The Union Literary Institute was founded in 1846 by Quakers and free African-Americans during a time where only white students were privileged to go to public schools. Despite the Quaker influence, the school was non-religious. Later, the institute became a regular schoolhouse.
Continue reading “Greensfork Township’s Union Literary Institute in Randolph County”
Spartanburg is a tiny place. Tucked away in the southwestern corner of Randolph County, the community consists of little more than a bank, two churches, and a park. Despite that, it’s the largest community in Greensfork Township, and the village’s presence is amplified by its old high school, which towered over the community for a hundred years. Today, its ghostly ruins do.
Continue reading “The ruins of Spartanburg High School”
I’ve been to two-hundred and thirty-three one-room schools across eleven counties since I started documenting and researching East Central Indiana’s one-room schoolhouses during the pandemic. Even if that isn’t enough to make me an expert, it is enough to list weirdest schoolhouse names I’ve come across! Today, I’m happy to present my scientific findings.
Continue reading “The top ten weirdest schoolhouse names in East-Central Indiana”
On May 22, 1847 Thomas Johnson granted Union Township officials a portion of his property to build a schoolhouse in exchange for a dollar1. By 1874, the schoolhouse -located on the east side of North County Road 200-W about a half a mile south of Eaton-Wheeling Pike- was known as District 6 and stood and on Richard E. Craw’s property.
Continue reading “Union Township’s Nixon schoolhouse in Delaware County”
Pipe Creek Township’s District 1 school, known as Jobe, was built in 1895 to replace a frame structure. It, along with the Shiloh Friends Church immediately to the southeast, formed a small community along with several houses1.
Continue reading “Is this what’s left of Pipe Creek Township’s Jobe schoolhouse in Madison County?”
Monroe Township’s District 3 schoolhouse, commonly known as Tennessee, was visible on an 1880 plat map. It stood at the southwestern corner of the Lamar family’s seventy-eight acres a mile west of Gilman, or two miles south and four miles east of Alexandria1. Gilman was a tiny hamlet with no schoolhouse of its own after 1906, so the Tennessee school served the kids who lived there.
Continue reading “What’s left of Monroe Township’s Tennessee schoolhouse in Madison County”
Greene County’s first courthouse in Bloomfield was a log structure built in 1825. Nine years later, county officials ordered the building’s foundation be repaired “so as to prevent the hogs from disturbing the court or any other public business1.” By 1835, county commissioners decided to build another courthouse. Today, all that remains of the second structure is its cupola. It’s been used as a lawn ornament for the past hundred and thirty-seven years2!
Continue reading “Indiana’s 1839 Greene County Courthouse cupola”
An early iteration of Delaware County’s Mt. Pleasant Township’s District 1 schoolhouse was erected in 18421. Later, the log school was used as a sanctuary for the congregation that later became Cammack Methodist Church2.
Continue reading “What’s left of Mt. Pleasant Township’s Nebo schoolhouse in Delaware County”
I spent a big chunk of 2021 researching the schoolhouses of Madison County. I started with Adams Township since my band practiced in a modular building there. Although I focused on one-room schoolhouses, I stopped to take photos of two consolidated schools there. I’m glad I did since I recently learned that most of the old Markleville High School has been torn down! I’m sad to see it go, but its destruction is a perfect example of why it’s important to shoot your shot before you miss out on an opportunity.
Continue reading “Shoot your shot: A final lesson from Markleville High School”
What’s left of the Washington Township Public School sits just east of Raleigh, an unincorporated community in the northeastern corner of Rush County. Local legend -and even a boulder that sits out front- proclaims the building to have been the first consolidated school in the nation1. Fact or fiction, the building’s remains are among the most compelling schoolhouse ruins I’ve ever come across.
Continue reading “The ruins of America’s first consolidated schoolhouse, in Raleigh, Indiana”