The old schoolhouse in Merriam, Indiana, has something in common with the one ten miles up the road in Kimmel: I passed both hundreds of times a kid on the way to my dad’s house, but somehow went decades before I realized either existed!
Thankfully, Google Maps makes globetrotting easier than ever.
Merriam is an unincorporated community in Noble County where State Road 9 and U.S. 33 -the old Lincoln Highway- cross. Old maps from the 1860s and ’70s call it Nobleville, based on its location in Noble County’s Noble Township, and a post office was established there in 1853. At some point, the town received its current name, which is thought to honor early shopkeeper Mason M. Merriam1.
For years, my dad, my brother, and I passed this old diner and its welcoming sign with a burger, a pie, and some eggs. Never the schoolhouse, though! Still, the area has a deep scholastic history. What appears to be the first school to serve kids back when Merriam was Nobleville stood just east of today’s Merriam Christian Chapel on land owned by Jacob Kitt2.
The school was still there in 18743, then appears to have been relocated to the northwest corner of County Roads 50-West and 400-South by 19094. Unfortunately, the Merriam schoolhouse burned in 1914 thanks to a defective flue and a fire left in a stove overnight. Students were sent to other schoolhouses in the township until a new structure could be built5.
The present building, which served Noble Township’s District 4, is an unusual two-room schoolhouse6. It still operated as an elementary school until at least 1955, when Garr Kitt was principal and Phillip Ferguson taught music. The classroom teacher position was open when the article I found was published7. The school assuredly closed before 1966, when Harold Hearhart began leasing it from Central Noble Schools to use as a cricket farm8!
Hearhart bought the building outright eight years later for $4,0009. I’m not sure what it’s used for today- the old schoolhouse is hard to see past all the trees that surround it.
Sources Cited
1 Baker, R.L. (1995). From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History. Indiana University Press [Bloomington]. Book.
2 Map of Noble County, Indiana (1860). E.B. Gerber [Philadelphia]. Map.
3 Durant, S.W. & Durant, P.A. (1874). Illustrated Historical Atlas of Noble County, Indiana. Andreas & Baskin [Chicago]. Book.
4 Map of Noble County, Indiana showing rural delivery service (1909). U.S. Post Office Department [Washington, D.C.]. Map.
5 50 Years Ago (1964, February 1). The Columbia City Commercial-Mail. pp. 1-2.
6 Crawford, C. (n.d.). District #4 School in Merriam. Christopher Crawford: Midwestern Photographer. Web. Retrieved October 30, 2026.
7 Wolf Lake School Teaching Staff For 1955-56 To Include 15 (1955, August 29). The Columbia City Commercial-Mail. p. 1.
8 Central Noble Sells School (1974, December 19). The South Bend Tribune. p. 6.
9 (See footnote 8).
