Noblesville (Old) (2,700?) Built 1955
March 19, 2026
March 19, 2026
I think the evils of social media in today's society far outweigh the benefits (though it's admittedly the main reason this blog is read by people other than just my mom and grandma), but even I fall victim to its web of timewasting more than I'd like to admit. Studies are proving that short-form video is short-circuiting our brains and while I've done a much better job recently of curtailing the amount of time I spend consuming it, there's one genre of reels that I truly appreciate: relatable parenting. Having three kids five and under sometimes feels like I'm living in an endless loop of noise and confusion, but silly videos from other parents experiencing the same thing keeps me grounded and makes me feel normal to some extent. A common subgenre of these kinds of reels is the different roles children typically play in the family hierarchy. The oldest is typically the rule-following child with a high-strung type A personality. The middle child is usually more relaxed (including when it comes to following rules) and tries to keep the peace. The youngest child is usually a little spoiled and can get away with more than the other siblings could. These are pretty broad generalizations and obviously don't always apply, but they still have some kernels of truth to them and the skits people come up with portraying them at least can make me laugh. I was weirdly thinking about them this week when I was researching the history of the high school gyms in Noblesville. Another stereotype about middle children is that they have to fight to be heard because they often feel overlooked. This is also true for the rare schools that have had three main gyms throughout their history. Many have the really old one that was built in the 20s-30s and lasted until the 50s-60s before a modern one was built, but not a ton have had three distinct ones over the years. For the few that have, I've found the ones in the middle have often been lost to the history books. They shouldn't though. Many of these gyms served during the heart of Hoosier Hysteria, and they deserve their due.
When most people think of Noblesville's old gym, they think of the one that sits downtown on Conner Street. That gym opened in 1923 and served the Millers for nearly three decades. For a long time after it operated as the YMCA in town before being turned over to a corporate entity in recent years, and now it has actually been transformed into a satellite campus for Northview Church. My friend helps lead worship there occasionally and he sent me a video recently from inside. You would have no clue it's actually a 100 year old gym other than the exposed metal trusses up above. What I didn't know until around 6 months ago is that Noblesville has another old gym that's pretty intact sitting in their old high school building which is now the local Ivy Tech branch. This gym opened in 1955 and hosted varsity games until 1996 when the new high school and gym were built. That's four decades of hoops I just brushed over in my initial research a few years ago. This period of time was also by far the Millers most successful era. They won 16 sectionals and 2 regionals while playing in this gym. Needless to say I was annoyed with myself for not realizing it sooner. As soon as the basketball season was over and my spring break started, I made the quick 30 minute drive over to Ivy Tech to check it out.
I was walking in completely blind to this one. I'm not exactly sure what I expected to see, but a section of bleachers that looked like the Rocky Mountains was not something I mentally prepared myself for. I certainly didn't expect them to be permanent and all bolted into a concrete monolith rising to the heavens. Today all the bench seats have a green rubber covering on them (the Ivy Tech color), I'm not sure if they are wooden or metal underneath. History would say wood, but you never know. The bleachers go up 23 rows along this sideline. That's one of the biggest sections of permanent bleachers you'll find with a concrete base anywhere. There are tunnels in the corners leading to locker rooms or storage rooms underneath or behind the bleachers. Whatever seating used to be along the other sideline is long gone. There's about 20 feet of empty space over there, enough room for 10-12 rows of some kind of seating. I assume there was at one one point, but I don't know for sure. The baseline walls are basically completely bare these days. I will say that all the doors into the gym are pretty fancy and unique. They actually match the vibe of the current Noblesville gym which always felt like it was designed for an HGTV show, not in a bad way. The playing floor is trimmed in Ivy Tech green and the college logo sits at center court. It would have been cool to keep the original Noblesville design, but it's been awhile, I get it. The floor is stained a light-tan color with darker hues inside the three-point lines and oddly the center court circle. There's a tall ladder leading up into the HVAC landing in the ceiling. There's not enough money in the world you could pay me to go near it.
I was a middle child, but I'm not sure if I ever felt like I was forgotten or overlooked (I definitely fit the peacemaker stereotype a little more). I'm sure that while I overlooked Noblesville's middle gym, the players who won all those sectionals while playing their home games here certainly don't overlook it when thinking about the history of Miller basketball. For four decades this was the place to be on a Friday night in Noblesville. This is the place where many of the deepseeded Hamilton County rivalries that still exist today were formed. Now that I've seen the gym myself, I'm certainly not going to forget it (especially that section of bleachers that feels like it reaches highest point in Indiana). I'm not exactly sure what Ivy Tech uses it for these days, I'm just glad they've preserved it. That way dolts like me who don't do their due diligence when researching can still find it on the second go around, and the people who loved it all those years ago have a chance to come back to it.
