As soon as I hit “publish” on yesterday’s post about Niles Township’s old Green Street schoolhouse, a nagging thought hit me: had something worse happened to the building? It’d been a while since I’d seen it, and I couldn’t shake the worry that another of Delaware County’s one-room schools might be teetering. I headed out to see it for myself. By the time I got there, the question answered itself: the schoolhouse had collapsed! So much for hoping it would hold on a little longer.
I’ve written about the old Green Street schoolhouse a couple of times now, but its story still sticks with me. Here’s a quick recap: the first frame building went up around 18401 and served the township until a windstorm ripped it apart in 1871. Undeterred, the community rebuilt- this time in brick2. Unfortunately, Green Street’s classrooms went silent after the 1916–17 school year3, when its students were sent off to Dunkirk4. From there, the brick schoolhouse faded into a quieter life as it spent its final century as a barn.
Aside from its collapse, the story of the Green Street school is typical of many of Delaware County’s remaining schoolhouses. Far more interesting, at least to me, is the story of the road that gave the building its common name. Early settlers named the rural thoroughfare Green Street because many of them hailed from Greene County, Ohio5. Today, it’s more commonly known as North County Road 800-East. Its route loosely links Albany with the Jay County community of Dunkirk.
I followed the old Green Street Road out of Albany to snap a few photos of the schoolhouse. In town, the road begins as Water Street, just east of Albany’s old Red Men’s lodge. From there, it winds past Granville Avenue before stretching north for about four-fifths of a mile to meet the old Eaton–Albany Pike.
Just beyond that junction rises New View of the Cross- a congregation that began its life as the Bethel Church⁶. The sanctuary itself seems to trace back to 1859⁷, but the quiet graveyard tucked behind it reaches even farther into the past, all the way to 1839.
More than six hundred souls rest in the cemetery, but time -and a few mischievous trees- have heaved several of the larger stones out of place. I wandered the grounds for a while, letting the stories rise up around me. As I puttered around, one marker stood out above all the others: the monument for Charles W. Barker, who died on February 17, 1880. His leaning obelisk is the largest white bronze monument I’ve ever laid eyes on! It practically commands the whole hillside.
Pressing ahead, the old interurban line from Albany to Dunkirk cuts across Green Street just two-fifths of a mile north of Bethel Church. The right-of-way is tough to spot this time of year, but it’s still hiding in plain sight if you know where to look. From Dunkirk, the Union Traction Company’s cars swung southeast toward Redkey before bending northeast again on their run to Portland. One of these days, I’d love to track the path to see if any surviving rails lurk under the brush.
Green Street Road undulates as it goes north past the interurban crossing. It’s a rural road with little to see for about two-and-a-half miles when, just before East County Road 1200-North, it arrives at the old Green Street schoolhouse. Just past, a right turn takes motorists to Crown City Lanes and CVS in Dunkirk.
I didn’t make it to Dunkirk, though. I slowed down just long enough to realize I’d almost driven past what was left of the old schoolhouse! I hit the brakes and pulled over, and the scene that met me was jarring. Aside from a few stubborn sections of wall, the old school had been reduced to rubble. Its rafters splayed outward like the ruffled frills of a peacock, an old garage door was in pieces, and the entire roof had vanished as if the sky had simply swallowed it.
Green Street Road carries on past its old schoolhouse, but it was hard not to feel a pang seeing the building in such sorry shape. Another piece of Delaware County’s educational past has slipped away, quietly and without ceremony. I suppose that means it’s time to cross yet another schoolhouse off the list I first saw back in 2002, and again in 2014 and 2021.
There’s a strange weight that comes with moments like this, when a place you’ve photographed, researched, and folded into your mental map suddenly begins to exit the landscape. Delaware County’s old schoolhouses always felt a like little anchors to me, and watching one disappear feels a bit like losing a witness to that history. Still, I’m glad I caught the old Green Street schoolhouse in photographs when I did. Even in ruin, the structure has one last story to tell as Green Street Road continues on.
Sources Cited
1 Helm, T. B. (1881). Mount Pleasant Township. In History of Delaware County, Indiana: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. book, Kingman Brothers.
2 Shirk, O. (1947, January 25). The Green Street School. The Muncie Morning Star. p. 5.
3 Niles Township Schools May Not Open This Term. (1917, September 7). The Muncie Morning Star. p. 17.
4 (See footnote 3).
5 Ellis, J. (1898, June 8). Our County. The Muncie Morning News. p. 3.
6 Winters, R. (1991, May 18). Just Ducky. The Muncie Star. p. 10.
7 Delaware County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2025). Parcel ID: 0426400006000. Delaware County, Indiana Assessor. map, Muncie, IN.
I had been holding onto hope, but your sense of foreboding turned out to be right.
I figured I better go see the old schoolhouse after I wrote about it. Instinct. Too bad.