Ed Hasnerl Reflects on the County’s Schools

Washington Township School
Washington Township School

At one time in Starke County, there were 62 one-room schools. Washington Township had nine.

They were built on a geographic plan that allowed a student to walk no more than 2 miles to a school.

The Eagle Creek School, built in 1913, now is just a pile of bricks and debris. It was heavily damaged by an arson fire some years ago.

It’s a personal, sad reminder of days gone by. I attended Eagle Creek until I graduated 8th grade in 1948.

Another sad reminder of bygone days is the empty and deteriorating Washington Township Consolidated School.

It is scheduled to go under the demolition ball next week. Located at the intersection of State 23 and Division Road, it was built in 1958.

It had 11 classrooms. When regular classes were discontinued and the students moved to Knox, the building was used for

Head Start students and then abandoned. At one time, the one-room Election School, built in 1898, stood at the same location.

There were many grandiose plans for refurbishing the consolidated building for community activities, but none came to fruition.

It will stand abandoned and empty until next week. The grounds are used as a local park.

A four-room school at Ober, built in 1914, at a cost of $8,5000, provided high school classes in Washington Township for several of its early years. It is now privately owned, as is the former Coffin School, at Country Roads 700-East & 200 North.

Records show that as early as 1851 students were attending township schools in Oregon, North Bend and Washington Townships.