James E. Roberts School for Crippled Children

In 1936 Indianapolis architects McGuire and Shook designed the James E. Roberts School for Crippled Children, first public school in Indiana for physically handicapped children (see Indianapolis Public Schools). The school was located on East 10th Street on Indianapolis’ near east side.

The Roberts School’s origins lay in the School for Crippled Children at 612 W. Washington Street established in 1925. That school came into being after a survey in 1924 indicated a need for a special educational facility in Indianapolis. It occupied a school building on the city’s near west side formerly used to educate the children in the Haughville and White River neighborhoods (see Canal and White River State Park). These children moved to a newly constructed school, the Oscar C. McCulloch School No. 5 in 1922 (see Oscar Carleton McCulloch). The School for Crippled Children used the older school building after remodeling it and two additional rooms in the adjacent School No. 5, but the remodeled building quickly proved inadequate.

Far view of the front of a multi-story brick school building. The style is modern with squared windows and a curved wall protruding from the far side of the double entrance doors. Small shrubs line the walkway leading to the front entrance.

James E. Roberts School building, ca. 1930s Credit: Indianapolis Public Library View Source

Close up view of the front of a multi-story brick school building. The style is modern with squared windows and a curved wall protruding from the far side of the double entrance doors.

James E. Roberts School building, ca. 1940s Credit: Indianapolis Public Library View Source

This exterior photo of the James E. Roberts School shows one of the entryways into the school. The limestone features decorative carving, while the window above the doors features decorative metalwork.

James E. Roberts School entrance, ca. 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

This photo shows a hallway that ends with a rounded window seat in the James E. Roberts School.

James E. Roberts School rounded window seat, ca. 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

This interior photo of the James E. Roberts School shows a curved stairway with ceramic tile.

James E. Roberts School stairway, ca. 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

This interior photo of the James E. Roberts School shows a hallways with a ramp to accommodate wheelchairs.

James E. Roberts School hallway and ramp, ca. 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

This interior photo of the James E. Roberts School shows a multi-purpose room with a stage.

James E. Roberts School stage, ca. 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

This interior photo of the James E. Roberts School shows a classroom with desks and blackboard. A row of windows fills one wall.

James E. Roberts School classroom, ca. 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

But the Great Depression prevented the construction of a new structure until the New Deal came to the rescue in the form of a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant of $98,000, along with a large bequest from Henrietta West Roberts, widow of James E. Roberts, for whom the school was named in 1934. At his death in 1922, Roberts had left nearly a million dollars to the Indianapolis Foundation to fund various projects to aid the physically handicapped. His wife, who died in 1933, left $65,000 toward the construction of a new school dedicated to educating physically handicapped children. When the new building opened in October 1936, 180 pupils who had been shoehorned into the old facility moved in. The structure contained all the accoutrements of a regular school building with additional rooms for occupational therapy, physical therapy, home economics, industrial arts, and a “rhythm room.”

McGuire and Shook won a certificate of merit for the stunning Art Moderne school. The architectural firm was a logical choice; they designed numerous PWA-funded institutional buildings around the state, including structures at all the state mental hospitals and the then-Muscatatuck Colony for the Feeble-Minded. Filled with all the latest equipment, such as a hydrotherapy pool, a sundeck, and of course, ramps and elevators, the gleaming new school opened to great fanfare on a large near-eastside campus that already included Arsenal Technical High School and the Theodore Potter Fresh Air School (see Theodore Potter), built in 1912 to accommodate students with tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases.

Students sit at individual desks in a classroom. All students are writing on a sheet of paper.

Classroom at James Roberts School, ca. 1930s Credit: Indianapolis Public Library View Source

A group of students sit and stand next to each other. All are holding or playing an instrument. Two students are in wheel chairs.

School children in band at James Roberts School, ca. 1930s Credit: Indianapolis Public Library View Source

A teacher leads young children in stretching exercises in a large room. The children stand facing each other in a circle and have their hands raised over their heads.

Children Stretching at James E. Roberts School (school No. 97), 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

A young girl weaves material at a loom in a classroom at James E. Roberts School.

Student at weaving loom at James Roberts School, ca. 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

Children take naps on cots and beds at the James E. Roberts School. Wheel chairs are next to two of the cots.

Naptime at James Roberts School, ca. 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

This interior photo of the James E. Roberts School shows five children at a table that is set for a meal. A set of crutches are propped up against a wall next to one student.

Students at dining table at James Roberts School, ca. 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

This interior photo of the James E. Roberts School shows two children at a rounded window seat. They are reading a book together.

Children at window seat at James Roberts School, ca. 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

This interior photo of the James E. Roberts School shows a woman, possibly a therapist of teacher, helping a student in a hydrotherapy pool.

Student in hydrotherapy pool at James Roberts School, ca. 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

A woman pushes a boy in a wheelchair down the ramp at the James E. Roberts School.

Student in wheelchair using a ramp at James Roberts School, ca. 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

A nurse sits behind a desk. A young boy sits in a chair next to her.

A nurse with a child at James Roberts School, ca. 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

Children sit at rows of tables in a small room eating lunch.

Children dine in the lunchroom at the James Roberts School, ca. 1936 Credit: Indiana Historical Society View Source

Teachers and older students each sit next to a younger student at desks. The younger students are all wearing headphones while the older students write on a sheet of paper.

Special Education teachers and students at James Roberts School, 1941 Credit: Indianapolis Public Library View Source

A teacher stands in the middle of a classroom and operates a turntable. Older students sit next to and help younger students. The younger students are wearing headsets and the older students are wearing a white sash with a badge on it.

Hearing impaired students at James Roberts School, 1941 Credit: Indianapolis Public Library View Source

A group of young children sit at individual desks facing the front of a large classroom with several windows lining one wall.

Students in a classroom at James Roberts School, ca. 1950s Credit: Indianapolis Public Library View Source

James E. Roberts School 97 served pupils with special needs for 50 years. In 1986, policy changes dictated that students at the school be mainstreamed. The building reopened as an IPS Key School (a magnet school, see Key Learning Community) and later was occupied by the Horizon Middle School until 2006, at which time IPS announced plans to demolish the building. Complicated legal restrictions required that buildings on the campus must be used for education, and IPS saw no such use in the historic school’s future.

With considerable help from Indiana Landmarks, which immediately listed the building as one of the state’s Ten Most Endangered, a non-educational reuse through a long-term lease was deemed acceptable. Revenue from the lease helps support IPS, thus meeting the original legal requirement. Core Redevelopment preserved the exterior and most of the surviving Art Moderne interior features, and the former school is now attractive market rate apartments.

Further Reading