I pass the old schoolhouse at the terminus of Muncie’s Eaton-Wheeling Pike now and then. The structure seemed sound when I first encountered it years ago, but it’s been looking worse and worse over the years. I worry it’s only a matter of time before the building falls apart.
The extant schoolhouse in Wheeling was built in 1891 to accommodate grades 1-8. A tornado damaged the schoolhouse in 19221, but classes continued to be held for three more years. The Wheeling schoolhouse was the last of Washington Township’s rural schools to consolidate into Gaston, and Carl Hedgeland served as its final teacher2.
The mother of a friend of mine owned the old Wheeling schoolhouse many years after it closed. It was first remodeled into a home before the building was repurposed to serve as a barn3. After the Wheeling Methodist Episcopal Church was razed in 2024, the old Wheeling school is about the only landmark that delineates the town as an actual place. I hope it lasts longer than it looks like it might.
Sources Cited
1 Property in and Near Wheeling Damaged by Tornado That Swept Northwest Part of County. (1922, April 19). The Muncie Morning Star. p. 1.
2 Delaware County Public Schools. (1924). School directory, Delaware County public schools, Delaware County, Indiana 1924-1925. Muncie, IN.
3 Careins, R (2021, August 6). Lost Muncie. Pupils posing in front of the Wheeling School, Wheeling Indiana, Washington Township, Delaware County Indiana. This school building still stands [Comment]. Facebook.
