I’ve been chasing down old schoolhouses for over a decade now. Soon after I started writing about them, the questions started rolling in. Folks on Facebook, members of the Delaware County Historical Society, and even my own family kept asking, “So, when are you going to write a book?” I wasn’t sure how to answer for years, but eventually, it clicked: as soon as I started seeing them be torn down, a book about the schoolhouses of Delaware County seemed beneficial.

I was traipsing around the Williams County Courthouse in Bryan, Ohio, when I turned a corner and stopped in my tracks. There it was -the Bryan Theatre- its marquee glowing brilliantly in the afternoon sun! Small-town cinemas have always had a hold on me, and this one was no exception. I snapped a quick, off-kilter photo from across the square and promised myself I’d learn more about the place’s history. Seven years later, I finally have. 

A while back, I wrote a couple of articles about how I might have accidentally become the world’s top collector of Oliver Miller’s basketball cards– and how I may have even inflated their value by buying so many. Miller, a standout 6’9″, 280-pound Arkansas Razorbacks center who played in the NBA for nine seasons, left a big mark on the game in more ways than one. Unfortunately, news of his passing at just fifty-four broke late Wednesday night.

I mostly stuck to my plan when I set out to take photos of historic courthouses across Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. Otherwise, who knows how long I’d have been out on the road! Still, I couldn’t resist snapping a quick shot of the Celina Cinema 5 in Ohio as I wandered around the town square. The theater stands right across Main Street from the stately Mercer County Courthouse.