I was meandering through Huntington County a while back, lost in thought and disheartened that my winding route hadn’t led me past a single old schoolhouse. The disappointment had just seeped into my mind when I rolled up next to one at the corner of County Road 700-South and Belleville Road! It was a magnificent old building with two doors and a belfry that defied the test of time. I had to learn more.
In 1866, a schoolhouse stood at approximately the same site as one does today, on a plot carved out of 171 acres of land owned by the Miller family1. By 1879, it had been relocated about half a mile east to serve Belleville -also known as Belville- a small community that sprung up around a grist mill on the nearby Salamonie River2.
The extant Belleville schoolhouse was built in 1887. Two years later, Estella Chopson served as its teacher3. By 1903, the building stood on ninety acres owned by William Wiley4.
Two years later, architect A.D. Mohler drew plans for a centralized, two-room school with a five-hundred seat auditorium to serve Jefferson Township5. Still, the District 1 schoolhouse appears to still have been in operation by 1921, when it sat on J.L. Priddy’s land6.
In 1923, a $48,000 contract was let for a new consolidated Jefferson Center School7. After it was completed, every township in Huntington County was home to a modern school instead of single-room structures like Belleville’s. I assume the schoolhouse closed around that time.
The old Belleville schoolhouse is fading nearly 150 years after it was built, but I was thrilled to have passed it. I’d lost all hope of finding one on my aimless drive, but there it was: a survivor from another era still standing watch at the sleepy crossroads.
Sources Cited
1 Map of Huntington Co., Indiana (1866). E.B. Gerber & C.S. Warner [Ligonier]. Map.
2 Combination atlas map of Huntington County, Indiana (1879). Kingman Brothers [Chicago]. Map.
3 Patterns for Pupils (1889, September 28). The Huntington Daily Democrat. p. 5.
4 Huntington County, Indiana (1903).National Map Co. [Warsaw]. Map.
5 Mohler Drawing Plans For School (1905, April 18). The Huntington Daily News-Democrat. p. 1.
6 Huntington County, Indiana (1921). Ford Map Company. Map.
7 Coinsolidated School Chain Is Completed (1923, July 28). The Huntington Press. p. 1.
Wow, this one is about as unmolested as any you have come across. If not for the ravages of time and neglect, you can almost hear the bell and the sounds of children.
It’s missing all its windows, but you’re right. Stumbling past it was a real treat. Researching it was pretty tough.
I’ve seen some people refer to it as the last remaining one-room schoolhouse in Huntington County. That can’t be right. I’ll have to prove them wrong!