School buildings from the 1800s through the 1920s -or even the thirties- are usually the ones that really grab my attention. Now and then, though, a “modern” school intrigues me too! It’s a little startling to realize that some of them are pushing seventy-five years old, but one is Muncie’s old Sutton Elementary.
As the United States came out of World War II, Muncie was home to an aging fleet of school buildings, most of which had been built around the turn of the twentieth century. When Sutton opened, it was the first newly-built school in town in nearly forty years!
Poised to take over for the elderly Blaine and Stevenson schools, built in 1893 and 1918, respectively1, Muncie’s new K-6 elementary was named after Wilbur E. Sutton, editor of the Muncie Evening Press for thirty-two years2. When Sutton opened in 1951, it featured two kindergarten rooms, thirteen elementary classrooms, an auditorium-gymnasium, a health center, and a library. The new school could accommodate five hundred students from the surrounding Columbia Heights neighborhood.
Architecturally, Sutton was a sharp break from Muncie’s earlier schools, which tended to be regal, two-story statements meant to project permanence and authority. Instead, the $490,000 building4 embraced a low, modern profile, stretching out in an L-shape that hugged the ground5. The only real vertical punctuation came at the elbow of the plan, where the gymnasium rose just enough to announce itself.
Sutton functioned with its original floor plan for more than two decades, until 1976, when a $150,000 addition filled in the diagonal of the L6. The expansion reflected changing ideas about how schools should work: it introduced a 250-student cafetorium, dedicated art and music rooms, and a 5,000-square-foot media center7. The building’s most unusual feature was the library’s sunken, carpeted recess pit designed for conversation and reading8.
Despite the novelty of the recess pit, Sutton’s most defining feature was its 30-foot-tall purple Tyrannosaurus rex that still stands in the building’s courtyard. The steel-framed concrete dinosaur itself was the work of Zionsville artist Tim Adams, with part of its design coming straight from the classroom: in 1981, Sutton art teacher Pam Neccessary and her students helped shape the creature’s look9.
Unfortunately, time, finances, and enrollment patterns weren’t kind to the institution. In 2017, Sutton became one of three buildings closed by deficit-ridden Muncie Community Schools in a move expected to save $4 million each year10. Most of the school’s 356 students were sent to nearby Grissom Elementary11, and Ball State University bought the old school for $50,000 in 2018. Today, the building is used for storage12.
Sources Cited
1 New Suttom School Read for Opening Next Morning (1951, October 26). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 22.
2 To Name New School for Wilbur E. Sutton (1950, June 23). The Muncie Star. p. 1.
3 (See footnote 2).
4 Mothers Club Has Tea At Washington School (1950, November 9). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 17.
5 Owens, E. (1951, May 17). These Changing Times. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 4.
6 Plans listed for addition at Sutton (1976, ,May 14). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 19.
7Joschko, E. (1976, December 5). $3 Million Additions to Garfield, Sutton on Schedule. The Muncie Star. p. 41.
8 Kramer, S. (1977, May 14). Pupils eager as Sutton, Garfield additions near finish. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 13.
9 Kartholl, J. (2021, August 30). Former school turned into storage facility. The Muncie Star Press. p. A1.
10 Slabaugh, S. (2017, April 15). 3 SCHOOLS CLOSING. The Muncie Star Press. p. A1.
11 Ward, J. (2017, May 5). The Muncie Star Press. p. A1.
12 (See footnote 9).
I’d love to see that dinosaur.
Here’s a Muncie Evening Press photo from 1981:
Here’s another, from the Muncie Star Press in 2018.
Sutton reminds me of so many schools I saw back in the ’70s; the “connected boxes” look seemed to be everywhere. And while that style worked well for schools it doesn’t seem to lend itself very well to reimagination outside of some sort of outpatient medical facility.
Agreed! An angular seventies addition closed the hypotenuse, but it’s hard to take photos of.