Vacant school in Indiana
Wilson Junior High School, Muncie Indiana
The construction of the Wilson Junior High School building reflects theories of school design prevalent in the early 20th-century. These theories appear in several publications of the era that concern themselves with the architecture of public school buildings. Recommendations focus on health and safety issues. Stairways were to be constructed of slow-burning materials capable of resisting high temperatures and flames. They needed to employ sturdy balustrades of closed construction that would prevent the unnecessary failure of the stairway if children were to press against the balustrades in an emergency situation. The sturdy and fire-resistant terrazzo and concrete staircases of the Wilson Junior High School put these recommendations into practice. Wide corridors with glazed brick wainscoting, such as those of the Wilson School, were recommended to maintain clean, safe hallways. Good lighting was an important consideration for school buildings: theorists recommended natural and direct lighting throughout the building. In the Wilson School, large windows, clerestories, and skylights bring natural light to corridors and classrooms, while the lightwell lends natural light to the stairwell. Glass partition walls usher borrowed light into the hallways.
Sanborn fire insurance maps of Muncie illustrate the development of the Wilson Junior High School and the surrounding Southside neighborhood, and show how the two evolved in unison. The 1911 map (issued ten years before the school was built) indicated that the neighborhood was still in the process of development: although its street grid was already in place, many lots were still vacant. The block bounded by 13th, 14th, Walnut and Mulberry, for example, was largely empty. Beyond the city's corporate boundary, then at 16th Street, lay open land. By 1934 the streets around the Wilson School were lined with frame houses of small to medium scale; only a few lots remained vacant. The map also illustrated both the 1921 and 1927 stages of the school building, which used "fireproof construction except for wood sheathing and exposed steel in roof." It noted that the walls were of brick, tile or gypsum block, and the floors and roof were constructed of reinforced concrete. The boiler room that now adjoins the west side of the building was labeled "from plans," indicating that it had not yet been built. It too would utilize fireproof construction with brick walls, concrete floors and roof. By 1954 the neighborhood was solidly built up with houses. The school's 1954 south addition, standing two stories high and 170 feet long, was clearly indicated on the map. Like the original structure, it was labeled "non-combustible." It featured concrete floors and a gypsum slab roof on metal joists. The wing contained specialized classrooms, and a spacious gymnasium adjoined its north end. Curiously, the boiler room wing was still noted "from plans."
Archival plans of the building illustrate how its interior spaces were used originally. The north corridor of the 1921 building housed two kitchens, with a dining room in between; a cafeteria, long and narrow in form, adjoined them on the south. To the east were classrooms devoted to sewing and millinery instruction; to the west, were manual training rooms. The upper floors housed classrooms of equal size, each of which included a clock and telephone on the wall facing the corridor. At the north ends of the second and third floors were study halls. The blueprints included molding profiles and a door schedule, with 16 different doors illustrated; most featured nine-pane windows above one or two wood panels, although some had single lights and others featured four horizontal panels. The glass partitions in the classrooms and the glazed brick wainscoting in the halls also were noted on the plans. The blueprints include finely executed elevations of the building, which reveal that it was built exactly as designed. The 1927 addition called for a music room on the first-floor east corridor, to the south of the main staircase, and a manual arts shop on the west. On the second floor, the east corridor housed a new cafeteria, kitchen and pantry; on the west were offices and library. The third-floor plan called for lecture rooms and laboratories on the west side and an assembly room on the east.
During the first five decades of the 19th century, Muncie was a small, unincorporated community with limited educational facilities: at first, subscription schools housed in primitive buildings, then private academies with limited enrollment. In 1851 railroads were built through the town, and three years later it was incorporated as a city. These factors led to increased population growth, and to ever-growing numbers of school-age children. Following statewide trends, the first public schools were established in 1856, and over the next two decades the system was expanded and upgraded. The school term was extended to ten months or 200 days, additional teachers were hired, and new buildings were constructed. In 1868 a secondary school was established in the basement of a church; in 1880 the district built its first dedicated high school building. "During the decade from 1870 to 1880 notable progress was made in every department. The number of school buildings increased from two to four; the number of teachers from ten to fourteen; the enrollment from about nine hundred to nearly thirteen hundred...". These improvements coincided with an era of great progress for education in Indiana (1870-1890), sometimes referred to as "The Great Awakening" of public education in the state.
