West Muncie

Township: Mount Pleasant

Location:

Coordinates: 40°10′15″N 85°28′53″W [S1] -

(Approx) CR 152S, 500W, southeast of Yorktown; East of Yorktown on railroad at Buck Creek

Other Names:

Date Platted: 1892

Post Office Data:

Post Office Established: 3 Feb 1893
Post Office Closed: 15 Aug 1902
Post Office Names: West Muncie

- PO located in old 70 room hotel [Morning News, 24 Mar 1898]
- "very few letters or papers come that way." [S3, p 164]

Postmasters:

Charles E. Perry -- 3 Feb 1893
George W. Love -- 28 Dec 1894
PO Closed -- 15 Aug 1902

Sources: [S3, p 164, 177, 180] - [S4, p 1047] - [S5, p 168] - [S6] - [S10] -

Named for its location west of Muncie [S7, p 177] -

A Portion of the Article:
West Muncie Disappeared Fast: Southeast of Yorktown -
By Dick Greene
"In the early 1890's when the 'gas boom' was bringing undreamed-of prosperity 'West Muncie' came into existence. The site was southeast of Yorktown. For a time the project flourished and then almost as quickly as it had flowered it faded and disappeared...
West Muncie apparently was the result of the prosperity and the sky-is-the-limit thinking of the time. Natural gas discovered south of Eaton in 1886 introduced an age of expansion and 'boom,' and brought industries, shops and stores, people and more houses, schools, churches, all that make up a community. Cities and towns over a wide area of central eastern Indiana prospered...People were sure the supply of gas was inexhaustible and the prosperity that came in its wake likewise was unlimited. It was a time for thinking big and doing big.

The Western Improvement Company was the sponsor. On 1 Jan 1892 this company filed in the recorder's office a plat for 'The Village of West Muncie in Mt. Pleasant Township.'

The actual filing was by Augustus S. Cooley, a civil engineer. The plat comprised 38 blocks and most of the lots had a 40-foot frontage and 125-foot depth.

North-south streets were named Grieve, Parkinson, Benger and New York. East-west carried Sutherland, Cooley, Hallenbeck, Hall, Hemingway, Andrews, Church, Sprankle, Wood, and Forest. Sutherland is the street that leads into Cornbread Road.

They apparently had examined the site carefully and had observed there was a natural depression in the land lying south of the present steel truss bridge [since removed and replaced with a concrete structure]. They envisioned a lake formed by the waters of Buck Creek, and built a dam between the steel truss bridge and the railroad bridge immediately to the north. Delaware Lake was formed.

The developers went further. They built Lake View Hotel, a frame structure on the north side of the railroad tracks. It was a substantial structure and the testimony of those who recalled it is that it was a pleasant place...

Houses were built and so was a railroad station, hence the name West Muncie on the map[s]. There was every indication during 'good times' that the new village would rival the county seat city to the east.

On Nov 26, 1892, Lakeview Hotel was opened and on Feb 22, 1893, a grand ball was sponsored by Muncie Lodge of Elks...

This growth and these high hopes did not take into account a period of economic distress in 1893; a 'panic' it was called or a 'depression' we would say today. That occurred nationally and likewise was felt in Muncie which, to add to its troubles, had a serious epidemic of smallpox in the summer of 1893.

Whatever happened in the final months may be written in records. 'Hard times' were given as the cause but the final blow, the denoument as it were, was the collapse of the dam and the draining of the waters from Delaware Lake. West Muncie did not recover and on Feb 15, 1894 the two-year-old enterprise died. On that day Lakeview Hotel was attached by the sheriff.

Just how long it took for the community to disappear was not known exactly by the persons questioned. Factories closed and were dismantled and Lakeview Hotel was razed and its materials were salvaged for other structures."

[S9, 8 May 1966] -

"Industrial development was encouraged and by 1894 a flour mill, brass works and novelty company were located there. The lake sported a steam launch and many smaller boats, and a railroad station was built there to serve West Muncie and Yorktown after the Yorktown depot burned. The picturesque Lake View Hotel...had 70 rooms and special trains were run to the site from Muncie to carry persons bound for the resort...West Muncie also had several retail businesses, a dance pavilion, a newspaper and post office...By 1898 the boom was over, a single family occupied the hotel and most buildings were vacant...Foundations of the buildings remained in the area for another 25 years or so." [S8, 27 Jan 1985]

Glass factory: Patterson Glass Works -- "sold by receiver to George L. Lenon 17 Feb 1894" [S3, 180]

Lakeview Hotel - Photo, Caption - [Album of Yesteryear, The Muncie Star, 27 Jan 1985] - Doc2757.pdf

The Western Improvement Company Ad in a Muncie City Directory - [Album of Yesteryear, The Muncie Star, nd] - Doc2758.pdf

West Muncie Newspaper:
- "The editor and publisher now runs a printing Co. in Peru (Ind) (From article in Morning New 24 March 1898) - [S3, p 164]
- Weekly - "The Yorktown Community Review" - [The Muncie Star, 21 June 1987, page 8B] -

"Indian Folklore Colorful Part of Yorktown's Past" - Sesquicentennial Report - Photo of Yorktown downtown, 1920s - [The Muncie Star, 21 June 1987, page 8B]
- A large part of the article deals with the development and demise of West Muncie - Doc2766.pdf

"Of all the enterprises produced during the early nineties by entusiastic promoters, whose designs

Sources
	Source Citation	Image (Click for larger View) (To Magnify larger image - use CTRL + )
S1	Google Maps
S2	WikiPedia Article
S3	Kemper, G.W.H., M.D., ed. A Twentieth Century History of Delaware County Indiana, 1908; reprint ed., Evansville, Indiana: Whippoorwill Publications, 1984. Bk3012.
S4	Baker, J. David. The Postal History of Indiana, Vol. 2. Louisville, Ky: Leonard H. Hartman, 1976, Bk3010. Repositories: Bracken Library, Ball State University and Anderson Public Library
S5	Baker, J. David. The Postal History of Indiana, Microfiche. Louisville, Ky: Leonard H. Hartman, 1976, Bk3010. Repositories: Bracken Library, Ball State University and Anderson Public Library
S6	Map of Delaware County, Indiana. Compiled by H. Lester Janney. Revised by Ward M. Harlan, 1965.
S7	Baker, Ronald L, and Marvin Carmony. Indiana Place Names. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1975, Bk1567.
S8	"Album of Yesteryear". Muncie, Indiana: The Muncie Star.
S9	The Muncie Star. Muncie, Indiana.
S10	Book: Lasley, Norma and the Delaware County Historical Society (Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana). Images of America: Delaware County. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2012. Bk3725 - West Muncie Hotel: Page 92
S11	Yorktown Community Review, 1915
S12	The History of Yorktown and Mt. Pleasant Township. Research paper by Nancy Moore and Judy Cooper.
S13	"Our Neighborhood" by Bill Spurgeon - The Muncie Star (Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana), 25 Feb 1994, page 4A - Doc4310.pdf
S14
S15
S16
S17
S18
S19
S20
S21
S22
S23
S24
S25