The first form of education in Munster was taught by Chauncy Wilson in his home on the southeast corner of Ridge Road and Walnut Drive in what is now the Benoit home.
1852 - North Township trustees organized the first school in north township in Munster on the Stallbohm property at Greenwood and Ridge. It was a frame building 14 x 16 feet. The construction cost was $16.00. It had two windows and one door and was heated by a log burning iron stove. Pupils sat on long backless benches. Chauncy Wilson was the first teacher in the school. He was also a farmer and the local justice of the peace. When he went off to fight and die in the Civil War his wife, Julia Ann, completed his term.
1870 - A larger one-room school was built across the road. When it was no longer needed it was dragged to the Stallbohm farm and became a tool shed where it was pushed over in 1924.
Munster School, June 4, 1895
1875 - On land purchased from Jacob Munster a three-room school was built on the corner of Ridge and Calumet and became known as the Munster School. In 1914 it became the Town Hall and was torn down in 1920. During its use the school needed three teachers for the population.
1914 - The “Munster School” moved to the present site of The Center for Visual and Performing Arts. It was called the “Munster School” until 1950 when it was changed to the James F. Lanier school. It started with six classrooms and eventually had thirteen. In 1939 the children could get a hot lunch for seven cents. All the food was grown, picked, canned and served by volunteer mothers. The name change to Lanier was in honor of J. F. D. Lanier, a wealthy Madison, Indiana, banker whose loans to the state of Indiana enabled the state to equip Union troops during the Civil War.
1949 - James B. Eads school opened under the name “Munster Elementary School” with nine rooms. The name was changed in 1950 to Eads in honor of the American engineer who designed and built the first steel arch bridge in the world in 1847 on the Mississippi at St. Louis, Missouri. His bridge was the first bridge to be commemorated on a U. S. stamp.
1953 - Elliott School opened, named in honor of Ernest R. Elliott, originally from Clinton, Indiana, who became Munster’s first superintendent of schools in 1951.
1960 - Wilbur Wright Jr. High School opened its doors. It was given its name through an essay contest won by Julane Kraay, a thirteen year old Lanier school student. She discovered and wrote that the famous Ohio resident Wilbur Wright was born in Millville, Indiana.
1966 - Munster High School, finally a four year school which meant that students would no longer have to commute to other towns to finish their four years of high school.
1969 - Frank H. Hammond, the newest of the elementary schools was named after Frank H. Hammond, former superintendent of Munster schools. It was build at the cost of 1.4 million dollars.
1972 - Wilbur Wright Middle School, for grades 6-8 and was built at the cost of 3 million dollars (first Munster school building cost was $16.00!).
