I’ve spent fifteen years trying to find a photograph of Mt. Pleasant Township’s long-lost Sycamore School in Delaware County. That’s nearly forty percent of my life! Somewhere along the way, the building became my white whale; the one local landmark I was convinced had vanished without leaving so much as a single image behind. Then yesterday, while researching something completely unrelated, I stumbled across one by accident. The school looked nothing like I’d imagined.
I don’t usually spend much time looking into the stories of demolished schoolhouses. I’d rather focus on the ones that still stand! That said, something about Sycamore always intrigued me. It was a four-room rural graded school1– perhaps the only one in Delaware County, where rural township schools only infrequently spanned two rooms. The building was erected in 1913 to replace an older frame structure2 and was large enough to take over for four rural district schoolhouses3.
With a capacity of 140 students, the 1913 Sycamore school was home to the latest in modern conveniences like fans, a heating system, and flowing water4. When it opened, it appears to have led to the closure of the Walker and Liberty schools two and three miles away, respectively5.
Disaster nearly struck in 1927 when a defective chimney flue sparked a fire. Farmers from Daleville, Cammack, and Yorktown formed a bucket brigade that saved the building, though, which limited damage to about $5006. Five years later, rumors began to circulate that the school would close. Enrollment had dropped to about thirty students largely due to Sycamore’s remote location five miles northwest of Yorktown7. Finally, the decision was made not to reopen for the 1935-36 term. With only thirty-four students still in attendance, the economics no longer made sense. Sycamore could close and its pupils could be absorbed into Yorktown without expanding the building there8.
Sycamore’s final teachers were Dorothy L. Myers for students in grades 1-4 and Mary Beth Turner for grades 5-8. Lewis Hensley was the janitor9. At first, township officials announced that Sycamore would be maintained for community use10. If that happened, I haven’t found much evidence. The earliest aerial photo I’ve found, from 1956, is too blurry to tell whether it shows the school or just its footprint. At any rate, the building was torn down long ago.
As I’ve said, the Sycamore school was a mystery for many years. I’ve taken photos of Mt. Pleasant Township’s Cammack, Lincoln, Yorktown, and Kilgore schoolhouses. I’d seen photographs of Walker, Liberty, Center, and even aerial views of Nebo that satisfied my curiosity. Still, Sycamore alone refused to reveal itself. I imagined it was similar to the two-room schoolhouse in Cammack, which was built around the same time and was larger and more ornate than its single-room peers. When I wrote about it last, someone online told me that Sycamore was much smaller than Cammack11. That was hard to believe, but it scuttled my theory.
Then, while searching old newspapers for something entirely unrelated yesterday, I clicked on an unassuming thumbnail. There it was: Sycamore School, photographed when it was brand new. Wow! Contrary to what I’d been told years ago, my first impression was that Sycamore appeared substantially larger than Cammack. Of course, it had to be since it had twice the rooms. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen another four-room rural school before! It sort of looks like the old Hamilton and Epworth schools in Madison County, or Jay County’s in New Corydon, but far larger than any of them.
Even through the lens of a low-quality newspaper reproduction, Sycamore was a school far grander than I’d imagined. Instead of being some typical T-shaped structure, Sycamore presented itself as a broad, symmetrical brick institution. A Romanesque arched entrance anchored the center of the façade and featured a curved “PUBLIC SCHOOL” inscription above a set of pilasters, while a cupola peeked out from its perch above a brick gable. Two bays of six four-over-four classroom windows stretched across each wing, while six more rose from a raised basement’s stone foundation.
What a grand building! I’m still surprised by never seeing a photo of it before, but I guess this kind of discovery is one of the joys of digging through local history. Sometimes the stories you set out to tell refuse to cooperate by hiding behind missing records, demolished buildings, and forgotten memories. Then, when you’ve all but given up, a single overlooked photograph suddenly fills in a piece of the puzzle! Sycamore School is still gone, and its students are ninety years removed from its hallways, but at least it no longer exists only in my imagination. After fifteen years, my white whale has finally surfaced.
Sources Cited
1 History of the Mount Pleasant Township School System. (1956). Delaware County Historical Alliance. p. 1.
2 (See footnote 1).
3 One of the Newest Township Buildings (1913, July 8). The Muncie Star. p. 12.
4 (See footnote 3).
5 Delaware County Public Schools. (1914). School directory, Delaware County public schools, Delaware County, Indiana 1914-1915. Muncie, IN.
6 50 and 25 Years Ago (1952, February 11). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 4.
7 Sycamore School Will Be Abandoned (1932, September 27). The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 4.
8 Sycamore School Not To Reopen (1935, July 17). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 9.
9 Delaware County Public Schools. (1934). School directory, Delaware County public schools, Delaware County, Indiana 1934-1935. Muncie, IN.
10 (See footnote 8).
11 Gernand, G.F. Yorktown Indiana Historical Society (2025, October 4). It was not nearly as large as the one in Cammack [Comment]. Facebook.
