After a new state constitution authorized funding for free, common schools, Adams Township demolished five old schoolhouses in exchange for ten frame buildings that were soon erected to take their place1. The District 10 schoolhouse was one of them2.
Continue reading “Adams Township’s Poly Walk schoolhouse in Madison County”
It sucks to say it, but not a whole lot is known about Jackson Township’s District 8 school. In 1880, it sat on the Epperly farm1, which is how the schoolhouse got its colloquial name. That year, the extant brick building appears to have been erected2.
Continue reading “Jackson Township’s Epperly schoolhouse in Madison County”
The District 11: Eggman schoolhouse was built in 1866. That year, the Bethel Church was founded as a Sunday school, meeting in the schoolhouse itself1. After its closure, the schoolhouse became a parsonage for Bethel’s frame sanctuary built in 1888 at the southwest corner of West 38th Street Road and South Layton Road2.
Continue reading “Anderson Township’s Eggman schoolhouse in Madison County”
Lafayette Township’s District 9 schoolhouse in Madison County was known as Closser. It sits at the northeast corner of today’s West County Road 300-N and North County Road 500-W. In 1880, 300-N was known as the Anderson and Perkinsville Pike, a toll road that connected those two communities1. The schoolhouse got its name from the family that originally deeded its location to the township.
Continue reading “Lafayette Township’s Closser schoolhouse in Madison County”
In Madison County, Jackson Township’s first District 7 school appears to have been built on the Noah Ryan farm a mile west of the present-day intersection of West Eighth Street Road and North County Road 600-West. It may have originally been called Ryan due to its location there1. In 1880, the schoolhouse was three quarters of a mile further east2.
Continue reading “Jackson Township’s Hamilton schoolhouse in Madison County”
The first District 3 schoolhouse in Adams Township was a log building “up on the hill on Art Hennings’ property1.” Around 1854, a frame structure was completed next to the Dunkard (German Baptist) Church that still stands on New Columbus Road south of what’s now East County Road 500-South, an area sometimes referred to as Old Columbus. Accordingly, the schoolhouse was known as the Dunkard school2. In 1877, a brick schoolhouse was built in what was called the “Fesler District3” that measured 23×38 feet and cost $1,100. That school, the one that still stands, was an exact replica of Adams Township’s District 8: Collier schoolhouse.
Continue reading “Adams Township’s Dead Dog schoolhouse in Madison County”
I must be getting old. I can’t think of a better way to commemorate my 32nd birthday than continuing my examinations of the old highway alignments that once connected the cities of Muncie and Anderson in East Central Indiana! With my newfound age in mind, let’s focus on two discontiguous old alignments of Indiana State Road 32 in Madison County. Though we can quibble on specific boundaries, the highway spans about twelve miles from the western edge of Muncie to the east side of Anderson. The two discontinued alignments in Madison County measure around 3.5 miles.
Continue reading “Exploring State Road 32 between Muncie and Anderson on my birthday”
Anderson Township’s District 5 school received its common name, Baker Hill, due to its location at the apex of a highland near the modern-day terminus of Gun Barn Road at Moss Island Road1.
Continue reading “Anderson Township’s Baker Hill schoolhouse in Madison County”
Although Richland Township’s brick College Corner schoolhouse was erected in 18841, an older District 4 schoolhouse, likely frame, sat on the land of J.H. Chambers at the southeast corner of College Corner Road and North County Road 100-East even earlier2.
Continue reading “What’s left of Richland Township’s College Corner schoolhouse in Madison County”
“Bullies don’t like to fight, son. They like to win.”
The poet Kwame Alexander wrote those words in his graphic novel Booked, a story about a twelve-year-old soccer player named Nick who struggles to navigate life after his parents’ divorce. Who among us was twelve and wasn’t bullied for one stupid reason or another? If you were, it’s time to pool our funds and buy a jacket to send to Madison County. We may have to bring the tent and awning company in on this one.
Continue reading “The Madison County, Indiana Courthouse (1972-)”