Art classes West Lafayette

Morton Community Center is a multi-purpose building (with varied facilities and rooms to rent for activities) on approx. 3.5 acres. The center has a small playground and a few picnic tables. Rooms are available to rent for $6.50 per hour to $48 per hour. Rooms are available Monday through Friday from 8 am until 11 pm and Saturdays from 8 am until 4:30 pm. For additional information contact Morton at 775-5120. View rental rates by clicking on information on the side.

History

The site of Morton Community Center,formerly Morton School,is part of the original town of Kingston,platted in 1885. The original plat shows a "school lot" at the southwest corner of Salisbury and North Streets. Five different schools occupied this site prior to the construction of the existing building.

The first Morton School was built on the school lot in 1892. This two story brick and stone building was named after the Indiana Civil War Governor,Oliver P. Morton,and was the only continually used public elementary school in West Lafayette until the second quarter of the Twentieth Century.

The current structure was designed in 1929 by Lafayette architect,Walter Scholer Sr. in a Classical Revival style that was deemed the most appropriate image for public buildings,particularly those structures associated with knowledge,learning or the arts. Old Morton School was razed in 1930 to make space for the development of the playground for the new facilities. In the spring of that year,the children planted elm trees around the block.

Morton remained the only West Lafayette elementary school until 1955 when Burtsfield School opened. The school closed in 1985 as part of a plan to cope with declining enrollment and system-wide financial difficulties,after operating as a school for 55 years.