Just east of Mount Comfort, an old brick schoolhouse stands entirely out of place amid the sprawling distribution centers that have sprung up around the area. Some version of it has sat at the north side of County Road 300-North just west of 500-West in Hancock County’s Buck Creek Township since at least 18681! Seven years later, the schoolhouse was situated on land owned by Hans Steele2. The present structure was built in 18993.
Buck Creek Township’s District 5 schoolhouse was commonly known as Center4 because of its spot near the geographic heart of Buck Creek Township. Still, locals also called it Mt. Comfort in a nod to the nearby community whose students it wound up serving5. Classes continued there until 1914 or 1915, when local officials built a $32,000 school in Mt. Comfort proper6.
The modern nine-room building featured a gymnasium, a 600-seat auditorium, and dedicated spaces for domestic science, manual training, and agricultural education. By 1923, every remaining one-room school in Buck Creek Township had consolidated into Mt. Comfort7.
Today, the old Center or Mt. Comfort schoolhouse is a home.
Sources Cited
1 Political Speaking (1868, July 23). The Hancock Democrat. p. 3.
2 King, J.K. (1875). Map of Hancock County, Indiana from recent & original surveys. Worley and Bracher [Philadelphia]. Map.
3 Hancock County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2025). Greenfield. Parcel ID: 30-06-18-400-016.000-006. Map.
4 Another Meeting in Old Buck-Creek (1888, August 16). The Hancock Democrat. p. 3.
5 Editor, Democrat (1882, February 9). The Hancock Democrat.
6 New Castle Contractor Gets Mt. Comfort School (1914, May 21). The Greenfield Republican. p. 1.
7 Consolidation (1923, November 22). The Hancock Democrat. p. 7.
