Mom and I were out driving the other day and decided to head past the old Spartanburg High School. What could be better than visiting a spooky old burned-out landmark on Halloween? As we rounded the curve into Spartanburg proper, one thing was missing: the school. All that’s left is the staircase up the hill from Arba Pike.
Continue reading “The ghost of Spartanburg High School has finally vanished”
If you’re aching for the chance to live in a one-room school but the old Lincoln Schoolhouse I wrote about a few weeks ago didn’t trip your trigger, you’re in luck: another schoolhouse long since converted into a house has been listed for sale. It’s the old Keller or Buttermilk School in Madison County’s Lafayette Township.
Continue reading “Another schoolhouse has hit the market”
Two weeks ago, I wrote about an intriguing intersection in Henry County with a sign commemorating a long-gone one-room schoolhouse and a granite marker pointing towards a pioneer burial ground. Information about either place initially proved elusive, but that changed! On Sunday, I headed back for another look.
Continue reading “An intriuging intersection update”
I’ve always been fascinated by buildings that find new life as churches, especially when their original purpose seems as removed from worship as possible. Over the years, I’ve written about a former Marsh supermarket, another old Marsh, a pair of Walmarts, and even an old car dealership that traded its showroom for a sanctuary! Schools seem like natural candidates for congregations looking for a new home, and one in Delaware County -Perry Elementary- successfully made that transition. Along the way, a prominent Muncie newspaperman managed to make a spectacularly cringy observation.
Continue reading “Liberty Township’s old Perry Elementary School in Delaware County”
Last week, a Facebook friend sent me a fascinating message. Jane was on a bike ride near Summit Lake in Henry County when she came across an unusual crossroads. One corner featured a plaque commemorating a long-gone school, while another held a brick pillar pointing the way to a tiny cemetery! She hadn’t stopped to take pictures but promised to investigate the next time she camped at the lake. Unfortunately, I couldn’t wait. Here’s what I found.
Continue reading “The intriguingest intersection in Henry County”
From 1997 to 2011, nearly every trip to my dad’s carried me past the tiny town of Kimmell on US-33, a stretch of the old Lincoln Highway. The road’s modern routing glides over the town on an overpass. Because of that, I somehow missed one of the community’s best landmarks: an old schoolhouse situated at the corner of Schlabach Street and Jackson. Once I finally spotted it, I knew I had to turn around and take a closer look.
Continue reading “Sparta Township’s Kimmell School in Noble County”
One of my oldest schoolhouse mysteries involved the District 7 building in Henry County’s Dudley Township. An old Quaker meetinghouse called Hopewell stands nearby. I attended a meeting there something like twenty years ago and was told the building had originally served as a schoolhouse! Its T-shaped form looked the part, and I carried that little nugget around for years. Unfortunately, the truth appears to be sitting right next door, where some very obvious evidence comes to a different conclusion.
Continue reading “My Hopewell schoolhouse mystery seems solved”
My Uncle Jeff texted me the other day with a question: did I know about the old schoolhouse for sale nearby? I knew about the school, but not that it had hit the market. The 1886 Lincoln schoolhouse near Yorktown has grown to 3,951 square feet! After forty-six years in the same family, it could be yours for $325,000.
Continue reading “Here’s your chance to live in a one-room schoolhouse”
Throughout its history, Grant County’s Green Township was home to as many as six one-room district schoolhouses1. That changed in 1924, when the Green School Township issued $60,000 in bonds to build a consolidated structure just north of Point Isabel2. All of the rural schools closed when the building was dedicated on August 3, 19253.
Continue reading “The Green Township School at Point Isabel in Grant County”
I was driving through White County near the northwestern portion of Indiana when I stumbled across this old frame building near of Burnettsville. Based on its appearance, I assumed it may have been an old school so I grabbed a couple of photos just in case. As it turns out, this was Jackson Township’s old Shull Schoolhouse!
Continue reading “Jackson Township old Shull’s schoolhouse in White County”