Shawswick (1,800?) Built 1949
March 25, 2026
March 25, 2026
Has there ever been a name for something that you've heard, and then you just thought to yourself, man that sounds cool. This is probably one reason why Elvis was the coolest thing going in the 50s and 60s, Elvis is a cool name! Just like the TV character who was modeled after him and was the essence of cool for awhile, The Fonz. Another guy who was associated with Elvis in the 50s and was also a pop culture icon (along with being one of my favorite artists to this day) was Johnny Cash. That's another inherently cool moniker. When I was a kid my favorite movie character was Captain Jack Sparrow. To this day I think he's the coolest protagonist in an adventure movie, and the name certainly helps. While I think the names of people, places, and things strike us as cool more when we're kids, it can still happen as adults. There haven't been many school or gym names that have stuck out to me in this way, but one did recently: Shawswick. I'm not exactly sure why, it's just catchy. It simulatenously sounds like it could be the code name for a secret agent while also potentially being the name of the farmer up the county road who's been working the same plot of land for the last 60 years. The latter is probably what most people would associate the name with considering the school's nickname was actually the Farmers.
The Shawswick Farmers were a team from a small township high school that often punched above their weight class in the state tournament. While playing in the vaunted Bedford sectional against the Stonecutters, the other big school in Mitchell, and all the other rural county schools, they won two sectionals in the 50s and finished with an even 49-49 postseason record before they consolidated into Bedford North Lawrence in 1974. A .500 record may not seem super impressive on paper, but it is when you consider the competition they were playing against for a school their size in the one-class tournament. In 1959 they were just 6 points away from beating New Albany and punching their ticket to a semistate berth. The basketball tradition here is just as rich as anyone else in Lawrence County. Since the high school closed, the building and gym have been maintained as an elementary and/or middle school over the years. Usually when a high school closed in Indiana, any chance for basketball heroics or fame went with it. That wasn't the case at Shawswick thanks to a tall kid from over in Heltonville that loved the game as much as anyone ever has from Indiana. His name was Damon Bailey, and if you lived in Indiana in the 80s or 90s, you've heard of him, even if you didn't follow basketball back then. He went to middle school here in 7th and 8th grade and led the young Farmers to undefeated seasons in both seasons (team pictures from both years hang on the wall of the gym, he's #33). He then went on to become the all-time leading scorer in Indiana high school basketball history and created a fervor unlike anything the state had seen before or has since (and that's saying something considering the history of Hoosier Hysteria). Shawswick is a footnote in the Damon Bailey story, but it has a gym and story of its own that deserves to be recognized.
I first realized that the old Shawswick gym was still standing when I was researching all the different schools in Lawrence County. Unlike Heltonville, Bedford, Mitchell, Springville, Oolitic, and even Tunnelton, I couldn't find any interior pictures of it initally. Because of this, it wasn't on my mind much. When I planned my trip down to Lawrence County this spring, Mitchell, Bedford, and Heltonville were all at the top of my list of places I've wanted to see for a long time. Shawswick was a place I looked into visiting just because it was close to the others. It's not that I wasn't excited to check it out, I just had no clue what to expect. The principal at Shawswick Elementary, Dustin George, was kind enough to come in and show me around on his spring break. When we walked in, I realized I may have been excited to see the wrong gyms on this particular trip. While Mitchell and Bedford were unbelievable venues back in the day, they'd both been altered a ton by the time I got to check them out in the spring of 2026. That wasn't the case at Shawswick. Not only is it incredible, but it's one of the most well-preserved old gyms I've ever come across in my travels.
The original Shawswick High School building was torn down sometime after the high school closed, and the current elementary building was then constructed and attached to the gym. The gym used to have very grand exterior entrances, and they thoughtfully were kept when the elementary was added on. You actually walk from the current school through an impressive brick arch into the gym. Inside the gym you find a setup that's fairly standard, but with enough unique intricacies to make it really stand out. The original permanent wooden bleachers are still intact, and they're beautiful. Along each sideline are 13 rows of dark brown bleachers. They all have the original seat numbers and dividers still painted on. They're a little weathered, as they should be! The steps going up are painted yellow which really make them pop. The upper wall above the bleachers have skinny horizontal windows made up of individual square glass blocks. The ceiling above the bleachers and court is really what makes the place special. The ceiling extends out flat above the bleachers, but then turns upwards at a ninety degree angle once it's above the court. It then extends straight up another 15 feet or so on both sides before continuing again flatly above the court. This creates another wall face jutting out in front of where the bleachers are on both sides. Big windows run across this face letting in even more natural light. At one point the consideration was made to cover this upper section with a drop ceiling, but ultimately they decided to keep it as is. I'm very glad they did. It looks incredible. The only other places I can think of with a design like this are at Williamsburg and Vallonia, but those are on a smaller scale.
The baseline walls are very well-utilized in the Shawswick gym. On one end you have a small stage sitting between two long brick pillars that jut out a bit from the wall and extend from the floor to the ceiling. A dark burgundy curtain hangs across it. The stage floor actually pushes out from the wall a few feet and has some rounded corners which I'm not sure I've seen before. The old locker rooms lie beneath the stage area on this end as well. Running along the bottom wall of the stage is a neat purple mat that reads, "Home of the Farmers." On both sides are pictures of some great middle school teams that have come through Shawswick, including the Damon Bailey ones. The opposite baseline wall has a few more middle school team pictures, but there are two even more impressive photos. Sitting in huge frames are pictures of the 1952 and 1959 sectional title teams. Even the wooden nameplates that sit underneath them are impressive. Nothing in this gym feels synthetic or cheap, it all has character. Off to the side on this wall is the original center-court circle which has a simple purple "S" inside the circle. It pretty much matches what you'll find at half-court on the current floor. The current iteration of the hardwood is a light-gold variety that has "Shawswick Farmers" painted in the very corners of the court right inside the sidelines, which is a unique placement for any kind of court script.
I'm not sure I've found a former high school gym, that is now a part of an elementary, that is more ripe for a throwback game than the one here at Shawswick. Of all the old gyms that are still standing in one form or another in Lawrence County, this is the one that deserves to host a varsity game again the most. I was buzzing when I drove away and headed to my last stop in Heltonville. To the people who have maintained the Shawswick gym so well over the years, I thank you. You've preserved a treasure for the community. If the Shawswick name connotes the epitome of cool, the Shawswick gym epitomizes the heart of Lawrence County basketball, and what Hoosier Hysteria is all about.
