My mom and I were crawling through traffic on the old Lincoln Highway between Fort Wayne and Churubusco when she pointed out what looked like an old schoolhouse. I couldn’t believe I’d never noticed it before- that stretch of highway was practically stitched into my childhood! Maybe I had seen it once upon a time, back before one-room schools hijacked my brain. Either way, the building finally caught my attention, and once it did, I had to know its story.
Eel River Township takes up the northwestern corner of Allen County. By 1898, the area was home to nine schoolhouses1. Plat maps from 1860 show one on what’s now US-33 between Carroll and McDuffee Roads2. The institution became known as Eel River after the township. The present structure was built around 18913.
Eel River Township combined its schools with Perry Township’s thirty years later4. As part of the arrangement, Perry closed all of its schools while Eel River shut down three. A consolidated elementary and high school was completed in nearby Huntertown in 19225, while Eel River’s last three schoolhouses -Madden, Center, and the one Mom and I found- closed down in 19376. Eel River eventually became a home. The converted building was advertised for sale in 1970 as a “converted school house painted yellow7.”
Today, the building remains a home, features a huge garage, and appears to be sinking into the ground.
Sources Cited…