s modern wings as part of an elementary school until 200115. Eventually, the district sold the building to the City of Jonesboro for a dollar16. Around 2004, the city transferred the property to the King’s Academy, a private Christian school. With plenty of volunteer support, its boosters began renovating its 1950s-era wings.
King’s Academy had high hopes of restoring the 1903 section of the school17, but it doesn’t appear that ever took place. Eventually, Jonesboro officials tried to step in to demolish the old building, but the plans didn’t sit well with many former students who had fond memories of their time there18. By then, though, the school had deteriorated so much that it was considered unsafe to even step inside19. I’m pretty loose with the term “eyesore,” and I’ll defend many old buildings in the name of preservation, but even I have to admit to sympathizing with those who call the old Jonesboro High School a nuisance.
That said, it wasn’t always so bad. I first stumbled across the building back in college and couldn’t resist snapping a few quick photos with whatever crappy phone I had at the time. The pictures weren’t great, but J.C. Knight still looked sturdy back then. It was boarded up, sure, but it still stood proud. When I revisited it twice a few weeks ago, the story had changed. Part of the building’s entry parapet had crumbled and collapsed between my recent visits! The destruction was a stark reminder of how fast time and neglect can take their toll.
Now, here we are. After more than a century of service through fires, expansions, consolidations, and reuses, the old Jonesboro High School is standing on the edge of erasure. It’s hard to watch a place like this fade away, not because it was pristine or salvageable, but because of everything it once meant. Generations of students passed through those halls. It may be difficult to fathom now, but many milestones played out in its classrooms, its gym, and its echoing stairwells.
I’m glad I made it back in time to capture some of what remains. Buildings like the old J.C. Knight School may not be long for this world, but they deserve to be remembered. Its destruction will be swift and unforgiving, but history is already written in the building’s elderly brickwork. For a moment, I got to stand nearby and take it in.
Sources Cited
1 City of Jonesboro JC Knight School (2025, May 9). The Marion Chronicle-Tribune. Web. Retrieved May 25, 2025.
2 Couch, E. (2000, October 25). Indaina Trivia. Thomas Nelson Inc. [Nasvhille}. Book.
3 Centennial History of Grant County Indiana (1914). The Lewis Publishing Company [Chicago]. Book.
4 Cox, H. (2019, March 20). An important marker. The Marion Chronicle Tribune. Pp. 1, 3.
5 Jonesboro’s New Gymnasium Will Be Ready For Basketball. (1924, October 9). The Marion Daily Chronicle. p. 3.
6 Stock Sale Drive Opened For Mississinewa School (1948, June 11). The Marion Chronicle Tribune. p. 1.
7 Students Move Into New Mississinewa School (1950, November 22). The Marion Chronicle Tribune. p. 1.
8 27 Graduate At Jonesboro (1948, May 26). The Marion Leader-Tribune. P. 1.
9 Gas City (1950, April 27). The Marion Leader-Tribune. p. 16.
10 Jonesboro School Plans Open House (1958, September 27). The Marion Leader-Tribune. p. 12.
11 (See footnote 9).
12 Boys Who Started Trestle Fire Released. The Marion Leader-Tribune. p. 13.
13 Work Starts On 10-Room Gas City School Addition (1959, March 25). The Marion Chronicle Tribune. p. 1.
14 Perri, L. (1977, March 30). The Marion Chronicle Tribune. p. 9.
15 Driscoll, S. F. (2004, July 27). Volunteers help propel work at old J.C. Knight building. The Marion Chronicle Tribune. Pp. 1-2.
16 (See footnote 15).
17 (See footnote 15).
18 (See footnote 4).
19 (See footnote 4).
