Clark Township (500?) Built 1934
June 4, 2026
I've been teaching in the same elementary school for ten years, starting right out of college. I've actually been in the same grade for all ten of those years. I've even been in the same classroom all ten years. I love it. I love the people I work with, I love the people I work for, and most importantly I love the students that I get to teach. My school community in Anderson has become a second home for me. People ask me all the time if I've ever thought about leaving, and the honest answer is no I haven't. I've never had a reason to even consider it. Some people say that a lack of change can lead to complacency or stagnation, but I'd argue it's done the opposite for me. I'm so invested in the community I teach in that I feel like I work even harder to be my best because I don't want to let the people around me down. I can't imagine being anywhere else. With all that being said, in a hypothetical situation or in an alternate universe where I have to move and teach somewhere else, I may have found the place. Right after school was out this summer, I planned a gym trip to some communities just south of Indy. My first stop was Clark Elementary. When I tell you that I don't think a more beautiful elementary school exists anywhere else in the state, I'm not being facetious, it's unbelievable. Normally I only focus on the gyms in these places, but it was impossible to not take it all in here.
Clark Elementary originally started out as Clark Township High School in Johnson County back in 1911. That early-1900's era is when hundreds of these big brick schools were being built across Indiana to consolidate all the rural schoolhouses that dotted the Hoosier landscape. While I've been to oodles of the gyms that were attached to these schools in the 1920s-1950s, very few of them have the original school buildings still connected to them. Of those, even fewer are still active school buildings. Clark Township was absorbed into Whiteland in 1965. The building has lived on as a grade school ever since then. The original 1911 structure still stands facing the road. The 1934 gym sits directly behind it on the west side. Even more modern additions sit behind all that. While the exterior of the original school is beautiful on its own, the interior is just as impressive if not more. There are towering ceilings with high windows letting in natural light. Everything feels grand and important. It's like a castle of learning. As I walked through the stately structure to the gym, I was just taken aback by it all. I could sense the history that runs deep through the building while still finding an appreciation for the amenities of a modern elementary school, and I only saw the entrance and hallway that leads to the gym by the cafeteria. I can only imagine the rest of the building is just as impressive.
As cool as the school itself is, we're here to talk gyms. The Clark Township Lions played in this gym for three decades leading up to the closure of the high school. Almost all rural township high schools were tiny, so winning even a single sectional title was impressive, and that's exactly what the Lions did. They brought home the hardware in 1953, defeating Whiteland, Nashville, and Greenwood along the way. There's also a 1952 Johnson County championship banner in a display case out in the hallway, so the that must have been a pretty good two year run for the Lions. The gym they played in is pretty small, but I'm sure it suited the needs of this small township school just fine back in the day. It's also been remarkably well-preserved over the years. I'm not sure if the hardwood is original, but it looks like it could be. It looks weathered in the best way while still being well-cared for. It has both dark and light-gold streaks in it. It also features the double timelines which were common in the olden days when courts weren't regulation lengths. The timelines are painted red which matches the red band that goes around the perimeter of the court.
All the seating in the gym resides along the sidelines. Each side has 4 rows of permanent wooden bleachers that are painted a very sharp light grey/blue on the sides and a standard blue on the bench seats. Above the bleachers are big windows that have thankfully never been filled in. On one side they still look outside, while on the other side they look into the school. All of them are set in the gorgeous red and brown brick that encapsulates the whole gym. One of the bleacher sections still has the original scorer's table intact which actually sits up a couple of rows which is something you very rarely see. It has "Clark" written across it in big white letters against an orangish background. It looks fantastic. The only odd thing that sticks out in the gym is the color scheme. With all the red, orange, and blue, there's a lot going on. While one baseline wall is pretty bare, the other features a gorgeous old stage. It's flanked on both sides by columns that jut out ever so slightly. A pretty blue curtain runs across it. Up above is a red trim piece of some sort that is curved slightly. A small "C" is carved in stone in the center of the upper area. If I had to guess, I'd think the original locker rooms were underneath or to the sides of the stage. The last neat feature of the gym I'd like to point out is situated high above the court. There are big beams running over the court with a slightly arched roof above them. That's pretty common, but the wooden lattice that runs above the beams is not. I'm not sure if it was designed that way more for style or function, but it just adds even more character to a place that's already full of it.
This was the first stop of my day, and it couldn't have gotten off to a better start. The beautiful school, the gem of a gym, the old Clark Township memorabilia on display right outside the gym, it all got me in the right frame of mind as I headed off to see four more gyms across three different counties. I'm not sure how the Clark school managed to survive all these years when over 95% of the other schools just like it across the state didn't, but I'm just grateful it did. It's really neat that a kid in 2026 can walk through the same doors to get an education that their great-great-grandparents did over 100 years ago if their family stayed in the area all this time. Call me sentimental (which I absolutely am), but that's pretty special. Maybe even more special than the old gym that resides right through those doors, and that's saying something, because it's pretty special in its own right.