During the 1880s and 90s, the discovery of natural gas fields near Muncie attracted new industries to the town, and it enjoyed unprecedented growth and prosperity. School enrollment jumped from 616 in 1855, to approximately 1,300 by 1880, to 2,170 by 1895 (History of Public Education in Muncie, Indiana, 1850-1990. The state also passed its first compulsory attendance law in 1897, requiring that children between eight and fourteen attend school for 12 weeks per year. The result was a flurry of school construction. "[I]t became necessary, as a result of wealth and population, to erect a large new schoolhouse every few years". While stylistic interpretations differed, these multi-story masonry buildings shared common characteristics: approximately cubical form, sometimes with projecting wings that gave them an asymmetrical footprint; steep signature roofs with dormers and tall chimneys; and groups of tall windows.
Beginning in the 1880s and 90s, school officials, architects, and builders developed a new generation of educational structures designed to handle the concept of consolidating and grading schools. These buildings were nearly always solid brick, could be one or two stories in height, and often had architectural elaborations like bell towers with steeples. Architects incorporated educators' new ideas about lighting and ventilation into these often cubical massed buildings.
Characteristic of these new buildings were Washington Elementary School (1889), a Romanesque Revival brick edifice with high hipped roof, steep wall dormers, and stone arched entrance, and Muncie High School, a Second Empire work with a central tower, mansard roof with dormers, and segmentally arched windows. (Both school buildings have been demolished.)
By the early 20th century, two trends were well established in the Muncie schools: the near-universality of high school education, and the expansion of outer neighborhoods, including the Southside. In 1913 compulsory education was extended to the age of 16 in Indiana, which gave new impetus to the construction of secondary schools. Muncie public school enrollment climbed to 4,476 by 1915. Over the next decade, the school system continued to replace older buildings and construct new ones, including a new Central High School (1914) and junior high schools as well as elementary facilities. As sociologists Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd noted in Middletown, their landmark study of life in Muncie at mid-century, "[M]ost of Middletown's children now extend their education past the elementary school into grades nine to twelve". Wilson Junior High School was built in 1921 to serve the burgeoning Southside neighborhood, where industries employed thousands. A study of the Muncie school system conducted in 1949 noted that the "major concentration of the student population was located in the central and southern sections of the district. This is supported by the fact that in those sections, between 1934 and 1948, 1,437 new dwellings and apartments were built," in close proximity to places of employment. (This would soon begin to change, as the city's population started to shift to the north and northwest.) "Working class children go to the Junior High School on the South Side until they have finished the ninth grade".
Most of the school buildings built in the 1900s followed the same cubical form as their counterparts of the 1800s, albeit with flatter, more symmetrical facades, and classical garb. By the 1910s, however, a new silhouette emerged: more horizontal in form, with flat roofs and ranks of large windows. Setbacks and projections enlivened facades, and belt courses and parapets provided horizontal emphasis. "Schools of the 'teens and twenties were less vertical in plan, tending to have a central entry pavilion and wings extending away on either side. Windows filled entire walls of these later schools". Typical of these new buildings were Harrison Elementary School (1909), a three-story building of symmetrical design with large triple windows and stone entry frontispiece, embellished with muted Neo-Classical Revival details, and Wilson Junior High School. "The Wilson (junior) High School on Thirteenth Street between Franklin and Liberty Streets, has three floors and in proportion to its capacity is equipped on a scale equal to that of the Central [high] school...".
Throughout the 1920s and 30s, Muncie public school enrollment continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate; it reached 8,495 by 1935. Only three buildings, including Wilson, were built in the 1920s; a fourth was added in the 1930s. During the mid-20th century, a comprehensive study of Muncie schools conducted by T.C. Holy and J.O. Niederhauser established benchmarks for school facilities. School buildings of small to medium size, with expansive grounds, were given high marks. The authors also specified that maximum walking distances for junior high school students should be one and one-quarter miles. Secondary schools should provide a "minimum site of ten acres, plus an additional acre for each 100 pupils". (These walking distances were codified in Standards for the Evaluation of School Buildings, by T.C. Holy and W.E. Arnold. See Richardson, p. 13.) Most of Muncie's elementary schools met the standard; among the city's secondary schools, only Wilson did so. School buildings also were evaluated on the condition of their academic classrooms, special classrooms, general service rooms, administration rooms and service systems. Wilson's site was rated "excellent," its building and academic rooms and service systems "good," its special rooms "fair," and its general service and special rooms "poor." Overall the building was rated "fair." The results of this study influenced school construction and development over the next two decades.
