THE NEW PARIS GYM

Check out this link - played many a b-ball game here as well as had our gym classes here. 

                                       https://hoosiergymjourney.weebly.com/new-paris.html

 

New Paris  Built 1927
July 10, 2026

For a guy who has a blog centered around old buildings, especially considering my wife is an interior designer, you would think I'd know a little bit more about architecture. Unfortunately that's not the case. I can't tell you whether a building features a Greco Roman design or has Gothic elements to it. I know what the word Renaissance means, but I couldn't pick a building designed in that style out of a lineup. I'm terrible at all of that stuff. What I am really good at is looking at an old gym and deciding, "Wow, I really like that!" It's not often that the exterior architecture of a gym wow's me more than what's inside. There are a few examples like Lima and Dupont, but usually I'm more focused on the interior. One thing that I've always loved about old gyms though is that they often include the year the gym was built somewhere in the the design or on an exposed capstone. When I look at them, I wonder if the people at the time thought much of it. Did they think including the year the gym was built would be impressive in 100 years when it's still standing? Did even they think their handiwork would last that long? I love seeing these years carved in stone because it really plants the whole building firmly in that historical period. It takes you back in time and gives these old gyms a little more aura. I doubt you'll find capstones like this in our newest gyms like Columbia City or Barr-Reeve. It would seem silly now to include one that said "2020," but maybe it wouldn't to people a century from now if these places that are new to us are still standing that far in the future. Back in July I found another gym with one of these engravings that dates the place all the way back to when Calvin Coolidge was president. It has one of the most beautiful exteriors I've come across, and that 1927 marker sits atop it all like a crown for a king. 

New Paris is one of the first old gyms in my home region of the state that I'm doing a full review on. I've hit a decent amount of fading gyms in the northeast corner, but not many that are reviewable. While I was never directly involved with the town or school growing up, I have a couple connections to it. The first is that my mom worked at the newer New Paris Elementary School for a year or two when I was kid and she was going back to college to become a counselor. The second is that in 1967 New Paris consolidated with Millersburg to form the school I had an incredible amount of disdain for when I was growing up: Fairfield. It's nothing personal against the Fairfield community, in fact I often thought we had a lot in common with the kids over there, they were just our rival in sports. While I couldn't stand them on the court, I actually became good friends with a lot of them through a church camp, and many of them were from the New Paris area. It's a tight-knit community filled with awesome people. Before consolidating into Fairfield, the New Paris Cubs won two early sectionals. One was in the inaugural year of this gym in 1927, and the other came a bit later in 1941. They bounced around sectional sites over the years, playing in Elkhart, Goshen, and Nappanee from time to time. In all of those sectionals they would have been one of the smaller schools there. They had more than their fair share of success over the years, and they experienced much of it playing in a gorgeous old gym, inside and out. 

We just put new carpet in a couple rooms in our house last month, and I've been over the moon. I've always been a big carpet guy. I think it belongs in most rooms in a house. One place I'm not sure it belongs though is on bleachers in a gym, especially when I'm pretty sure there are nice permanent wooden bleachers underneath it. This is my only real bugaboo with the New Paris gym. What is left of the original bleachers, which are 8 rows along one sideline, have all been covered in mustard yellow carpet. I'm not sure when this happened (the gym served the elementary year for a couple of decades after the high school closed, and has been a part of a church for around 20 years now), but it's a very curious stylistic choice. The only thing interrupting the bleachers from end to end is a tunnel entrance in the middle of them. I'm fairly certain the opposite sideline used to have a matching set of permanent bleachers, but they were torn out and the area was walled off to have storage rooms and possibly restrooms put in. A walkway with a railing was installed above to provide even more usable space that connects to the balcony area over one baseline end. I could be wrong, but it does seem that the baseline balcony was original to the gym considering the exterior hallway runs underneath it. There are no bleachers up there, and it seems like a place people probably would have stood and hung over the edge to get a good view of the action. 

High along the walls on three sides of the gym are big square windows made up of glass blocks which always look cool. A couple are covered up, but there are still some letting in lots of natural light. The original ceiing has been covered with an angled drop ceiling which looks fine, but I wonder what it looked like without it. Four big metal support beams sit right outside the out of bounds lines along both sidelines. What they would have taken away in terms of obstructed views, they more than make up for in added ambience. Attached to these poles are something I've never seen before in any other gym. There are wooden practice hoops that are raised and lowered by a pulley system of some sort mounted directly on the post with no rope or mechanism running to any other part of the ceiling or rafters. The hoop just goes straight up and down on the pole. When I was in the gym, the rim had to be 12-13 feet off the ground. I just love these one-of-a-kind finds. The playing floor is in phenomenal shape for a 99 year old gym. It's stained a classic light gold. You can also tell the main baskets feature the original glass backboards which are awesome. The wooden bottoms that the rims attach to are a dead giveaway. 

Attached to the old gym is the original New Paris High School building that is still fully intact, and you know how rare that is. It is just as grand as the gym. The church occupies and uses both buildings which is great to see. I took my exterior photos right before I left. I couldn't help but stop and linger for a few extra beats to take it all in. The intricate designs across the face of the gym, with the glass block windows on the sides, all set in marvelous dark red brick. It doesn't get much better. Northeast Indiana has never felt as exciting as the rest of the state when heading out on my travels. That's because it's where I'm from. What you know is never going to feel as exhilarating as something new, but this visit really shifted my mindset. It got me excited to visit the places in and around my own backyard in NECC country. Just because I'm more familiar with the history doesn't mean it's not worth telling, and there's so much that I've yet to uncover for myself. I couldn't have found a better jumping off point than this jewel in New Paris. 

