I was bumbling through Union County looking for its old infirmary when I spotted an old schoolhouse rising in the distance. I haven’t been able to find out much about it, but the building’s still intriguing for a variety of reasons. 

A single high school serves Jay County today, but things weren’t always that simple. Not so long ago, eight separate high schools dotted the county, each one anchoring its own community. Time and consolidation have erased them all, but one exception stands in New Mount Pleasant: there, a modest marker commemorates the site of I. P. Gray High School.

I pass the old schoolhouse at the terminus of Muncie’s Eaton-Wheeling Pike now and then. The structure seemed sound when I first encountered it years ago, but it’s been looking worse and worse over the years. I worry it’s only a matter of time before the building falls apart. 

For a city its size, Muncie punches far above its weight when it comes to neon. Our vintage McDonald’s and Arby’s signs are famous from coast to coast, and hometown fixtures like Oasis Bar & Grill and Tom Cherry Mufflers proudly keep the glow alive. Still, if I had to pick a favorite, it’s the one out front of Wise Country Market at 1700 North Walnut Street.

Folks in Indiana might remember expansive and boundless Marsh supermarkets from not so long ago, but the family’s first grocery stood in the tiny Jay County community of Salem. Not long after Wilmer Marsh was shot in the head there by an associate of Al Capone, he did the unthinkable by opening a second store just three miles west in New Pittsburg! I set out to find it. 

It had been four years since I last drove past the old District 3 schoolhouse in Niles Township. On that earlier visit, the building still wore its original bell, perched proudly in its cupola¹. More recently, though, the sight stopped me short- the cupola is gone, replaced by a new roof! I’m glad the schoolhouse has survived, but a meaningful piece of its character has slipped away. I hope it’s only temporary. 

Just after I hit publish on a post mapping the tunnels below Ball State University’s Old Quad as they existed around 1950, a friend messaged me with something even better: a newer map showing an expanded underground network as it appeared in 1982. Naturally, I dropped everything and started mapping again! Here’s what I found. 

If you’re anything like me, you find tunnels irresistible. There’s something about hidden spaces -places I’m not really supposed to see- that flips a switch in my brain. Stumbling across Ball State University’s tunnels on a seventy-six-year-old Sanborn fire insurance map last night felt like rediscovering a secret! In a way, they hide in plain sight.