In the "baby boom" years after World War II, Muncie's school population again increased rapidly, giving rise to another wave of school construction and expansion. The decidedly modern buildings constructed in the 1950s were horizontal in orientation, with flat roofs, planar facades and ribbon windows. Wilson was expanded in 1954; a new wing added to the south end of the building contained a new gym and additional space for specialized classrooms. A new cafeteria was added in 1964.
Citywide school enrollment peaked at 19,808 in 1967 and then began to decline, reflecting the end of the post-World War II "baby boom" as well as population decline in the community. During the late 20th century many of Muncie's extant older school buildings were closed; several were replaced with new facilities, and a few were adapted for new uses such as training centers or administrative offices. Wilson School remained in service until 1995, when a new facility was constructed on another site in the Southside neighborhood. Plans are underway to convert the 1921 and 1927 portions of the school building into apartments for senior citizens the 1954 wing will house a new public library.
Building Description
The Wilson Junior High School is a public school building constructed in the 1920s and expanded in the 1950s and 60s. It is located at the corner of Thirteenth and Franklin Streets in Muncie, Indiana, approximately one-and-a-half miles south of the central business district. The surrounding residential neighborhood, known as the Southside, was developed for the most part in the 1910s, 20s and 30s and is characterized by modest dwellings on small lots. Rows of frame bungalows face the school on the north and east.
The school complex occupies a level lot containing 8.80 acres. To the east of the school building is a broad lawn shaded by mature oaks and tulip poplars and bisected by diagonal walkways. Large spirea bushes stand at the corners. Foundation plantings at the base of the school building have become overgrown with volunteer species. Athletic fields and a paved parking area adjoin the building on the west. To the south stands a modern one-story elementary school built in 1973.
The school is a brick edifice with restrained Neo-Classical Revival detailing, standing three stories high with a flat roof. It was constructed in four stages. The building's historic core, constructed in 1921, consisted of a shallow "U"-shaped structure that faced Thirteenth Street, with wings projecting to the south. In 1927 a large addition was appended to the south, approximately doubling the size of the building. (On the original 1921 site plan, a dashed line indicated the future location of this addition.) The addition closed off the mouth of the "U," creating a small light well, and the building became approximately rectangular in form. A new, larger entrance on the east face then became the building's principal entry. In 1954 a two-story addition of rectangular footprint was appended to the south side of the building, largely obscuring its south-facing wall. Ten years later the building achieved its present form when a cafeteria was added to the 1954 wing.
The main facade of the Wilson Junior High School is asymmetrical in form. It is dominated by a slightly taller, projecting pavilion, three bays wide. A broad flight of eight steps approaches the main entry, which is centered in the first story. The entrance is set in a pedimented stone frontispiece inscribed with the name, "Wilson High School." The doorway is recessed and contains two sets of wooden doors; the transom is covered over. Wings of unequal size, containing one and three bays respectively, flank the central pavilion.
The north elevation of the building (which served as the main facade of the 1921 building) is symmetrical in plan. It is divided into three sections, with a central, five-bay pavilion stepped forward from and slightly taller than the remainder of the facade. The entrance, which is treated more simply than that of the east elevation, is contained in a brick frontispiece bearing stylized corbels and a low pediment. It features wooden triple doors and two four-pane transoms. The west elevation of the building is eight bays wide; the 1921 and 1927 sections are clearly differentiated by differences in setback and window type. Centered on the west wall is a one-story, flat-roofed utility wing of functional design, adjoined by a tall brick smokestack. The south side of the building is concealed by the 1954 addition, a modern, two-story brick structure with a flat roof and ribbon windows.
The Wilson Junior High School's structural frame consists of hollow clay-block masonry walls. Reinforced concrete is used for load-bearing walls and the floors of the interior corridors. The building rests on a poured concrete foundation.
