Project: Mabel McDowell Elementary School
Architect: John Carl Warnecke & Associates
Landscape Architect: John Carl Warnecke & Associates
Owner: The City of Columbus, Indiana
Photographers: Balthazar Korab, Louis Dandelet, Hedrich Blessing, Smith Studios,
Date completed: 1960
National Historic Landmark Designation: 2001

“A dominant characteristic of Southern Indiana is the flat terrain, an horizontal theme accentuated by tall Victorian houses, barns and silos, with picturesque groves of trees. The school design is based on the creation of a similar grouping of masses and spaces into a scheme which focuses the school group into its own controlled environment, yet extends outward into the community.”
-John Carl Warnecke

For this school, located on an unusual site in a park-like setting, a cluster-type plan was used in an effort both to avoid an institutional character and to solve a chronic shortage of experienced teachers. In this format, a senior teacher provides overall guidance and training in each cluster or classrooms.
To unify the four classroom clusters, a center unit, to which they are joined by covered walkways, provides a playroom auditorium, a cafeteria, an administrative area, and two kindergarten rooms. The small and intimate scale encourages and emphasizes the individuality of the children and provides the warm and welcoming atmosphere considered so essential by the Columbus School Board.

The elementary school was converted into an adult education center in 1982, and the site was designated as a National Historic Landmark for its architecture in 2001.