Tag Muncie Indiana

Tickets, please

Ted Shideler 3 Comments
Read time: 4 min.

Local history is my passion. I write about it on this blog, serve on the board of the Delaware County Historical Society, and take pride in editing our newsletter, the Society Quarterly. That’s all well and good, but there are moments when I feel like an impostor: compared to my peers, my collection of historical artifacts is modest with few postcards and even fewer trinkets. Fortunately, I do have a series of tickets from an event at Muncie’s old Wysor Grand Theater. They make me feel like less of a phony.

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Abandoned Marsh: Burlington Drive in Muncie

Ted Shideler 2 Comments
Read time: < 1 min.

Other supermarkets had been remodeled into this format, but the Marsh supermarket on Burlington Drive in Muncie opened in 1977 as the company’s first “Combo” outlet to feature a built-in drug store. It closed forty years later. The supermarket was demolished after it closed to make way for a housing project. Near the end, the drug wing was converted to a Family Dollar.

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Center Township’s old Riley school in Delaware County

Ted Shideler Leave a comment
Read time: 3 min.

Center Township’s $28,000 James Whitcomb Riley School opened on Center Pike in 1914. The original structure displaced the District 2 schoolhouse, known as Conn, at the southwest corner of West McGalliard Road and North Walnut Street1. Muncie annexed the area surrounding the it after the 1928-29 school year, which left Eugene Field as Center Township’s only school.

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Center Township’s old Forest Park Elementary in Delaware County

Ted Shideler Leave a comment
Read time: 2 min.

Center Township’s District 8 school, known as Clay College, was dedicated in 18801. It was replaced by a two-story frame building known as Forest Park that sat on West Eighth Street near South Rochester Drive in Muncie. Unfortunately, the schoolhouse soon became overcrowded and unsanitary. It was condemned several times before it finally closed2.

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The Delaware County, Indiana Courthouse (1992-2021)

Ted Shideler Leave a comment
Read time: 6 min.

Indiana counties blew through courthouses at an astonishing pace in centuries past. It’s easy to find counties that built three or four before a permanent county seat was established! It’s almost unheard of for a modern city to cycle through courthouses so rapidly, but Muncie has. The 1992 Delaware County Justice Center was courthouse number five.

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I may be the only person who collects “Tractor” Traylor basketball cards

Ted Shideler Leave a comment
Read time: 10 min.

Aside from guys on the San Antonio Spurs and anyone with cornrows, my favorite NBA players as a kid were unsung heroes who overcame problems I dealt with as a kid. Theron Smith conquered a speech impediment, and Oliver Miller struggled with his weight. So did Robert “Tractor” Traylor. I identified with that battle! I gradually amassed a collection of forty-five of his basketball cards.

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Another new role

Ted Shideler 5 Comments
Read time: 4 min.

I’ve been busy this summer: I started the year as a lab technician at a plastics factory. Now I’m the production planner for all the company’s North American facilities! Beyond that, I’m still getting over the bloody repercussions of recent surgery. If that wasn’t enough, I agreed to be the new editor of the Delaware County Historical Society’s newsletter, The Society Quarterly, in July. I’m excited!

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