The cause of a fire that destroyed an abandoned, but historic one-room schoolhouse early Monday morning has been ruled undetermined, but suspicious.
The deteriorating building, which was built 129 years ago, is located north of Petersville near the junction of county roads 250N and 500E. It was reported to be on fire at 2:14 a.m.
The building is in a remote location surrounded by fields of hay on a farm owned by Zane and Amy Harden, Columbus Township Fire and Rescue Chief Dave Thompson said.
“It may have been burning long before it was called in,” Thompson said. Columbus Township and Clifford firefighters assisted the Clay Township Fire Department at the scene.
Based on the location, the structure may have once been known as the Meier-Hull School, No. 2, according to Volume II of the History of Bartholomew County. At that time, a number of rural schools were named after nearby landowners.
When it opened in 1892, Meier-Hull became the seventh district school in Clay Township. An earlier No. 2 school had been located east of that site.
In 1924, a new one-story brick school with four rooms was completed nearby on the west side of County Road 500E. When that happened, Meier-Hull and three other small schools were closed.
Bartholomew County Sheriff Deputies Dustin Newland and Brandon Sellers were among the first on the scene.
When Thompson and his men arrived, the building was fully involved in fire, heat and smoke, the fire chief said. The building did not have electricity and there were no storms or lightning at the time, Thompson said.
The Hardens told investigators the former schoolhouse had an extensive history of people breaking into it, spray-painting the walls and committing other acts of vandalism, he said.
While an ambulance from Columbus Regional Hospital was on standby at the scene, no injuries were reported. The case remains under investigation.
