Snapshots of History by Mike Avitt

By Editor | October 4, 2023 |

Maloy High School about 1965.

I recently posted this picture on Facebook and got quite a few replies. I’ll give you a brief history of the Maloy High School.

Maloy’s Centennial Book says a school was built in Maloy in 1895. I didn’t find any information concerning that, but in 1917, the same year Delphos built a new schoolhouse, the voters of Maloy voted for a $20,000 bond issue to erect a new school building.
Women were especially eager for a new school, voting 39 in favor and 5 opposed.
Hintz & McKee of Creston were awarded the contract for construction and work started on time but I couldn’t find the dedication or opening of the new school. The principal was Layton Rowe.

Maloy High School had great boys’ basketball teams beginning in 1929 when Maloy won its first Ringgold County Championship. They won it again in 1930. Both teams featured Maurice Carr and Joe O’Connor and these two would go on to have great coaching careers. C. T. Murphy was the coach in 1929 and 1930.
Enrollment declined in the 1940s and the last graduating class was 1952 with Allen Comer and Jack Smith as the final graduates.
Elementary classes continued in the former high school building until 1972. A concert was presented on May 8th of that year, led by elementary band instructor Fred Stark vocal teacher Kathleen Harover.

On July 2, 1972, the Maloy Alumni Association held a potluck reunion that also served as a farewell party. Guests included Belle (Steele) Cornelison, a graduate of the class of 1922, making it her 50 year reunion. Rita Shay was recognized as the teacher with the longest record of service in the Maloy school system and Roy Lepley was honored for his service on the Maloy School Board.

On October 8, 1972, the Mount Ayr School District held a public auction and some Maloy School items were part of the sale including a 1956 Chevrolet automobile. On November 12, 1973, the building and lots were sold to Hertz Farm Management for $1,250.
Liz Lynch told me years ago the old school building was torn down in the spring of 1987 in preparation of Maloy’s Centennial Celebration. She and others felt the vacant building was unsightly and would blemish the event. I take a different position. I love old dilapidated, vacant buildings. To me, they are monuments of what used to be; just as a tombstone marks a life that used to be.

Schools and churches were often built with the basement half-submerged. That’s rarely done these days. I look at the building material that was used and imagine the workers on wooden scaffolding. I think of the joy the townspeople felt when their little burg was brightened by a magnificent, brick school building. The sound of children in the playground. The honor of the local young folks getting high school diplomas.
Okay, we can’t save every building, but we can take photographs of them.

Posted in Snapshot of History by Mike Avitt