Category Found Muncie

A glimpse inside the Gaston gym

Ted Shideler 18 Comments
Read time: 10 min.

Delaware County boasts basketball cathedrals like the Muncie Fieldhouse and Ball Gymnasium, but its history thins out fast after a step outside the city. In fact, only one true survivor from Indiana’s golden age of hoops remains- the home of the Gaston Bulldogs. After years of trying to find someone to let us in, My friend Brett and I visited yesterday. We might have made it just in time. Here’s how it all unfolded, with some history to boot.

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The home I wrote about yesterday WAS an old schoolhouse, but I still don’t know much about it

Ted Shideler 3 Comments
Read time: 4 min.

Yesterday, I posted about a building at 3604 East Jackson Street in Muncie that someone told me was an old schoolhouse. I had my doubts since I’d never come across it in years of digging through local history, but a fortunate tip from reader gregandbirds strongly suggested I may have been wrong.

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I clinched Muncie’s Thunderbolt trifecta with unfortunate results

Ted Shideler 4 Comments
Read time: 4 min.

Most of Muncie’s outdoor warning sirens are bland, modern Federal Signal 2001-SRNs. Three, however, are different: they’re yellow Federal Signal Thunderbolts that date back to 1958. I’ve finally tracked all of them down, but the last example -perched at the old Riley Elementary School- has fallen silent. Its Cold War voice is broken. 

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Rees: a pioneer cemetery in Delaware County

Ted Shideler 3 Comments
Read time: 6 min.

Of all of Delaware County’s pioneer burial grounds, few carry the weight of history quite like Rees Cemetery along the old Muncie–Richmond Road. At first glance, it’s easy to pass by without a second thought. Look closer, though, and the ground tells a deeper story: nearly two centuries of early settlement, loss, and survival are bound up in this modest acre. That makes Rees Cemetery not just one of the county’s oldest burial grounds, but one of its most revealing windows into the lives and deaths that shaped Delaware County from its earliest days.

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Muncie’s former Garfield School

Ted Shideler 2 Comments
Read time: 6 min.

As a post-industrial city sitting squarely in the center of the Rust Belt, Muncie was once home to a fantastic variety of smokestacks. Many no longer exist as the factories have been demolished, but one of the best that remains sits behind the old Garfield Elementary. Some version of the school has been a landmark for more than a century! Fortunately, it’ll soon become home to something new.

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Spotted in the wild: the first “Victorian” Village Pantry

Ted Shideler 2 Comments
Read time: 2 min.

As it grew across Indiana and Ohio, Yorktown-based Marsh Supermarkets wasn’t content to just dominate the grocery aisle- it wanted a foothold on the corner. In 1966, the company jumped headfirst into the booming convenience-store business with its Village Pantry division. Many of the oldest examples have found second lives as something else, and I can’t pass one without slowing down. 

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My first run-in with the Pay Less robot

Ted Shideler 9 Comments
Read time: 6 min.

Kroger comes in two flavors here in Muncie: Ruler Foods, a no-frills ALDI competitor, and Pay Less, a full-service alternative. Pay Less began in Anderson in 1947, but Kroger snapped it up in 19991. Muncie was never kind to Kroger, but it re-entered the market with Ruler in 20132. A bigger investment came in 2017, when the company bought two closing Marsh supermarkets and reopened them as Pay Less3. I recently ran into its wandering robot. It was weird! 

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All of Muncie Mall will be demolished

Ted Shideler 18 Comments
Read time: 5 min.

Last summer, we learned the old JCPenney at Muncie Mall was slated for demolition. By September, the plan ballooned to JCPenney, Sears, and an abandoned movie theater. Fencing went up, then progress seemed to freeze in place. Yesterday, shocking news spread across social media: the entire mall will be torn down! It’s the end of an era- one that, if I’m being honest, may have lingered longer than it ever should have.

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