School for girls

It has been a couple months since I stopped by the historical society museum (open the first and third Saturdays of the month, from about ten till one), and I was in the area so I stopped by this morning. I interrupted a discussion of how they were going to set up their web page--something to replace the meager offering I helped them with. But almost immediately after I came in, another person arrived and donated a brochure from the old Monnett School for Girls. There does not seem to be much information available about this school, so I was eager to take a look at the historical society's latest acquisition.

You can see it was meant to be mailed, and from its contents, it was meant as an information piece to give to people who might want to enroll their girl or girls.

In 1942 the school cut ties with the Methodist Episcopal Church, so this mailer, which is undated, was prepared before then. Thirty dollars a month may seem very low, but prices have risen by a factor of about fifteen since 1940, (it cost just 3¢ to mail a letter), so in today's prices, that would be about $450 a month.

I believe Monnett Hall, a large wooden structure, was located where Monnett Elementary School now stands. (Later this year it will cease being a school, following its predecessor.) 

I had not realized that the brick building, which was built in 1925 as a dormitory, was called Rensselaer Hall.

The mailer had little text--it let pictures convey its message. Is this a modern kitchen from the 1930s?

I never roller skated when I was young--the sidewalks where I was would not permit it.

They had a playground about where the current playground is. You can see Rensselaer Hall on the left.

I remember desks like this. I doubt if you can find them in any classrooms today.

The dorm with old iron beds. I spent a few years sleeping in a much bigger dorm, with a lot more beds.

It is great to see people donating these wonderful bits of the past to the Historical Society Museum. If you have old stuff like this that you no longer need, consider giving it to the museum. And if you have old material like this that you want to keep, consider letting the museum scan the documents so they will have an electronic copy.

Sap's rising

I spent a couple days in Indianapolis this past week and visited Southeastway Park, where the staff was making maple syrup. This brought back some memories--when I was a student with the Benedictine monks in Minnesota, I helped out one day with their maple-syrup-making operation, which was very much like this one. Below you can see the heating apparatus used to condense the sap into syrup. I asked if it they got one gallon of syrup for 40 gallons of sap and was told that was what people in New England get. The people here are lucky to get one gallon of finished syrup for fifty gallons of sap. A lot of boiling is required to get rid of all the surplus water.

Out in the woods buckets on the maple trees were collecting the sap. This is the earliest that the park has ever begun maple syrup production, but the trees are ready. These pictures were taken February 1, a warm day that had quite a few people out visiting the park.

Does anyone in Jasper County or the neighboring counties make maple syrup? The park said that they could not sell it, but could give it away for a donation. They also use it in educational programs. I suspect that the large amount of labor involved would make it a money-losing business even if we had enough maple trees in our wooded areas to provide large amounts of sap.

The platform at night

 The new Amtrak platform is well-lit at night.

The photo above is taken looking east. You can see the lights on top of the grain elevator. I have never been able to figure out why they are there.

Below is a picture of the platform from Cullen looking west. (The platform could be even more brightly lit if they had both sides of the light fixtures on instead on only one.)

I was at the platform because I was expecting to greet some visitors. And here they are getting off the train.

No one got on the train on this night, but one other person got off.

One of my visitors was not sure she was ready for her Rensselaer adventure.

A curmudgeon's look at the interstate intersection

A couple weeks ago I took a close look at the intersection of I-65 and SR 114 and I was not impressed. At the eastern end, quite a distance from the interchange itself, are three buildings, the Dairy Queen, an empty building that has housed a number of restaurants over the years, and the Knights Inn.

Over the little creek west of the Dairy Queen is a large, ugly parking lot with a tall, blank sign. The sign suggests that there was once something here, but I have vague and confused recollections of something here once. Was there ever anything in here?

On the south side of SR 114 there is nothing for more than a fifth of a mile. When I came to town, there was a burger place called Burger Chalet owned by Wayne Erickson there, but it shut shortly after McDonald's opened up across the street. Interstate intersections are no place for eateries that are not part of chains or franchises--brand recognition is everything.

Looking at who owns what in the area, I noticed that GasAmerica owns about an acre in here. I wonder why they have not built.

(According to a rumor I recently heard, there are plans for a large gas station to open up in what is now the parking lot of McDonald's. But rumors of possible openings usually are wishful thinking.)

The widening of the road may be where the access to Burger Chalet once was.

Crossing over I-65 gets us to the biggest eyesore of the area, the abandoned Grandma's restaurant. The part of the roof where the shingles have come off seems to have been recently painted--I remember it used to look much worse.

Behind Grandma's the old diesel pumps remain, though they have lost their shells. (I thought stations had to remove these when they were no longer in use. What are the rules?) The repair building behind them also seems empty.

Driving through the parking lot of Trail Tree Inn on the southwest side of the intersection brings you to what was once Biggs Catfish farm. It has not been a catfish farm for quite a few years. SJC has some mammoth or mastodon bones that were found here--they are sometimes on display in the display cases by the SJC Theater.

We may no longer have a catfish farm, but Benton County now has a shrimp farm.

More abandoned signs and trash are visible from the parking lot.

The interchange has stagnated and other interchanges in the area have grown. But none of our eyesores compare to the shuttered hotel or motel on the SR 43/I-65 interchange just north of Lafayette.

(More rumors--Newton County apparently is having some financial problems because the use of the landfill is down. It is not that people have stopped throwing things away, but that trash from Chicago has found someplace cheaper and closer. The county was getting about a million dollars per month from tipping fees, but is now only getting 75% of that. And I also heard a good rumor--the landfill in White County may only have another ten years of life. However, with the money involved, I would not be surprised if the people in White County find a way to extend that landfill. When it closes, SR 114 will be almost empty.)

Bricks and blocks

In a few more weeks there will be little new to see at school construction site on North Melville because the workers are finishing up the exterior. Below is the view from Merritt Street.

The brickwork on the sides seems finished and the plastic shielding has been move to the front. Below is the view from Melville.

The east end of the north wing has the blocks in place, but will probably be the last part of the building to get its bricks.