When a school building has outlived its original purpose, it can be sold for apartments, a single family dwelling, or torn down. My old brick high school in Angola, Indiana, was bought by the county for $1 in the 1990s and has a new life today, housing government offices and agencies. Though many of the old classrooms have been partitioned off, there are features recognizable to former (notice I didn’t say “old”) students like me. While visiting my mother this week, I took a walk through the well-maintained tile and terrazzo floors.
http://www.wellchildclinic.org
The main stairwell from the front entramce continues up to the second floor. Clamoring feet and ringing tardy bells come to mind when I see this shot.
Ascending to the main hallway, the three doors to the auditorium still greeted me. I remember kids flooding in for convocations, club meetings and play practice.
Detail of fresco outside auditorium doors.
Who doesn’t recall the view of the attendance and principal’s offices ahead? And the porcelain drinking fountains…still there.
As in Shel Silverstein’s book, “The Giving Tree,” the old place keeps offering more of itself to students who walked its floors.
The Steuben County Extension Office continues to support the tradition of 4-H. The old home economics kitchen downstairs, where I first cooked a meal of boxed macaroni in the eighth grade, is still intact and used for demonstrations, etc.
A page from the 1920 Key, the Angola High School yearbook. http://www.classmates.com
The Amazing Bird Collection 
Love this!!! There’s just something so neat about walking into a building you knew in childhood, decades later. I love lots of the architectural details. Buildings aren’t built like that today. I’m so glad the building is still being used! Love all the photos too.
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Thanks, Susan! Sometimes we tend to remember a few bad things about school days, but there was a lot of joy and laughter in this place, too.
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Margaret, you are amazing! Busy all the time!
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I am so glad the county listened to the people and put this building to good use instead of razing it to build apartments. The government has now outgrown this building. The old gym behind the school, is still there and could be utilized as more office space. At one time the county added a second floor to the old courthouse, which had 20′ ceilings. The same could be done with the gym. Surely that would be less expensive than building a completely new building and taking parking space.
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