Jackson Central (Old Hamilton Heights) (2,500?) Built 1957
March 16, 2026
I've done my usual Hamilton County spiel enough times here that it's probably getting old so I'll give it a rest. To be honest, it wouldn't really apply in this case anyways. I'm writing about a school and gym that existed before Hamilton County was what it is today. Before Hamilton County was the ritziest suburb in all of Indiana (and according to many publications the entire country), it was very similar to the majority of the rest of the state: expansive farmland and quaint small town communities. As Indianapolis slowly started to expand, those Mayberry-esque communities started to get engulfed. The northern part of the county has managed to hang onto it's rural feel for the most part, but even it is slowly becoming consumed by urban sprawl. Arcadia is really the last bastion of normality left. The high school that serves its students nowadays, Hamilton Heights, is currently in a weird state between what the rest of Hamilton County is and its own rural roots. It will probably become Carmel 2.0 in a few decades, but it hasn't succumbed completely just yet. This is the story of the first gym that Hamilton Heights played in, and a town with a school history much more complex than most.
Arcadia had its own high school as most small towns did after the one room schoolhouses were consolidated right after the turn of the 20th century. The Dragons of Arcadia first played in the state tournament in 1915 when they beat Mount Comfort in the first round of the sectional before falling to Pendleton in the next round. They carried on until 1943 when they consolidated with Atlanta and Cicero to form a new high school. This was one of the earliest coordinated school consolidation efforts to form a brand new high school that occured anywhere in the state. To make the whole thing even more interesting, the actual name of the new high school was harder to nail down than it should have been. On the plaque of the 1957 building that still stands with the gym today, it reads Jackson Township. Now often in the old days, high schools would have township names on the buildings but be referred to as common names everywhere else. The problem here is that I've found records of two different common names for the school: Jackson Center and Jackson Central. To make matters even more complicated, there's another Jackson Center that was located over by Bluffton. Confusing! I've seen it referred to Jackson Central more than anything else, so that's what I'm going to refer to it as here. Jackson Central was located in the northwest corner of Arcadia. The Eagles played their games in this gym starting in 1957 when the new school was built alongside it. In 1965 when the town faced consolidation again with Walnut Grove to form Hamilton Heights, it was decided that the relatively new gym and building would continue to be used as the home of the Huskies. Hamilton Heights played here for a long time, until 1993 when the new high school and gym were built. This gym then served as a middle school until a few years ago, and now is used for a variety of things by the school district. It's seen a lot, but looks relatively as it did when it was built 70 years ago, and for that I am very thankful.
I had basically no expectations when I set up my visit to check out this old beauty. I had been told it was in good shape and pretty neat, but I had no idea what the configuration or size of the place was. If I had done more research beforehand and realized it was hosting varsity basketball games into the early 90s, I probably wouldn't have been as shocked. This place is awesome. It features the always wonderful horseshoe design, complete with permanent wooden bleachers on three sides. The bleachers were removed at one point along one of the sidelines, probably to make more room for P.E. classes when it was a middle school, but it hasn't diminished the place at all really. It's pretty easy to imagine what it would have looked like since the rest of the original bleachers are intact. The bottoms and sides of the bleachers are painted a greyish off-white color, but the bench seats are painted a bright Hamilton Heights orange. I'm not sure what the colors of the Jackson Central Eagles were, but the color scheme looks awesome as it stands today. The bleachers go up 14 rows on the sidelines and about the same in the corners and the one baseline. The bleachers work up from the floor at an angle in the corners like you typically find in horseshoe gyms. There are two entrances that enter parallel with the baseline seating, making that section pretty narrow. Above those tunnel entrances are walled off rooms. I'm assuming the bleachers used to run on top of them, but I don't know for sure. At the bottom of the baseline seating section is a short padded wall to presumably protect spectators and players from running into each other.
The only thing this place is missing for a big horseshoe gym from the 50s is a stage on the fourth side. The big baseline wall here is empty except for a big American flag and a neat old husky logo on the orange mat running across the bottom. I've been fooled before with old stage cover-ups, so it's possible there was one at one point, but it doesn't look like it. On this end of the court there are tunnel entrances at the very ends of the baseline seats which means there are little corner sections up above them (though one is obviously gone now since the bleachers were torn out on that side. A random wall adornment in the shape of Indiana with a grey background hangs up high with Hamilton County starred on it. The old scorer's bench is still intact, and it's gorgeous. There's another raised bench directly behind it that I assume was for media or broadcasting. The floor design is very simple but I love it. The hardwood is stained a beautiful classic gold color. There is orange inside the foul lanes and around the perimeter of the court. An off-white "H" that matches the bleachers interlocks with an orange "H" at center court. The court also bizarrely has NBA three-point lines and the widened lane markings painted on it. I guess if a meteor strikes Gainbridge Fieldhouse and the Pacers need a place to play, they're ready!
Playing in the Carmel sectional, Hamilton Heights didn't have a ton of postseason success while playing in this gym. Their lone sectional title came back in 1975. I highly doubt that impacted their typical crowds here on a Friday night. There's something about these old horsehoe gyms that just make for an unbelievable environment when they're full. Frankton's current gym was built in the same year as this one, and has virtually the exact same design. The Madison County tournament title game was held there a few years ago and it was almost sold out. It was one of the best environments I've ever watched a game in. I bet a lot of those types of games occured right here. Jackson Central only won one sectional as well, 12 years before this gym was even built. Arcadia got two, in 1921 and 1924. I wonder what it must have been like to live through two separate big consolidations for the people of Arcadia. One was traumatic enough for most people across the state. I feel for them. I guess no matter what, they still had basketball teams to cheer for housed right here in their own town, regardless of what the name across the front of the jersey was. For a long time they also had a great venue to watch those teams play.
