In the wee hours of the morning sometime around 3:30AM on December 16, 1898, the "Owl" train pulled into Irvington. Al Atkinson and another employee on the train noticed a glare in the distance and realized that the Irvington School was completely engulfed in flames. He tried to warn local officials about the fire. Some nearby residents like Robert E. Moore and the Earl family also saw and possibly heard the inferno. A few citizens tried to go into the building to rescue some of the books, but the heat and smoke kept them out. Because the town of Irvington had no proper fire protection, the small crowd had to helplessly watch the destruction of their beautiful school.
Built in 1874 in the Second Empire style, the school stood across the street from the Irving Circle Park on the southeast quadrant of University Avenue and South Audubon Road. As the population grew, the school board commissioned an addition to the original structure in 1896. Mary E. Plummer was the first principal of the school. The total cost of the building came in at around $20,000, but unfortunately town officials did not take out enough insurance for such a calamity.
A reporter for the Indianapolis News described that the light from the flames that night reflected onto the snowy ground. Eerie photos likely taken from the Earl home at 5631 University Avenue showed the various stages of the fire. The addition completed in 1896 tumbled into the ground while some of the walls of the original structure remained intact. If you look closely at two of the photos you will see the silhouettes of a small crowd. Everything was lost in the blaze including artwork and the school's library. Even some of the nearby trees were singed. Daniel Lesley, the president of the board of education, pledged that children would be back at school in some capacity by January. For the remainder of the new winter and spring term, classes met in various churches, lodges, and businesses throughout the community until a new school could be built.
The blaze had been the largest in the history of the town. This fire and others led many citizens to call for Irvington to be annexed by the city of Indianapolis which took place in 1902. Shockingly, the new school built just south of the current building burned in 1903 leading officials to rebuild yet again except at the new location at the intersection of East Washington Street and Ritter Avenue. That school would later be known as the George Washington Julian School, I.P.S. #57.
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| The Irvington Public School (1874-1898) was possibly designed by Isaac Taylor with Joel Stover as the contractor. The school sat in a grove of trees across the street from the Irving Circle Park. This photo was likely snapped c1890. (Carrie Tompkins Scrapbook, Irvington Historical Society) |
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| Students from the Irvington Public School gathered for this photograph on April 23, 1891. (Carrie Tompkins Scrapbook, Irvington Historical Society) |
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| The Irvington Public School sat on the southeast quadrant of University Avenue (then Grand Avenue) and South Audubon Road (then Central Avenue). After the fire it was removed for another school on the site which also burned in 1903. Later the section was developed into several lots for homes. (Map of Irvington, 1889) |
Fire Photos
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| The fire in the Irvington Public School began in the early morning hours of December 16, 1898. The janitor in charge informed the school board that he had turned down the furnace before he left that day. Members of the Earl family likely took this photo from their home across the street just as the flames started to consume the structure. (Carrie Tompkins Scrapbook, Irvington Historical Society) |
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| The second photo, likely taken from 5631 University Avenue on December 16, 1898, shows that the fire had now consumed the rear addition to the building (at the right). If you look closely, you can see silhouetted individuals in the foreground. (Carrie Tompkins Scrapbook, Irvington Historical Society) |
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| Adults on the left huddled together and children on the right, watched--most likely in horror and fascination as fire consumed the entire Irvington Public School on December 16, 1898. Irvington had no proper fire protection at the time. (Carrie Tompkins Scrapbook, Irvington Historical Society) |
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Indianapolis News, December 16, 1898, p. 8
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| Site of former Irvington School at University Avenue and South Audubon Road on December 13, 2025 |
Sources: Lola Blount Conner, "Irvington's Children of the Early 70's Got First Glimpse of McGuffey Readers at Old Mt. Zion District School," Indianapolis Star, November 26, 1933, p. 49; B.R. Sulgrove, History of Indianapolis and Marion County, (Philadelphia, 1884), p.622; Construction--"Personal," May 9, 1873, p.3; Paul Diebold, Greater Irvington II, (Indianapolis, 2020), pp. 163-164; Fire--"Large Fire," Indianapolis News, December 16, 1898, p. 8.
