This is the Pleasant Township #3 School on Smith Road, across the street from Fort Wayne International Airport, in rural Allen County. I discovered this place when I was in high school, and continued photographing it over the years until it was torn down. The old farmer who owned it took a look at my long hair and asked me if I was a boy or a girl when I asked him for permission to photograph it!

I was never satisfied with most of the photographs I made of this place, because it is set so close to the road. This is one of the last photographs I made of it. It had deteriorated considerably since the day I first found it a decade earlier. There used to be a limestone medallion above the door arch that had the name of the school, the date of construction (1898), and the name of the township trustee. You can see it in this self-portrait that I did years earlier at the abandoned schoolhouse.

The schoolhouse was torn down in early 2006.

12-28-2000

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by Christopher Crawford

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