I was busy researching Hobbs’ old Schoolhouse of Educated Wicker when I learned that another building just like it still stood in the nearby crossroads community of New Lancaster. Unfortunately, the school was obscured by trees. It took a while to wait for the foliage to shed, but I finally stopped by to take some pictures. There’s a school back there- I swear!
New Lancaster sits southwest of Elwood in rural Tipton County. Today, the place consists of little more than the old school, a handful of homes, and a cemetery about a mile west. In its day, though, New Lancaster featured two stores, a blacksmith’s shop, a tannery, tile and grist mills, a post office, and a Modern Woodman’s lodge. In the 1940s, New Lancaster was even home to two canning factories1!
The New Lancaster School was erected in 1930 by D.L. Thomas, the same builder responsible for the schoolhouse in Hobbs, which, to my eye, is architecturally identical. Modern in every detail but a gymnasium, the New Lancaster School featured five classrooms, an auditorium or assembly room with a stage, and a basement equipped with a kitchen and showers2. When it opened, the building consolidated six rural schoolhouses: Antioch, Cedar Corner, Darrow, Lancaster, Shiloh, and West Elwood3.
The New Lancaster School held on until 1972, when it, along with its twin in Hobbs, closed its doors for good. The following year, the building was appraised at $6,500 and offered for sale4. For a time in the 1970s, it found an unlikely second life as a flea market before eventually being converted into a private residence5. That reinvention was cut short in 2015, when a fire damaged the eighty-five-year-old structure6. Today, the fate of the old schoolhouse is uncertain. Hidden behind the trees, its latest chapter still waits to be written.
Sources Cited
1 Peters, R. R. (1949, June 2). New Lancaster: Home Of Loyal Citizenry. The Elwood Call-Leader. P. 7.
2 Getting Good Start (1930, March 17). The Tipton Daily Tribune. p. 8.
3 (See footnote 1).
4 Hobbs, New Lancaster Schools Are Appraised (1973, March 13). The Tipton County Tribune. p. 8.
5 The Little Red Antique House (1975, August 2). The Elwood Call-Leader. p. 7.
6 A piece of county history damaged by fire (2015, January 5). The Tipton County Tribune. p. 1.
Oh wow, neither of these schools (or honestly these communities) were on my radar. Unfortunately, not much of the New Lancaster school is on Vintage Aerials.
Unless you live there, there’s no reason for anyone to have New Lancaster on their radar lol. I lucked into it on a Google Maps exploration.
I wish I’d brought my DSLR to Hobbs to take closer photos. Alas, I had an old iPhone 12 with its “0.5” zoom. The school is super visible from IN-28. Even still has “WICKER” painted on the brick.
Really enjoy these that highlight old ghost towns that I never notice.
And when you include a map or a link it helps as I can’t always find locations thru Google maps.
I’m glad, I’ll start adding links soon.
Howard, coordinates for the New Lancaster school are here: 40.255262, -85.881377