Read time: 5 min.

Not long ago, I wrote about some Google Maps sleuthing that led to me to find the old Pine Township gym in Benton County. I was hard at work at that when I found what I figured was another, the former home of the Ervin Township Eagles near Kokomo. A gym still stands along with part of a wing, but it looks like the buildings were put up after the township school consolidated. I don’t think the Ervin High School Eagles ever soared within its walls. 

My uncertainty didn’t prevent me from shooting a message to Brett Yoder of Hoosier Gym Journey. “I think I found more schools and gyms,” I wrote. “Not sure if you have them (you probably do).” Brett already knew of several, but Ervin Township was missing. Intrigued, I started looking the story of the disembodied gym and what I guessed was once a library or a grouping of classrooms. 

An 1877 plat map shows a District 5 schoolhouse nearly smack-dab in the middle of Ervin Township. In those days, it stood on land owned by the McDowell family, at the southwest corner of what’s now County Road 300-North and 900-West¹. That early building was commonly known as the Center Schoolhouse². In 1917, it stood on the northeast corner on Whistler’s property³. 

It appears as though the original section of the consolidated Ervin School was built in 1928⁴. I imagine that its completion spelled the end for whichever one-room schoolhouses remained in Ervin Township. I’m sure the old building featured a gym⁵, but I don’t know if it stood attached to the rear of the school, in a basement, or somewhere else entirely. The one yearbook I found, from 1942, doesn’t reveal much. 

Unfortunately, the Ervin school only spent twenty years educating students in upper grades. In 1948, the township joined nearby Clay and Howard to become the Northwestern School Corporation⁶. The high schools in Ervin and Howard Townships were retained as elementary schools, and Ervin was expanded in 1956⁷. 

Another addition consisting of a library, gymnasium, and three classrooms came in 1978, when plans were made to tear down the original structure and build a new school centered around the newest portions⁸. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. Instead, it looks like Ervin Elementary School was closed before the 1981-82 school year began⁹. Historical aerial images show the original school in 1981, but it soon disappeared. Only the 1978 portion appears to remain today. 

I’m a little bummed that I didn’t find a classic old gym, but Brett and I both had our doubts- we agreed that was what left didn’t look like a pre-1950s gym. Sometimes, searching via Google Maps leads to problems like that. It was only after I logged in to Historic Aerials that I found out for sure! 

Even if Ervin Township didn’t give me the hidden relic I was hoping for, chasing down its story to the extent that I did still felt worthwhile. Every time I pull on one of these threads, I end up with a better picture of how Indiana’s schools evolved. It’s the hunt, the history, and the connections with fellow explorers like Brett that keep me combing for more. 

Sources Cited
1 Combination Atlas Map of Howard County Indiana (1877). Kingman Brothers. Reprinted 1976 by The Bookmark [Knightstown]. Map. 
2 75 years Ago (1946, August 10). The Kokomo Tribune. p. 4. 
3 Gould, W.A. (1917). Map of Howard County Indiana. C.B.F. Clark [Kokomo]. Map. 
4 Lange, L.V. (1980, September 24). Changing Northwestern boundaries, closing Ervin School recommended. The Kokomo Tribune. p. 1.
5 Ervin Defeats Russiaville (1939, February 21). The Kokomo Tribune. p. 8.
6 Goad, J. (2017, March 23). Howard Elementary Centennial Celebration: School building turned 100 on Sept. 7. The Kokomo Herald. Web. Retrieved September 4, 2025. 
7 (See footnote 4.
8 Proposal to phase out Ervin has met with opposition in the pasta (1980, October 12). The Kokomo Tribune. p.2. 
9 Lange, L.V. (1980, October 15). Northwestern boundary changes, school closing decision delayed. The Kokomo Tribune. p. 3.