Mom and I were out driving the other day and decided to head past the old Spartanburg High School. What could be better than visiting a spooky old burned-out landmark on Halloween? As we rounded the curve into Spartanburg proper, one thing was missing: the school. All that’s left is the staircase up the hill from Arba Pike.
Unincorporated Spartanburg is a tiny place with two churches, a park with a flowing well, a cemetery, and, surprisingly, a full-service Merchants Bank. The village isn’t really on the way to or from anywhere unless you’re passing through the hamlets of Bartonia and Crete on Arba Pike. Despite that, Spartanburg’s the biggest community in Randolph County’s Greensfork Township! That’s why a two-story, T-shaped schoolhouse was completed just south of town in 18751.
I don’t have a picture of that schoolhouse. However, new regulations for graded schools forced officials to replace it in 19082. The three-story, eight-room high school3 was big enough to absorb the students in Districts 9, 10, and 11 schoolhouses4. The rest of Greensfork Township’s schools consolidated into Spartanburg over time, with the last -District 2 at Arba- closing its doors in 19295.
A decade later, a WPA grant for $18,000 allowed officials to expand the school by adding a gymnasium/auditorium6. The embiggened Spartanburg High School was thought of as the finest rural school building in Randolph County7! Unfortunately, the schools of Greensfork, Washington, and Union Townships were forced to consolidate into a new district in 19628. The process failed, as did another, but a third combination of Greensfork and Washington Townships resulted in a new school district called Randolph Southern9.
Spartanburg high-schoolers transferred to Lynn before the 1964-65 school year in a swap that sent Lynn’s seventh- and eighth-graders to Spartanburg10. Ultimately, Spartanburg closed in April 1974 after a new Junior-Senior High School was built11. The empty building was purchased by Williams Manufacturing Company in 1976 and was converted into a factory12. After a few years of storing corn, the massive old school spent most of the 2000s abandoned and vacant.
I guess abandoned, vacant landmarks are inescapable temptations to an arsonist. In the early morning of March 12, 2012, a fire broke out. It erupted into an inferno of explosions that sent embers north to Spartanburg and ultimately coated the town with thick ash. Sixteen fire departments made it to the scene as officials considered evacuating the town13! The news made headlines in Indianapolis, and I decided that I had to go see the school for myself. I called in at work, picked my friend Chelsea up, and we headed to Spartanburg.
We arrived an hour later and parked at the base of the hill in front of the school. Stupid and reckless, I suggested that we make our way up the concrete stairway towards ground that was still smoldering as plaster occasionally dropped from the walls up ahead. My flip-flops began to melt into the embers, so we turned back barefoot.
I made it back to the site five or six times since then, wisely never venturing from my car but sometimes flying my drone. Over the years, nature began to destroy what the fire didn’t consume, like the building’s triangular pediment. My most recent trip past was in 2023, when Mom and I took her Mercedes out for some exercise. Even then, the ruins of Spartanburg High School loomed large over the tiny town it once served. Now they’re gone.
Just to confirm what we were seeing, Mom and I passed the site twice. We pulled into the weed-infested drive that once led to the structure. None of it was there. Aside from a backhoe in the distance and the old stairway on Arba Pike, nothing hinted at the building’s existence.
I can’t say I’m surprised that Spartanburg High School’s ruins were finally demolished. After fourteen years of exposure to the elements, the old building had become little more than a dangerous shell of its former self. Still, tearing it down cost real money, and funds like that don’t seem to come easily in rural places like Greensfork Township. Ultimately, though, I’m glad I had the chance to take photos of Spartanburg High School over the years. This is why my work is important, even if my first visit nearly cost me a pair of feet.
An old cement staircase leads up the hill from Arba Pike just south of Spartanburg, but a school no longer waits at the top. Somehow, that felt like an appropriately eerie ending for Halloween.
Sources Cited1 Engle, B. (2012, April 14). Arson caused Spartanburg School fire. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 3.
2 Additional Locals (1908, March 4). The Winchester Journal. p. 8.
3 Additional Locals (1908, May 27). The Winchester Journal. p. 10.
4 Knight, M. (1964, May 5). Final Commencement May 22 At Spartanburg High School. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 7.
5 Hinshaw, G. (2008). A History of Education in Randolph County, Indiana. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
6 Gymnasium-Auditorium Is Dedicated at Spartanburg High School (1939, December 21). The Richmond Palladium-Item and Sun-Telegram. p. 9.
7 Randolph County Interim Report (1998). Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory. Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana.
8 Four-Unit Setup OK’d for Randolph (1961, October 6). The Muncie Star. p. 26.
9 (See footnote 5).
10 Spartanburg, Lynn Pupils To Pick Nickname, Colors (1964, March 12). The Richmond Palladium Item and Sun-Telegram. p. 22.
11 Peters, K. (1975, December 12). Only Finishing Touches Remain For New Randolph South School. The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 33.
12 Spartanburg School Sells For $21,000 (1976, April 25). The Richmond Palladium-Item. p. 35.
13 Engle, B. (2012, March 13). Fire damages old Spartanburg School. The Muncie Star Press. p. 4.
