Elnora (1,000?) Built 1959
September 26, 2025
September 26, 2025
I remember someone once calling the area I grew up in around LaGrange and Elkart Counties the "land of the Mennonites." For some reason this stuck with me over the years. I think I even used it a few times myself when people asked me where I was from in college. The only downside to this is that the conversation inevitably turns to the Amish, and questioning if I'm Amish, and what's the difference between being Amish and Mennonite, and so on and so forth. As much fun as it is to explain to people the variations between normal Amish, Shipshe Amish, Beachy Amish, conservative Mennonite, "normal" Mennonite, etc, it doesn't really matter. Once most people see the last name Yoder and hear Amish or Mennonite, they're going to believe what they want to believe. I learned once I got older that this issue isn't unique to LaGrange and Elkhart Counties. There are communities like this scattered all over rural Indiana in little pockets. Each of them have their own levels of nuance between groups that you can't really understand unless you are from there. Leadership and how it is chosen within the churches varies wildly in each. I always thought most of the more conservative sects didn't really have formal pastoral programs or seminaries. Many Amish churches choose their bishops by blindly pulling bookmarks out of Bibles, and you can essentially be chosen to lead whether you like it or not. There is no official training program. All of this is a really long and meandering way to say I was surprised to come across a conservative Anabaptist seminary while searching for old gyms in Daviess County. What used to be the home of the Elnora Owls is now home to the Elnora Bible Institute. This kind of modern use for an old gym was certainly a new one to me, but as always, I'd rather them be used for something positive instead of being left to rot.
The Owls of Elnora played in a part of the state that has historically been an absolute hotbed for small school basketball. Unfortunately that magic never seemed to rub off onto them, at least not in the postseason. In nearly 50 years of IHSAA basketball, they only won 32 sectional games total, and never strung enough together to bring home that elusive title. Even so, I have to imagine that their basketball team meant just as much to them as it did to others in the surrounding communities that maybe had a little more postseason success. Before they consolidated into North Daviess in 1968, they got to cheer on those teams for a decade in a gym that just screams 1950s. An arched roof is typically a pretty good indicator that a gym was built soon after WWII, but an arched roof with a diamond cross-hatch pattern on the inside is a dead giveaway. English, Winslow, and the late Pine Village gyms instantly come to mind, but I'm sure there are/were many more. It's a beautiful design that never grows old on me. In Elnora's gym it is certainly the focal point. It reminds me of the honeycomb pattern that bees create, even knowing full well that those have different shapes in their pattern so the comparison doesn't even really make sense. The rest of the gym isn't anything out of the ordinary, but that's not a knock on it, and it will always have that gorgeous ceiling to fall back on anyways.
I know I mentioned there are a million different small nuances between Anabaptist church groups, but there is actually one very simple way you can categorize them. There are the basketball playing Amish/Mennonites, and then there are the volleyball playing Amish/Mennonites. As you can probably guess, I grew up firmly in the former camp. The kind people at the Elnora Bible Institute who let me check out the gym seem to be volleyball people, as that is what the gym was set up for. That along with relying on just a little bit of daylight streaming through upper sideline windows made taking pictures on my antiquated iPhone a little difficult, but I persevered. The retractable wooden bleachers along one sideline were rolled up but firmly intact. They look pretty standard and go up ten rows. The opposing sideline side of the gym has been converted into rooms of some sort, though I'm assuming they mirrored one another originally. The baseline wall where you enter the gym is pretty bare except for a small red scoreboard that hails from another era. There are two wooden practice hoops nailed directly to the wall behind the main goal. Both main baskets are original and feature the lower wooden plank that the rim is screwed into with the glass above. The opposing baseline wall features a wide stage with brick pillars on both ends that contrast the lighter color of the rest of the wall. Under the bottom of the stage are little square panels. I'm not sure what their function was, if there even was one. As I mentioned earlier, rectangular windows line the highest points of the walls along each sideline.
Daviess County will always hold a special place in my heart. The people down there are truly salt of the earth type folks who are as friendly and down to earth as they come. My friends there have meant the world to me. The basketball tradition is unrivaled. As one of the schools that came together to form North Daviess, the greatest rivalry game in all of sports (The Buggy Bowl) has some of its roots dug in here at Elnora. The gym may not carry the same weight or fame as other old ones in the area, but it still deserves to have its story told. There is too much tradition and community pride here for it to just be forgotten. I'm glad it continues to get some use, even if it is primarily for volleyball. It honestly is fitting that it is now home to the next generation of leaders in the Anabaptist community. I guess it's an odd connection that I'll always have to the gym. I may technically be a Nazarene now, but I'll always feel at home in the "land of the Mennonites."
