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. 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). Though both schools were abandoned after the 1889 construction of a new, graded schoolhouse a block west (Town), at least one of them is still standing- the smaller building at the southeast corner of State and Delaware.

In 1899, the former school was being used as a blacksmith’s shop with a wooden storage addition to its western face (Sanborn, 1899). Eleven years later, it was in service as a warehouse for the L.N. Way Coal and Lumber Company (Sanborn, 1910). By 1943, the schoolhouse was part of the Albany Lumber Company.

The Albany Lumber Company closed in 1970 (Public Auction, 1970). In 2005, the former schoolhouse was renovated and expanded into its present state as a home and office (CoStar, 2019).

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.

(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.

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

Public Auction (1970, July 2). The Muncie Star. p. 34.

CoStar Group, LLC. (2019, May 23). 437 W State St. LoopNet. Retrieved September 25, 2021, from https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/437-W-State-St-Albany-IN/16141209/.