Shelburn (1,000?) Built 1938
October 14, 2025
October 14, 2025
I've long had a fascination with hidden rooms, secret passageways, and underground tunnels. I think it started when I was a kid and we would make elaborate tunnels and mazes in the haymow with our cousin at the family farm. One of my cousins on the other side of my family also grew up in an old Victorian home that had a finished third story which I thought was just the coolest thing ever. I've loved Victorian homes ever since. The old Scooby-Doo episodes where Shaggy would pull a book off a shelf and a hidden door would slide open were my favorite. This has carried on into adulthood. While my current home doesn't have any secret rooms, it does have an old canning cellar that can only be accessed through a spooky crawlspace. It's probably the closest thing I'm ever going to get to my dream. Oh well. This odd interest of mine isn't one that I thought would intersect with my love for old gyms. The closest thing I can think of is that a few old gyms like the ones in Brook, Paris Crossing, and Burnettsville were connected to their old schools by tunnels before they were torn down. I love old gyms, but I don't usually associate them with secret chambers of any sort. You can imagine my surprise then when I visited the old gym in Shelburn, and my guide, Mr. James Roberts, quickly offered to let down a ladder coming out of the ceiling tile in a normal school hallway and let me see a piece of the gym I never would have known was even there.
Shelburn is another old gym that I only learned about through blindly Googling all the old schools that were still around in the middle of the 20th century. It's not one I've ever seen written about or mentioned in Indiana basketball history books. When I realized it was still standing and now a part of the Northeast School Corporation administration building, I was ecstatic. Sullivan County comes through again! The Shelburn Panthers played in this gym from 1938 (I'm pretty sure it's 1938. The cornerstone is chipped and it may be 36, but it looks closer to 38 so that's what I'm going with) until they consolidated into North Central (Farmersburg) in 1957. The 40s were very kind to them while playing here, they captured 4 sectional titles to go along with one regional championship in 1947. The gym doubled as a community center for the town of Shelburn, and had to go through some very extensive repairs after a tornado tore the roof off in 1949. Since consolidation, the gym served the Shelburn community in a variety of different educational capacities before becoming a part of the administration building. The old school building that used to be attached to it was eventually torn off, and the more modern school building was added on in the mid-80s. This brings me back to the reason that I found myself climbing a ladder up into the ceiling of a very modern looking school hallway.
You wouldn't know it without looking very closely at the brick on the upper portions of the wall in the gym, but this place used to have a balcony on both sides. There were entrances to the balony in the corners of the gym next to the stage, and from an upper hallway that would have connected the gym to the old school. A remnant of that old hallway was what I was entering when I climbed up into the ceiling right outside the doors to the gym. Inside, you can see where doors would have led into the old school, and where you would have entered into the balcony in the gym. It was really neat, and reminded me of what I found in a similar hidden space in the old Michigantown gym. Once we got back into the gym, Mr. Roberts took me all the way across the court to the locker room areas on the sides of the stage. On both sides are sets of tight stairs that seem to go up and up. There is a lower level below the stage, one floor at ground level, a second story level where people would have been able to access the balcony, and then there was even a third level that was built in a bit of a rickety fashion sitting over the stage itself. Mr. Roberts told me that at one point this actually served as the locker room for the football team. You could still see the spots on the wall where players would hang their equipment. I can only imagine how hot and unpleasant it must have been to lug all that football equipment up three flights of stairs during a hot summer training camp. It once again felt like I had found a secret room, and my inner child was very excited.
Once I had completed the full behind-the-scenes tour, I was able to check out the main elements of the gym itself. Like many gyms that have long served as elementary or middle school facilities after their high school days were over, you have to squint a little to see what it used to look like. Looking closely at the brickwork, you can see remnants in spots where the balcony would have hung. I believe it transversed across all three sides of the gym that didn't have the stage. What's really unique about this gym is that it had two rows of windows lining the sideline walls except for just one. There was a row both above and below the balcony on both sides. Most of them have been blocked in except for a few along the top. I don't know how many rows of bleachers would have been in the balcony, but it couldn't have been more than 4 or 5. Today there are 6 rows of wooden retractable bleachers along each sideline. While they aren't original, I'm guessing that's always been about the number of rows of seating on the lower level. There is a very fluorescent shade of green that is used throughout the gym in various places. The only place I know of anything like it is at West Vigo. I'm not sure if that was consistent with the school colors back when the Panthers played here, but I kind of doubt it. North Central (Farmersburg) does utilize a green color scheme currently, but it itsn't quite as bright as this one. The place where it looks strangest is around the big stage. When you pair it with the red rubber floor that is currently featured here, it creates quite the sight for your eyes when looking at the gym as a whole. The one notable thing about the stage is that it sits pretty high off the playing floor. The last thing I want to point out are the gorgeous curved metal trusses that span the length of the gym from sideline to sideline. I love when these are left exposed in old gyms. It adds so much character.
This was the third Sullivan County gym of the day, and it was honestly the one I expected the least out of going into it. That's only because I knew nothing about it ahead of time. I had already read about and seen pictures of Graysville and Fairbanks going into those visits. If all I did was go into the gym, take some pictures, and leave without talking to anybody, I'm not sure that Shelburn would have left much of an impression on me. Because I had such a knowledgeable guide though in Mr. Roberts, and because I got to see so many neat aspects of the gym that typically would have been hidden, and saw pictures that added context to the history of the whole place, I left with a very rewarding feeling inside. The history of this place came to life in front of my eyes in a way I wasn't at all expecting. That's what this is all about. I think about all the people that walked through the doors of that gym, walked across that stage to receive a diploma, or dragged their shoulder pads up three flights of stairs after a three hour football practice in the 90 degree heat 70 years ago. The stories of those people deserve to live on in some way. Thanks to people like Mr. Roberts and the old Shelburn gym, they are.