 

PALM SUNDAY - 1965

 

It was a Palm Sunday no different than any other.  The young ones meandered the aisles of the sanctuary waving their green fronds, followed by a not-real donkey and a not-real Jesus.  I wondered how many palms from the South sacrificed their boughs for a Northern Indiana ritual.

The reward for making it through Sunday morning was dinner at Sam and Anna's.  Grandpa Sam had caught a boat-load of perch at the marl pit and Grandma Anna fried them up in butter along with thinly sliced potatoes.  She also had her standards - beans cooked with bacon and strawberry rhubarb pie.

The afternoon light suddenly turned dark.  A storm was moving southwest to northeast. The thick low clouds were angry, swirling like an eddy in Turkey Creek and colored like a rainbow gone bad.  Johnny and I stared at the sky, oblivious to the dangers.  Then a siren went - and then another - and another until they were continuous.  For hours.  Slowly we learned that one of several tornadoes was a double funnel that touched down for miles. For over 200 souls, it was their last Palm Sunday.

HIRED HANDS AT EDWAMAR FARMS

 Sometime during the 1950's, our parents Edward and Mary Swartzendruber decided to combine their first names to identify their chicken-raising business Edwamar Poultry Farm.  The first place that this name appeared was in the August 1957 Bulletin of the Indiana State Poultry Association.  Not too long after that, they shortened the name to Edwamar Farms since corn, oats and wheat [and one off-the-rails year of tomatoes] were also being raised.  Ed was the first in the area to put in an irrigation system for the corn, and most everyone thought he was crazy.  However, after a few dry summers, others decided it was not such a bad idea, and now virtually every farm in the area has an irrigation system.

When Ed got more involved with Wolfe Grain in Shipshewana, and then later with EDD'S Supplies, a fertilizer business, he decided to hire a full-time farm hand.  I did my share of chicken catching, manure shoveling and irrigation pipe moving, but the farm needed a full-time worker.

There were only two hired hands in the history of Edwamar, and the first was Jim Boyer.  The Boyers had a farm not too far from ours, and Jim was available.  The Boyer family all flew small airplanes, and Jim was a good mechanic.  One thing that I clearly remember about Jim was that he was never in hurry to get anywhere or do anything 😃 You can read about Jim in this obituary.   I'm not sure how many years Jim worked on the farm, but when he departed, his replacement was Devon "Slugger" Bontrager. 

  

To say that Slugger was a character would be an understatement!  He grew up Amish, but like many, left that group to join the Mennonites - "jerked-over" as such folks are affectionately known!  He spoke Platt·deutsch throughout his adult life, and never did lose that low-German accent.  He was a bear of a man, and there was nothing farm-wise that Slugger couldn't do.  Some particularly great memories include the sweet corn patch that would always be planted so that we kids and cousins could sell corn in a makeshift stand along the road; the Concord grapes that grew behind the chicken houses and at Slugger's house that he and Esther built on the farm; and of course the barbequed chicken!!  When Slugger would fire up the multiple grills for a big barbeque, there was never a shortage of helping hands who knew that they would be the first to taste the freshly grilled chicken.  You can read about Slugger here.

STEEL WHEELS

 

I had the pleasure of attending a Steel Wheels concert in the small-venue intimate setting of Swallow Hill Music.  Our daughter is friends with the primary fellows, having met two of them at undergraduate school at Eastern Mennonite University.   A third band member is the son of a fellow that I went to school with at Goshen College.  

Trent Wagler is the front man for the band, and is a very talented singer, musician and song writer, and his bio can be found here. He has a distinctive sound that I like. Jay Lapp is the guitar and mandolin player and a bit of info about Jay can be found here.  The third primary member is fiddle player Eric Brubaker who writes here.

Their live performance was impressive in several ways from musicianship to clarity of delivery to song content.  I was very impressed with the variation in styles - way too often bands play a couple of songs and then they all begin to sound alike.  Not so with the Steel Wheels - a very enjoyable evening indeed.

Enjoy a concert!!

 

 

ART FROM THE BINS - AMADO PEÑA

I have found two art pieces by Amado Peña, who is described as "a contemporary American visual artist of Mexican and Yaqui descent. Born in Laredo, Texas, in 1943, his work is known for celebrating the culture of the Southwest and its indigenous peoples with bold colors, dynamic compositions, and stylized figures."

The Artist 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first piece is a Native American Gallery Poster - I could not find a title, and it measures approximately 10" x 12"

The second picture is a signed pencil lithograph with the full name

Amado Maurilio Peña Jr. 1983

Size is 8" x 10"

 

Three Women Red Chilis

 

 

 

I very much enjoy Pena's style and subject matter.  For much more, visit this link - https://penagallery.com/

ART FROM THE BINS - JJ MORA

I snagged this as soon as I noted that it was a signed print.  

 

 

TÉU-MAHS KÁTCHINA 

JJ MORA

140/650

10" x 14"

 

Below the TÉU-MAHS KÁTCHINA title, the subtitle reads "Mother of Two - Tuen Whuip Kat's [Hopi] East Mesa 1904 #13

Joseph Jacinto Mora (October 22, 1876 – October 10, 1947) was a Uruguayan-born American cowboy, photographer, artist, cartoonist, illustrator, painter, muralist, sculptor, and historian who wrote about his experiences in California. He has been called the "Renaissance Man of the West".  Read more of Mora by clicking the Wikipedia entry.

This particular print is apparently a part of a series of eight, and more detailed information can be found here.