The exterior walls of the school building are articulated by pier and spandrel construction. They are faced with reddish-brown, common-bond brick veneer, with stylized classical details executed in concrete. Brick pilasters rise nearly the height of the building, with groups of windows set into the intervening spandrels. A simple limestone cornice at the third-story level adds horizontal definition to the east and north walls. Above it is a square pediment, embellished by geometrical brickwork and a concrete coping, that conceals the building's flat roof. Shaped pediments with datestones grace the east and north elevations.
The school building has an abundance of large windows. Two distinct types are original to the building: double-hung wood sashes containing four over two lights, and multi-light, steel-framed, fixed units with hopper and awning openings. The former were utilized in the original 1921 structure, while the latter were employed in the 1927 building campaign. Most windows have simple concrete lintels and sills, and the second- and third-story units are separated by concrete spandrels. Many of the windows have been replaced by modern aluminum units that fill the original openings. Vandals have broken numerous panes of glass, and the first-story windows are boarded over to guard against further damage.
The building's interior floor plan is common to all three stories. It features two north-south corridors that run the length of the building, connected by a short east-west hall toward the north end. Classrooms are located along the outside walls. The interior wall (the wall facing the interior of the U) of the east-west corridor houses a home economics unit on the first floor and locker decks on the second and third floors.
The corridors are 17 feet wide. They feature plaster walls, glazed brick wainscoting, and wood doors with multi-pane windows. In the 1921 building, the doorways are surrounded by multi-pane, metal-frame windows with machine-rolled glass panes, providing additional light to classrooms while ensuring privacy and minimizing distractions. Clerestory windows are located on exterior walls, opening onto the interior of the U, in the third-floor east and west wing corridors. The hallway ceilings rise to 12 feet.
The school building's three sets of staircases are important elements of its design. The main entrance opens to a massive gray terrazzo staircase that rises to the second floor, with ramps that ascend to the first-floor east hallway. The east and west corridors feature molded concrete staircases of identical design, including closed balustrades with decorative geometrical panels. The stairwells receive natural light from adjacent light wells.
Classrooms are generally rectangular or nearly square in form; they vary somewhat in size depending on their original use and their placement in the building. They have plaster walls and ceilings and simple wood moldings. They feature ample windows, some of which rise nearly to ceiling height. Some of the third-floor classrooms receive additional light from skylights of wire-cut glass, a few of which have been partly covered over. Many classroom interiors include original slate chalkboards with wood frames. Chalkboards are typically found on front and rear walls, although some are also located on the long walls opposite the windows. The majority of the classrooms retain wood floors, covered with carpeting or linoleum. A few rooms have been partitioned to meet changing needs; in a few cases, adjacent rooms have been combined by cutting new openings into dividing walls. Some classrooms have adjoining storage rooms at front or rear: small, functional spaces devoid of detailing. The classroom ceilings, like those of the corridors, are 12 feet high.
Occupying the core of the school building (the hollow of the U) is a combination auditorium and gymnasium, three stories in height. A network of steel trusses concealed in the ceiling supports the clear span. The auditorium features a stage with curtain, a central court and gallery bleachers. The floors are polished hardwood. Underneath the balcony, a pair of ramps descend to the locker rooms. The locker rooms and the adjacent showers are covered entirely with glazed brick.
Also contained in the building's core are half-story mezzanine levels, known as decks, which are accessible from the second and third-floor landings of the stairwells. Built to house student lockers, these low-ceilinged, rectangular spaces, functional in nature, originally were open to the corridors. They have since been converted into classrooms and ancillary uses such as audio-visual rooms.
A suite of rooms on the school's second floor housed the offices of the principal and guidance counselors. These connected offices are simple, unadorned spaces to which some partition walls have been added. Restrooms, located on each floor, feature glazed brick walls and wall-hung porcelain sinks. Floors are terrazzo or unglazed hexagonal tile.
One of the most distinctive features of the school building is a three-room apartment used for home economics instruction, which is located along the inside of the first floor's north corridor. It is not indicated on either the 1921 or 1927 plans and likely was a somewhat later addition, perhaps c. 1935. Designed to emulate a middle-class suburban residence of the mid-20th century, it contains a living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bath, with a decorative brick fireplace. A brick wall with an angled bay, containing a metal casement sash, faces the corridor.
