Lima (1,000?) Built 1924
March 29, 2025
March 29, 2025
I've been all over the state in search of old gyms that are still standing and able to tell their stories despite the passage of time. From Madison, to Owensville, to Reelsville, to right next door in Matthews, I've put a lot of miles on my car and more Mountain Dews than I care to admit in my body. Ironically, the one place I haven't had a lot of luck finding old gyms in a decently preserved state is in my home region of northeast Indiana. Over the last few months I've uncovered a handful, but they are few and far between compared to other pockets of the state where they dot the landscape. The first gym in the area I actually found about from my dad was one right under my nose about 5 miles from where I grew up, located in Howe. I didn't think of it myself for a couple of reasons. The first is that when I think of a school in Howe, I think of Howe Military Academy (which does have its own old gym that is still standing) where my dad would jokingly (I think) threaten to send us every once in a while when we were kids. The second is that this particular school and gym in Howe are actually named Lima after the township in which they reside and the original name of the town which was changed to Howe in 1909. Lastly, the school and gym are in the very back corner of the town where you would never see them or know even existed unless you were looking for them. I never had a reason to before I started this crazy venture, but once I found out about the gym, I was eager to get inside.
My dad told me about the gym as he had some memories of playing church league basketball in it back in the day. This would've been during the long period when the gym served as Lima-Brighton Elementary School (you can find pictures of the old Brighton gym a few miles outside of town in the Fading Gyms section of the blog). The first school that the gym was attached to was built in 1881, which made it the first commissioned township high school in Indiana. You can read more about the original history of the high school HERE. It's fascinating. Needless to say, the roots of the school run very deep on this plot of land. The gym was added to the old high school in 1924 and was the home of the Lima Orioles for 40 years. In 1964 it was consolidated into Lakeland and became an elementary school. It served this purpose until 2019 when the Lakeland school board decided to close its doors. Somewhere along the way the old high school building was torn down and a modern elementary building was added on to the gym which was saved. The last few years it has operated as a preschool, but the school district just sold it to the same questionable (and that's putting it nicely) "college" that now owns the old Howe Military campus. What it will be used for in the future is uncertain, but what we do know for sure is the impact it's had on the local community in Howe. I can only imagine the pride the town must have felt when it won three straight sectionals in the early 30s playing in the LaGrange sectional. The outside of the gym looks just like it would have when the Orioles clinched those big victories. The inside has changed a lot more in the last 100 years, but you can still feel the spirit of those teams that called it home so many years ago.
The interior of the gym ironically got a makeover a few years before the school was closed down. The floor looks new and sharp, there's a really neat mural we'll talk about in a minute, but there was also one devastating change that was made. The original permanent bleachers were all torn out along the sidelines. One side is just empty with no seating now, and the other features 11 rows of blue plastic retractable bleachers. I understand the desire for more space when you're running elementary P.E. classes in the gym, but man that one hurts. I can only imagine what it looked like with the classic seating sections in. I was told the gym was actually considered for one of the filming locations in Hoosiers in the 80s. That's all the confirmation I need to understand how cool it must have looked. The upper wall above the new bleachers doesn't have much to discuss except for the classic square windows that are lined across it. While not original, they at least haven't been blocked in like most gyms from this era. There is a matching row above the opposite wall as well. Beneath those windows along the now empty side of the gym is a fabulous mural done in monochromatic colors of a rolling landscape with the old Lima school building as the centerpiece. While I would love to see the original bleachers intact over here, this is a pretty good consolation prize. I'm glad someone decided to take a risk and do something meaningful instead of just painting the whole thing a solid boring color like you find in most places.
The baseline wall along the north side of the gym doesn't have much going on. It's painted a blue so light it almost looks grey, as is most of the gym. The opposite baseline end is the one part of the gym that can take you back in time a little bit. There are two levels to it. The lower brick rises up to the level of the rim on the basket hanging in front of it. A beautiful mahogany wood railing is above that. It looks like the kind you would find in the upper level of an old gym where people would stand behind it and be right on top of the action, and that's because originally it was just that. At some point a wall was installed above it, creating a room behind it where the balcony used to be. While it's too bad it wasn't left intact, it's not hard to imagine what it must have been like to play a hotly contested game with rabble-rousers screaming right above your head as you drive to the basket. Hanging above the wooden railing are two old school speakers that look ancient and help anchor the gym in its past. An old State Bank of Lima clock on the wall caught my attention for the same reason. If the balcony wasn't my favorite feature of the gym, it would have to be the gorgeous wooden staircase that leads up to it in the corner of the gym. The bannister and rickety old steps are stained the same color as the railing. It again captures a moment in time when the gym was the center of community life.
My cousin Ryan Yoder who is the athletic director at Lakeland was kind enough to let me in to see the gym on a rainy Saturday afternoon over my spring break. He took me up to the room that sits behind the old balcony wall. Some old photos of Lakeland athletic teams that used to hang in the Lakeland gym are being stored there as they are creating a new space at the high school to honor their past. Many were faded or a little discolored from decades of hanging in the gym. We also looked at some even older photos displayed out in a hallway outside the gym from when Lima was still a high school. I've included one of the pictures here even though it's hard to see the the faces of the players because in the corner you can see a plaque with a horsehoe on it. Ryan actually has been asking around to people in the community in hopes to locate it (if you live in LaGrange County and have any leads on its whereabouts, reach out!). What a cool piece of history that would be to find. 70 years ago it served as a traveling trophy for teams in the county. This was a time when county rivalries meant everything. You might play the team right up the road from you three times: in the regular season, in the county tournament, and in the sectional. The games between those teams were played in small gyms just like this one all across the state. Lima is one of the only ones left in the county that shows a trace of that special time in our history as Hoosiers. The school district will be turning the gym over to new owners in a few months. It's future preservation will be in the hands of people who presumably have no clue or care about its history. I'm glad I got to see it now, and I hope those in control of it will continue to steward it well into the future.
