Indiana’s dotted with hundreds of old one-room schools, and Delaware County is no exception. Of all of them, though, the best-preserved is undoubtedly Monroe Township’s old District 3 school, better known as Corinth. A newly-formed group aims to restore the historic building and return the old schoolhouse to its former glory.
Monroe Township has a deep educational history. Local students attend Cowan Elementary and Cowan Jr./Sr. High School today -I spent four years there myself- but the township’s first school was established during the winter of 1830–1831. The log building stood near what’s now the intersection of Macedonia Pike and East County Road 550-South, on Robert Gibson’s farm1.
Monroe Township was eventually divided into formal districts. A predecessor to the District 3 schoolhouse, known as McKinney, stood about a mile south of the current structure2. What was probably a frame school sat on the present spot in 18743, a year before the extant schoolhouse was built4. Unfortunately, the District 3 school closed after the 1912-13 school term and its students were sent to Cowan5. For years, farmers used the building to store animals and equipment.
A 1991 windstorm damaged the old schoolhouse6. A year later, Eleanor Miller and Helen Ross donated it to the Delaware County Historical Society7. The group proposed several plans for reuse8, but little came to pass. Ultimately, Norman Miller -whose father Perry went to class at the shuttered school- took the lead in restoring it in conjunction with the Delaware County Retired Teachers Association9. The schoolhouse received a new roof, cupola, and period-correct 1900-era furniture to serve as a living history museum for local fourth-graders studying Indiana history10.
Over time, though, the building began to deteriorate again. Field trips stopped. Today, the nonprofit group One Room School House No. 3, Inc., has determined that the building needs a new roof, a reconstructed cupola, tuckpointing, and other structural repairs. Those repairs will cost $52,00011, but once they’re done, the field trips will continue. The building will also open up to a variety of other uses.
I fully support the restoration effort, although I do have one small quibble. The group’s press release describes Corinth as “…one of the last remaining brick one-room schoolhouses in the nation12.” That’s technically true, I suppose, but it also understates just how many thousands of these places still survive across the country even if that’s a fraction of those that once existed. In fact, Monroe Township alone still has three other one-room schoolhouses standing along with Corinth.
Corinth is special because it’s been preserved, not because it simply still exists. At some point, though, people started acting as though one-room schools are rare. Around here, that just isn’t true, and I worry that the misconception overlooks dozens of other schools that already receive far too little attention from historians and preservationists.
Even the Delaware County Retired Teachers Association made a similar claim on its website, claiming that “Corinth School is the only remaining one room school from the 63 brick schoolhouses that existed in Delaware County in 187813.” Aside from Corinth, five of Delaware County’s surviving one-room schools were built earlier than then. Fragments of others built before that date survive, too. There may be a few others I’m overlooking, but those are the first that come to mind.
This morning, a headline on the Muncie Star Press website got it wrong too, by characterizing Corinth as “Delaware County’s last brick schoolhouse14.” Naturally, I had to correct the paper in the comments on Facebook. “This headline is misleading,” I wrote, “if not flat-out wrong. Corinth may be the last preserved or restored schoolhouse in Delaware County, but it is in no way Delaware County’s ‘last brick schoolhouse’ as the headline on your website states.”
“There are at least forty still standing,” I continued, “most preserved as homes and barns, in Delaware County, with three others in Monroe Township alone. I’d be happy to be interviewed to help set the record straight.” Will they take me up on my offer? I doubt it. Oh well- at least my conscience is clear.
Still, none of that diminishes what a treasure Corinth really is. Yes, many one-room schools survive across Indiana and beyond, but very few have been preserved to the degree Corinth has. Most sit abandoned, heavily altered, collapsing into ruin, or hiding in plain sight as garages, homes, and storage sheds. Corinth remains recognizable for what it was: a nineteenth-century rural schoolhouse with an intact sense of place and purpose.
That alone makes it special. More importantly, generations of local people cared enough to save it once already, and now another group is stepping forward to make sure the building survives. That’s something worth celebrating and supporting. If you’d like to help preserve one of Delaware County’s most remarkable historic schoolhouses, consider donating to the restoration effort here.
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 (pp. 268–269). book, Kingman Brothers.
2 Greene, D. (1959, September 15). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 6.
3 Delaware County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2021). Parcel ID: 1506200004000. Delaware County, Indiana Assessor. map, Muncie, IN.
4 Delaware County Public Schools. (1913). School directory, Delaware County public schools, Delaware County, Indiana 1913-1914. Muncie, IN.
5 Swickard, R. (1991, December 29). Endangered Site. The Muncie Star. p. 16.
6 Alliance acquires a second historical schoolhouse. (1992, November 3). The Muncie Star. p. 5A.
7 Alliance acquires a second historical schoolhouse. (1992, November 3). The Muncie Star. p. 5A.
8 Friends of Corinth. (2002, November 21). The Muncie Star Press. p. 26.
9 Roysdon, K. (2005, November 21). Students learn from past at Corinth schoolhouse. The Muncie Star Press. p. 4.
10 (See footnote 9).
11 Cooper, C. (2026, April 22). New Nonprofit Formed to Preserve Historic 1875 One-Room Schoolhouse in Muncie, Indiana. The Muncie Journal. Web. Retrieved May 19, 2026.
12 (See footnote 11).
13 Corinth School (n.d.). Delaware County Retired Teachers Association [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved May 19, 2026.
14 Rea, T. (2026, May 20). The push to save Delaware County’s last brick schoolhouse. The Muncie Star Press. Web. Retrieved May 20, 2026.
Well said. Old schoolhouses are fascinating, especially when preserved like this. But by no means rare. I drive by the Washington School in Allen County every day, currently for sale for $300k. Have you ever been to the Stanley School preserved inside Chain ‘o Lakes State park?
Stanley is on my list! I have a friend who works there.
You are right about the numbers, of course, but I would imagine that the number of these structures that could throw a dozen kids and a teacher inside and actually conduct a (rudimentary) class is quite small. This would be a great destination for a classroom trip. I wonder if there is a stool and a dunce cap inside. 😁
I was in fourth grade a couple years before this place was restored (the first time). We went to another preserved schoolhouse down in Hope, near Columbus. We used slates, played stick ball and some stupid hoop-rolling game, drank from a tin cup, and that’s about all I remember. Yes, there was a conical dunce cap on a little stool in the corner.
Wow! I don’t remember doing anything like that in fourth grade. Of course, that was in a different school system – but still not a 30-minute drive from Corinth.
What I do remember is a trip to one of the teachers’ farm property to visit Indian mounds* situated there! That was neat.
*Before anyone bites my head off, all of the American Indigenous tribes I have lived near prefer to be referred to as Indians.
Mr. Crow at YES had a mound on his property. We went there one year too.
Good for you, getting into the comments and offering your services to help clarify things!
People who are interested in this should know that they’re everywhere – and while it’s great to have (at least) one fully preserved as a schoolhouse, I always think it’s way cooler when you have to squint a little bit to distinguish what once was from what is today.
I have a follow-up post all ready to go for tomorrow that dives into that a little more.
Oh, that’s great!
That’s a handsome one!
It certainly is!