Read time: 7 min.

I wrote about the site of the old Oakville schoolhouse in rural Delaware County last month. Almost immediately, I realized just how much context I’d left on the table. Armed with my sister and a renewed sense of curiosity, I made a return trip to the unincorporated community to see what remained. As it turns out, Oakville had been waiting for a second look: there’s far more left than I remembered!

As I mentioned before, Oakville got its start at the southern edge of Delaware County in 1873, when John Holsinger laid out a small village he called Pleasant Hill¹. Its name changed seven years later, but the real test came dramatically on April Fools’ Day, 1884. A powerful tornado tore through the settlement, leveling nothing but four homes in its path²! Remarkably, Oakville refused to disappear. Residents rebuilt³.

Oakville is home to about two hundred people today⁴ but its presence on the landscape feels far larger than that number suggests. No matter which direction you approach from, your eye is drawn to the same unmistakable landmark: the Oakville grain elevator. It dominates the village skyline as a reminder of just how central agriculture has been to the place since its first granary was built in 1898⁵. 

The initial structure burned in 1912, but a successor company, the Farmers Elevator Company of Oakville, rebuilt in 1919⁶. The modern elevator, with an astonishing 5.6 million bushel capacity, was purchased by The Andersons of Maumee, Ohio, in 2004⁷. It stands against a busy Norfolk Southern Railway mainline, tracks that once belonged to the storied Nickel Plate Road. 

Coming into town from the west, the tiny Oakville Post Office sits just southwest of the sprawling elevator complex. Dedicated in 1975 to replace an aging and tiny structure nearby⁸, the brick building was actually built by the grain elevator and leased to the government⁹– an arrangement that, in some similar fashion, appears to continue to this day¹⁰. 

Oakville’s post office isn’t the tiniest I’ve ever encountered. That distinction belongs to the one in Orestes, a story I’ll have to tell another time. Still, Oakville’s is plenty small: it only features a modest lobby, a compact workroom, a utility room, a restroom, and some storage space. Even as its long-term future feels uncertain, the place still matters! That’s why I find myself driving twelve miles on the rare occasions I need to mail a letter. Why not? 

Aside from the grain elevator and post office, Oakville is home to at least two prominent commercial structures from days gone by. That’s far more than can be said about a lot of other unincorporated hamlets in the area! The first, and largest, stands about a hundred feet east of the post office. The Delaware County Assessor says the building was erected in 1880¹¹, and I have no reason to be suspicious. After all, a general store operated by Lewis Hickman came into operation that same year¹². 

Oakville once supported not one, but two fraternal organizations- groups that gathered in a Knights of Pythias lodge known as Energy Lodge Number 401¹³ and in a Red Man’s Hall¹⁴. Exactly how those spaces were arranged is unclear, but I’ve always assumed at least one of the lodges met on the upper floor of this building, which today appears to have been converted into apartments. The paper trail thins out just when it gets interesting, but when I was a kid, the ground floor boasted an old Pepsi sign that read “Mirage Dance & Fitness.” 

Oakville’s second commercial building sits just across the train tracks. The Delaware County Assessor says it was built in 1900¹⁵, but that’s often used as a placeholder for old buildings when no one’s quite sure of an actual date. The 32×60-foot structure has changed a lot since I first drove the Oakville: in those days, the front first floor was painted a dark green while the rest was weathered gray. Today, faux pilasters and flower boxes have been added to its facade. A cartoonish, L-shaped chimney pokes out from the top. 

As recently as 1996, the Oakville Family Restaurant operated just across from the entrance to the grain elevator. As a hangout for farmers, school bus drivers, and residents during the breakfast hours, it was a popular rural outpost¹⁶! Could the gray building across the tracks once have supported a restaurant downstairs and a lodge hall up top? I don’t know, but it seems as likely as any other explanation. I hope someone will chime in with some details.

Oakville’s final landmark, the First Brethren Church, sits at the end of Oakville Road on the eastern edge of town. The original congregation was founded in 1887 when Reverend J.H. Swihart was pastor. At that time, the community still featured a bank, post office, grain elevator, grocery, restaurant, brick factory, car dealer, and interurban station¹⁷. 

The first church was replaced by the present sanctuary in 1923. That was two years before Oakville’s three-room schoolhouse, which served students from grades 1-8 in Monroe Township’s Districts 8 and 11, closed down for good. After 1925, kids in town were sent two miles north to Cowan. Unfortunately, nothing remains of the schoolhouse but a parking lot for Oakville First Brethren. 

I’ve passed through Oakville maybe ten times over the last ten years. What strikes me most about the community isn’t some single building or date, but the way its pieces still fit together. A tornado nearly erased the place; the school is gone, and the businesses have faded or changed hands. Nonetheless, Oakville persists! Repurposed buildings, altered facades, and half-forgotten lodge halls all point to a town that adapted again and again rather than disappearing when its peak passed.

Sources Cited
1 Haimbaugh, F.D. (1924). History of Delaware County Indiana. Historical Publishing Company [Indianapolis]. Book. 
2 (See footnote 2). 
3 Hillman, R. (1989, April 24). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 4. 
4 Penticuff, D. (1996, October 28). Oakville life centers on elevator. The Muncie Star Press. p. 19. 
5 (See footnote 4).
6 (See footnote 4). 
7 About This Facility (n.d.). Oakville Grain Elevator. The Andersons. Web. Retrieved December 22, 2025. 
8 Oakville Dedicates Post Office (1975, December 1). The Muncie Star. p. 16.
9 Roysdon, K. (2006, January 9). Post office survived when others closed. The Muncie Star Press. p. 4. 
10 Delaware County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2025). Parcel ID: 1521460001000. Delaware County, Indiana Assessor. map, Muncie, IN.
11 Delaware County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2025). Parcel ID: 18-15-21-460-002.000-012. Delaware County, Indiana Assessor. map, Muncie, IN.
12 Flook, C. (2019). Lost Towns of Delaware County, Indiana. The History Press [Charleston]. book.
13 K. Of P. Lodges Will Gather At Oakville (1924, June 15). The Muncie Star. p. 21. 
14 Demos Meet At Oakville (1942, March 25). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 3. 
15 Delaware County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2025). Parcel ID: 18-15-21-480-002.000-012. Delaware County, Indiana Assessor. map, Muncie, IN.
16 (See footnote 4). 
17 Satterfield, E. (1986, November 27). The Muncie Star. p. 3.