INDIANAPOLIS — John Marshall High School was the last new high school Indianapolis Public Schools ever built, but it has been abandoned for six years. It will remain vacant after the city of Indianapolis decided not to buy the building.
WRTV Indianapolis had planned to purchase the John Marshall campus for $750,000 and hand it off to a non-profit so it could become a community center. The Department of Metropolitan Development decided to pull out of the deal because it estimated it would cost $18 million to repair the building.
WRTV “Upon further investigation and due diligence, it just became clear that it was more of a burden than originally thought,” said Lucas Gonzalez of the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development. “It’s unfortunate that it could not get off the ground, but at the end of the day, we have to work within the confines of what’s actually possible.”
The high school opened at the corner of 38th Street and Mitthoefer Road in 1967, but closed in 1986. It later re-opened and transitioned into a middle school before it closed for good in 2018.