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With community focus, Fox looking to remake Reelsville Elementary
REELSVILLE -- Having not been used for educational or community purposes since its closure in 2011, Reelsville Elementary School fits the descriptor of an abandoned building.
With old books, telescopes, small photographs and artwork left by students and staff, the school still stands despite its roof damage and broken boiler. The playground and a trail built by the Boy Scouts are still there. The idle gymnasium is dark and dusty.
However, with the help of his family and supporters, the entire property will hopefully begin to have a new lease on life soon, as Benjamin Fox now looks to restore the buildings as historic landmarks and where the local community can come together.
The history of Reelsville Elementary School traces back to before the beginning of the last century. Not far from where the current building now stands, the first iteration of Reelsville High School was built as a two-story schoolhouse in Pleasant Garden.
However, this building was completely destroyed after it was engulfed in a fire in March of 1945. It was estimated then that $50,000 (not adjusted for inflation) in damages had been lost. However, the local community resolved to build a new school, and a barracks was used as a substitute for the next nine years.
The new Reelsville High School was completed in 1953, but classes did not start until 1954. It underwent another dramatic change when it was redesignated as the elementary school in 1969. South Putnam High School was also opened during this time, and Reelsville High School was consolidated into the new building.
The whole property underwent a remodeling phase that was completed in October of 1999. After that time, though, Reelsville Elementary gradually became a financial strain on the South Putnam Community School Corporation.
The recession which hit in 2007 spelled the beginning of the end. After funding cuts were made at the state level, and with a loss of enrollment which ultimately cost the corporation approximately half-a-million dollars, the South Putnam School Board decided to close Reelsville Elementary in 2011.
The corporation finally sold the building, as well as two parcels containing its ball diamonds and land behind the Reelsville/Washington Township Volunteer Fire Department, to Fox last September. A separate one-and-a-half-acre portion was donated to the fire department.
For those who might have worried about the property being purchased by a developer, Fox being a local connection may be of some comfort. He is a 1995 graduate of South Putnam High School, and went to school at Reelsville Elementary.
In that way, Fox said he had a personal connection to the building. He recounted one moment in 1986 when he watched the Challenger explosion in science class. However, what Reelsville Elementary means to many South Putnam graduates goes beyond this one memory.
“I just couldn’t see it getting torn down,” he told the Banner Graphic during a tour of the property. “I had no intention of buying it, but there’s a lot of history and memories that have been made here to do that.”
Fox shared he had “heard it through the grapevine” that the gym was considered for the classic basketball film “Hoosiers.” If one looks up at some of the wood beams, especially those above the right side of the stage, the autographs of former students can be seen where a rope once hung.
A decidedly spooky interior in the daytime, Fox smiled when asked if he had seen anything “weird” inside the school itself. While he said that he had not, it would make sense to him if a former teacher had maybe stuck around.
Then there is the basement, which Fox and his peers were told was haunted when they were students. As such, he said they were not allowed to enter it. He eventually had to go down recently and pump three-and-a-half feet of water which had pooled inside.
Fox said he is confident that the school can be renovated to reflect how it once was, both as the high school and then the elementary school, through to the 1999 remodel. He has already begun some of the work with replacing almost two dozen broken windows, as well as some doors. Graffiti has also been cleaned up.
“I think that the bones of the school are good,” Fox said. “I know there is a lot of potential here in the school and in the gym, because most of it is still here.”
Adding that it was once the “center of the community” where basketball games and plays were held, Fox hopes that the gymnasium can be restored as a community center, not all that dissimilar in purpose to the old school in Russellville.
The baseball diamonds need new fencing, but Fox wants them to continue being a venue for local youth leagues. He said that they, as well as the work on the gym, can be “going” by fall of next year.
Prior to the building and included parcels being up for auction, the Reelsville/Washington Township Volunteer Fire Department has conducted search-and-rescue training at the school. Fox said he would like to see the department continue to use the building in this capacity.
Fox added that he is looking at getting Reelsville Elementary onto the Indiana Register of Historic Sites and Structures, as well as the National Register of Historic Places.
“We’ll see how that goes,” Fox said. He implied the renovations he plans to make, as well as those which were made during the 1999 remodel, might bar the property from being recognized as historic.
However, Fox said he has received input from Greencastle’s local government, especially Mayor Bill Dory, on how he can go about this. In essence, he said that as many changes as possible will only be cosmetic in nature. Little details like call buttons will be kept.
Fox is an Army man, having joined the forces in about 1994. He has served full-time with the National Guard, and retired from the U.S. Army last March. He made it clear that this would translate into his efforts.
“I have very strict detail from being in the Army,” he said. “I want to do things right.”
Indeed, this is part of what drives Fox in reshaping and re-establishing Reelsville Elementary as a source of continuity for the people of Reelsville and Pleasant Gardens.
“I think that with a lot of TLC, we can make it a nice place for everyone,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to help other people, and this gives me the opportunity to do that. I want this to benefit the community here.”