Originally written 1/11/2010 – Examiner.com
Carpenter School was the second school built in Evansville erected in 1859. It was necessitated by overcrowding at the Canal Street School (later renamed Wheeler School), and it was built using the same design plan. Land was purchased from the Willard Carpenter estate and the school was built next to his home (the current WNIN building). Carpenter School was situated on the north side of Carpenter St between Clark St and Ingle St. You can see the school’s layout here in this old 1884 Sanborn map. Carpenter School was also called Lower School since it was downstream and Canal St was called Upper School based on its relation to the Ohio River.
A major renovation in 1878 resulted in an addition to the school and a new facelift, making
the updated school hardly recognizable from its previous look. A new 6-room building was added to the front of the existing one. The updated school building had an ornate tower and large arched entrance shown here. Another renovation in the early 1900s saw the removal of the tower and squaring of the roofline as seen in the photo at left.
After operating continuously for nearly 100 years, Carpenter School was closed in 1957. The population shift left the neighborhood school with declining attendance. After a failed attempt to redevelop the historic school building, it was demolished in 1961. WTVW Channel 7 is now located on this site.
Carpenter School on HistoricEvansville.com
http://historicevansville.com/tag.php?id=carpenter