Stinesville (550?) Built 1936
February 16, 2026
February 16, 2026
It's kind of rare to find people who really stick out in a crowd. Even though we're all uniquely created by God, human nature tends to drive people to want to be accepted by others, which leads to conformity. Society pretends to celebrate individuality, but our corporate culture seems to reward those who kind of just go along with what everyone else is doing. I feel like high school is the epitome of this, but it definitely extends well into adulthood (Let's see if can land the plane with this highfalutin analogy {is analogy even the right figure of speech? You'd think a writer would know} and connect it to a basketball gym). I've found this to be true even with gyms. While I always do my best to point out every unique intricacy in a gym, depending on the era when they were built, many of them share the same general designs. WPA gyms from the 30s were all small brick outfits with a stage on one end and 6-10 rows of permanent bleachers along the sidelines. Gyms in the 50s for whatever reason were all built with rounded roofs. Everyone knows the bi-level 60s and onward multipurpose gym setup. From the exterior at least, a lot of these places look similar, and it can be hard to stand out. So whenever I come across a place that is truly distinct from its peers, I get pretty excited. I came across a place like this on President's Day back in February. I had to drive through what felt like every single hill and valley that Monroe County could throw at me, but I finally made it. Sitting at the top of a peak is the old Stinesville school, and it looks anything but ordinary.
Stinesville is a town built on top of, and out of, Indiana limestone. In its heyday, the limestone quarries in Stinesville sent rock all over the state of Indiana and well beyond it. The school here is built out of it, along with some really neat buildings that are still standing downtown. The old gym, and much of the original school that were built in 1936, are still standing. The grey limestone exterior gleams in the sunlight. I never thought the color grey could shimmer, but it certainly seemed to on the day I visited. It's amazing to me how completely smooth they're able to fashion the limestone. The school and gym served Stinesville High School until 1964 when it consolidated with Ellettsville to form Edgewood. It then lived on for another 5 decades as an elementary school before that was shuttered as well. Today it is a sort of community center for the town, serving the citizens of Stinesville in a variety of ways. The old gym sits in the center of the building. While they never won a sectional while playing here, Stinesville was able to produce one of the greatest mascot names the state has ever seen: the Quarry Lads. There has maybe never been a more fitting mascot name for a school.
At first glance, you can see that vestiges of a typical old WPA gym on the inside here, though I haven't read anywhere that this was a WPA gym even though the timelines line up. You can clearly see where 6-7 rows of permanent bleachers would've ran along the sidelines. They've long since been replaced with retractable ones. You actually enter the gym through the middle of the bleachers on both sides which is reminiscent of my home gym in Shipshewana. There also used to be a decent size stage spanning the course of one of the baseline walls. The top half of it was framed in with dark plywood when the bottom was taken out and an entrance room to the cafeteria was built. I believe this was done after the school was converted into an elementary.
You can definitely tell the gym served an elementary school for half a century before it was closed. There are Presidential Fitness Challenge winners listed on one wall (I despised this activity every year in school. I could never complete it. Darn sit and reach!) and students who ran fast mile times on another. Above the bleachers and wall where these accolades are listed is a low ceiling with a zigzagging pattern running across it. This section juts out and then rises up to the upper ceiling that runs across the court. The main features of the gym sit on the end opposite from where the stage would have been. Running across this baseline wall is one of the most scenic murals you will ever see. It depicts a quarry with the rolling hills of Monroe County sitting in the background during autumn. There's a locomotive running through it and nature all around. It wasn't there when the gym served the high school, but I couldn't care less. It's beautiful. If you think the mural is cool though, hang on to your hats. Sitting right in front of the mural, just a few feet onto the playing floor, is a small section of hardwood that looks ever so slightly different from the rest. There's a piece of the court that is running perpendicular to all the others. You'd never notice it unless you were looking for it. It forms a little square. At one point this was actually a trap door that led to the old kitchn below. That's right, the kitchen could be accessed by a trap door that was actually inbounds on the court itself. Talk about a dead spot! I simply couldn't believe it. The trapdoor was removed decades ago, but that single piece of hardwood still carries the memory of maybe the single greatest oddity I've ever found in a gym. The rest of the playing court is pretty simple. It's stained a classic gold color and has a red "S" inside the smaller center circle at half court. Three point lines were never added which adds to the classic feel.
On my way out of the gym I saw maybe the smallest concession stand I've ever seen. It makes even the tiniest broom closets look roomy. It's just another piece of the vintage charm the old Stinesville school and gym has to offer. The whole place feels like it's in great shape almost a decade after the elementary school was closed. While I left the school, I was thinking of all the kids living in the most rural parts of Bean Blossom Township that now have longer daily bus rides to get to school in Elletsville because the Stinesville school wasn't worth keeping open according to the corporation's financial ledger. I've written plenty on how so many small towns lost their high schools, and in doing so their identities in the 60s. What I haven't talked much about is how many of those schools that continued on as elementaries are now being closed. There are tons of examples all over the state in the last 15 years. Just in the last month I've heard of more closures in Montezuma, Summitville, and Wolf Lake. I could write out pages of thoughts on why it's unnecessary and detrimental to both students and the communities, but that's for another time. For right now I'll just point out how incredibly sad it is. It messes me up inside. The silver lining is that many communities are refusing to give in and give up. They're finding new ways to repurpose old school buildings and gyms to not just preserve their history, but inject new life into the community itself. I'm lucky I got to see it firsthand in Stinesville.
