Heritage Honored

A 2014 grant from Indiana Landmarks’ Partners in Preservation (PIP) program helped reignite the effort to earn landmark status for the New Goshen District No. 2 School, a charming two-room schoolhouse in Vigo County. The New Goshen-West Vigo Lions Club owns the building, and the grant allowed the group to hire a professional preservation consultant to complete the nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

Receiving National Register status—a goal of the club for 15 years—came in late 2016. Modest in size and impressive in detail, the building is the only two-room schoolhouse in Vigo County and one of a dwindling number of rural schoolhouses in the Wabash Valley area.

New Goshen District No. 2 School

Constructed in 1888, the red brick structure features a center bell tower and original Italianate decorative details. Although new township elementary and high schools were built in 1932, the New Goshen District No. 2 School continued to function as a school until 1955. Following its closure, the building transitioned to a community meeting facility until the Lions Club assumed ownership.

Partially restored in 1970, the club interprets the south room as a late nineteenth-century classroom complete with period desks, blackboards and cast iron wood stove, while the north classroom continues to serve as a community meeting hall.

The Lions Club intends to capitalize on the new National Register status to increase public awareness of the schoolhouse and strengthen its fundraising to address rehabilitation needs.

For more information about the school or the PIP program, contact our Western Regional Office, 812-232-4534, west@indianalandmarks.org.