As a post-industrial city sitting squarely in the center of the Rust Belt, Muncie was once home to a fantastic variety of smokestacks. Many no longer exist as the factories have been demolished, but one of the best that remains sits behind the old Garfield Elementary. Some version of the school has been a landmark for more than a century! Fortunately, it’ll soon become home to something new.
Although it looks relatively modern by today’s standards, the story of Garfield Elementary School began in 1901, the year a contract was let for its predecessor’s construction1. When it opened the following November, the $40,000 building was said to be the best-equipped school in Muncie2!
Beyond enrolling 523 students in grades 5-8, Garfield broke new ground in how education worked. It became the city’s second school to adopt departmental instruction, an innovative approach that swapped the one-teacher-per-grade model for subject specialists, where each teacher focused on a single field of study3.
The original Garfield School was impossible to miss. Its walls rose to thirty-six-foot eaves and an immense clock tower soared eighty feet above Madison Street4. In 1913, the bell that once marked the hours at the original Muncie High School found a new home inside its spire5.
The old bell occupies a near-mythic place in Garfield’s story, especially after a devastating $300,000 fire tore through the building on Christmas Day, 19476. According to legend, the bell broke loose from the belfry during the blaze, plunged to the ground floor, and somehow survived intact7. Whether the tale is fact or folklore is anyone’s guess, but it’s the kind of story that refuses to fade.
It was later discovered that improper insulation had been applied between the school’s furnace and flooring. Exposed nails conducted heat into the wood, which led to the conflagration8. Immediately afterward, Garfield’s PTA asked for a new school9. It only took a few years for the board to build anew.
The 1950 Garfield Elementary School marked a clean break from the past. Sleek and modern, it shared little with its hulking predecessor beyond a tunnel and a sheltered passageway linking the two. Trimmed with Bedford limestone, the L-shaped brick building was thoughtfully laid out: the ground floor housed a two-unit kindergarten room alongside four first-grade classrooms. Upstairs held three second-grade rooms, a third-grade classroom, plus a music room and a library10. The shorter wing wrapped up in a gymnasium–auditorium with seating for five hundred. For the time being, though, the old school still carried the load for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. Garfield straddled two eras at once.
The old building remained home to fourth, fifth, and sixth graders for the time being11, but an addition was purposely built to allow for its eventual demoliton12. In the late 1970s, the old school made way for a $1.5 million addition that added 55,000 square feet of floor space facing Madison Street.
Finished in 1978, the new addition featured a media center; community education rooms; art, music, and counseling areas; a cafetorium; and sixteen open-concept classrooms13. The old Muncie Central bell was preserved and moved into the new building’s foyer14.
“New” Garfield served the neighborhood for thirty-one years before its doors finally closed at the end of 2009 as a casualty of persistent academic struggles15. Its students were scattered among Grissom, Southview, Sutton, and Washington-Carver elementaries16 as Garfield fell silent. The following year, Muncie Community Schools sold the school to the Muncie Housing Authority for $133,50017. A local public charter school, Inspire Academy, opened in a small part of Garfield in 2013. Three years later, the institution relocated to a building all its own in the former Franklin Junior High School on East 16th Street18.
Garfield had been empty ever since until the YWCA of Central Indiana bought the old school last month. The organization will expand its services for women and families19. What a fantastic case of reuse!
Sources Cited
1 New Garfield School (1901, April 25). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 1.
2 Enrollment of Students (1901, November 13). The Muncie Star. p. 4.
3 (See footnote 2).
4 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana (1902). Sanborn Map Company. Web. Retrieved January 7, 2026.
5 Koenker, J. Lost Muncie (2017, September 16). Here is the old high school bell that was at the Washington Street festival today. Bob and Karen Good and [Status]. Facebook.
6 Seek Cause of Garfield School Fire (1947, December 26). The Muncie Star. p. 1.
7 Boyd, O.T. (2004, June 3). Will bell toll for Garfield? The Muncie Star Press. p. 1.
8 Say Garfield Fire Cause Exists in 2 Other Schools (1948, January 5). The Muncie Star. p. 1. Petition of PTA asked for new building (P.T.A., 1948).
9 P.T.A. to Ask New Garfield Building (1948, January 5). The Muncie Star. p. 1.
10 Terhune, B. (1950, June 24). Garfield Addition First Milestone in School Building Program (1950, June 24). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 14.
11 Garfield School Addition Not Part of Old Building (1948, October 21). The Muncie Star. p. 1.
12 Kramer, S. (1978, March 9). ‘New’ Garfield dedication set. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 1.
13 Joschko, E. (1976, December 5). $3 Million Additions to Garfield, Sutton on Schedule. The Muncie Star. p. 41.
14 Kramer, S. (1978, March 9). ‘New’ Garfield dedication set. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 1.
15 Leiker, J. (2009, June 10). New principals named at schools. The Muncie Star Press. p. 3.
16 Boyd, O.T. (2004, June 3). Will bell toll for Garfield? The Muncie Star Press. p. 1.
17 Leiker, J. (2010, February 24). SOLD! The Muncie Star Press. p. 1.
18 Fittes, E.K. (2016, July 15). Inspire Academy moving its school. The Muncie Star Press. p. A3.
Wissel, K. (2026, March 22). YWCA Central Indiana Finalizes Purchase of Former Garfield Elementary School. Muncie Journal [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved April 10, 2026.
