137-Year-Old School To Move To Permanent Location

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — A 137-year-old school is destined for a field trip.

The (Lafayette) Journal and Courier reports that the West Lafayette Board of Public Works has approved a $49,500 proposal to move the one-room Morris Schoolhouse 900 feet across a soybean field to a permanent location.

Mayor John Dennis says the 1879 school is "very brittle." But he says Wolfe House Movers of Indiana specializes in moving historic buildings.

Foundation funding and private donations will finance the move to a new park of more than a dozen acres.

Franciscan Health bought the schoolhouse land in 2014 from Lynn Cason with plans to build a medical facility.

Cason's grandparents attended the school before it closed in 1916. He donated land for the park and Franciscan Health is donating building and design services.