East Albany

The first school in the Albany area was established in 1836 when William Venard’s old cabin was converted into a schoolhouse near the center of town. Classes were taught over the course of a three-month term (Ellis, 1898). In 1874, this school was known as Delaware Township’s District 1 schoolhouse (Kingman). It sat on the east side of South Water Street, just north of Albany’s modern day Lions Club building (Town, n.d.).

For most of its existence, the town of Albany operated its own school system separate from the rest of Delaware Township. Two schoolhouses stood in 1887, located catty-cornered from each other on the northwest and southeast corners of West State Street and North Delaware Street (Griffing, 1887). Both schools were abandoned after the 1889 construction of a new, graded schoolhouse a block west.

Albany grew significantly during the gas boom. In 1893, the Albany Land Company laid out an addition to the town east of Halfway Creek (Power, 1893). The following year, the Lake Erie & Western railroad moved the town’s depot to the site of East Albany, infuriating many of the town’s established residents (Trouble, 1894).

Albany’s East Side public schoolhouse was erected between 1894 and 1899 (Sanborn, 1899) in order to serve students from the town’s new addition. Unfortunately, the school wasn’t open for very long as a 1910 fire insurance map reported it as vacant (Sanborn, 1910). In 1920 the old schoolhouse was being used for “odd storage (Sanborn),” while a 1943 revision showed it in use as a dwelling (Sanborn, 1943).

The schoolhouse later became home to Thomas Auto Body and Kreps Auto Body. Today, the Kreps family still owns the structure.

References

Ellis, J. S. (1898, August 17). Our County. Its History and Early Settlement by Townships. The Muncie Morning News. p. 6.

Kingman Brothers. (1874). Map of Delaware County, Indiana. Chicago, IL.

Town of Albany, Indiana. (n.d.). A brief history of Albany, Indiana. Albany, Indiana. Retrieved September 25, 2021, from https://albanyin.com/about-albany/.

Griffing, B. N. (1887). Mt. Pleasant Township. An atlas of Delaware County, Indiana . map, Philadelphia, PA; Griffing, Gordon, & Company.

Power, C.J. (1893, April 19). Albany Land Co. ’s Subdivision at Albany Indiana. map, Muncie, IN; Delaware County.

Trouble at Albany. (1894, August 10). The Muncie Daily Times. p. 1.

(1899) Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Albany, Delaware County, Indiana. Sanborn Map Company. map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.

(1910) Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Albany, Delaware County, Indiana. Sanborn Map Company. map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.

(1920) Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Albany, Delaware County, Indiana. Sanborn Map Company. map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.

(1943) Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Albany, Delaware County, Indiana. Sanborn Map Company. map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.