This might not be the best photo I’ve ever taken of an old schoolhouse, but it’s all I could manage to grab of Fairmount Township’s old Pike school will h my iPhone. My distant snap will have to do until I make it back with my DSLR in tow.
Fairmount Township’s District 2 schoolhouse has been around since at least 1880. That year, an average of forty-three students from ages six to twenty-one attended class at the institution1. By 1903, the building -maybe brick, but probably frame- stood on a hundred acres owned by William Keever2. Eventually, it became known as the Pike schoolhouse thanks to its location on the old toll road between Fairmount and Summitville3.
The extant District 2 schoolhouse was built in 1910 and hailed as “one of the most modern school buildings in this section of Indiana4.” It boasted brick walls, a tile roof, and probably a belfry. The layout was unusual for its time: instead of entering from the middle, access was gained through an entryway beneath the square base of the bell tower, which -along with what was likely a cloakroom- projects from the front of the classroom.
I’ve never really given much thought to the electrical requirements of a one-room schoolhouse, but Pike was hooked up to the grid in 1938 when a rural line was run from Fairmount5. Unfortunately, the newly-powered building only served until 1940, when it closed along with the Back Creek schoolhouse a few miles north6.
In the immediate aftermath of its closure, the Fairmound Fish & Game Club rented the twenty-five year old schoolhouse7. In 1947, the building was purchased by Pearl Eiber of rural Elwood8. Today, it serves as a home.
Sources Cited
1 H.S. Mark (1880, February 12). The Marion Chronicle. p. 5.
2 Westlake, W.B. (1903). Map of Grant County, Indiana. W.B. Westlake [Madison]. Map.
3 Few Observations While Walking (1917, May 10). The Fairmount News. p. 1.
4 Lewis Trustee, Dean Assessor. (1915, January 4). The Fairmount News. p. 1.
5 Electrify Pike SChool Through Rural Line (1938, March 17). The Fairmount News. p. 1.
6 Fairmount Items (1940, August 21). The Marion Chronicle-Tribune. p. 3.
7 Nice Spot (1941, July 31). The Fairmount News. p. 1.
8 Buys Pike School (1947, March 27). The Fairmount News. p. 1.
