Category Indiana

At the corner of Lincoln and Hitler

Ted Shideler 5 Comments
Read time: 4 min.

Back when my dad lived up north, we made the Fort Wayne-to-Goshen run on U.S. Route 33 like clockwork every other weekend. We’d roll through little towns like Kimmell without a second though, but what changed the day Dad caught wind of something you don’t see every day: the intersection of Lincoln and Hitler Streets. For a guy wired for history, the intersection was irresistible! Next thing we knew, we followed his curiosity and saw it for ourselves.

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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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One last set of ten old gyms as they appeared in Sanborn Maps

Ted Shideler 3 Comments
Read time: 7 min.

Growing up in the heart of Hoosier Hysteria, it was probably inevitable that I’d fall for basketball. What I didn’t expect was how deeply I’d get hooked on the places it was played. Long after the final buzzer, I’m still thinking about balconies, locker rooms, and oddly shaped floors. Recently, I’ve been digging through old Sanborn Maps to trace how high school gyms were first built, how they evolved, and what those changes say about the communities that packed them. Here’s a little more of what turned up.

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The Golden Dome of MCL

Ted Shideler 11 Comments
Read time: 4 min.

In terms of restaurants, big names tend to crowd out the near-misses. Every once in a while, though, something surfaces that makes you stop and wonder how it ever slipped away. That’s exactly what happened when my friend Dylan stumbled across Golden Dome, a short-lived fried chicken concept from MCL. It seemed poised to be its next big thing! Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. 

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The Meetinghouse at Carthage

Ted Shideler 2 Comments
Read time: 4 min.

Not many people know this, but I’m a birthright Quaker. I haven’t regularly attended meeting since I was a kid, but I found myself unexpectedly drawn back to that part of my story a few years ago. My mom has an 1866 diary kept by our ancestor Mary Jane Edwards, and we set out to follow the trail she left behind. One of those places was Rush County’s old Carthage Friends Meetinghouse.

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