Relighting a bygone school's spirit

Nov. 27—Life after Wiley High School got interesting for that cast-iron lantern.

It, as well as a sister lantern, lived the first half of its life in a solitary position. The octagonal, nearly 80-pound lamp illuminated the entrance to the Wiley gymnasium from its opening on May 24, 1923, to its demolition in 1971, after the school closed for good. The lantern shone on thousands of kids and adults going to and from ball games, dances and community events through that half-century.

It found a new home in Florida for another 50 years, until a team of Wiley alums joined forces on a cross-country adventure this fall to bring it back to Terre Haute.

The lantern made a guest appearance at the Wiley Class of 1971 reunion in September, before finally joined the collection of the Vigo County Historical Museum.

"People just went nuts. They were in awe. It just brings it all back for us," said Autumn Stillman Standley, the Class of '71 member who organized the lantern's return. "I just felt like it was home."

That light fixture embodies a bit of the sentimentality Wiley alums hold for the school that stood near Seventh and Popular streets from 1886 to 1971. The lanterns came with the gymnasium, which was added in 1923. The high school's students had to practice basketball in the attic floor before the gym opened.

That affection is the reason Ray and Jane Southerland drove to site of Wiley's demolition in 1971. Otherwise, the lantern might've just been crushed, disposed of and lost forever.

Jane had graduated from Wiley in 1957, when her classmates knew her as Sarah Jane Stogsdill. So, her husband — a graduate of crosstown rival Gerstmeyer High School — pulled their car beside the rubble on that day in '71, talked to the demolition crew and wound up buying one of the lanterns for $30 as a keepsake for his wife. Two of the lantern's eight horizontal pieces were broken, but that didn't matter.

"It was sad for me to see [the school's demolition]," Jane recalled last week by phone from Florida. "People who went to Wiley were very proud of it, and being there was a very good time in our lives."

In 1972, the Southerlands moved to Miami. Ray located a small foundry in nearby Hialeah that recast the broken pieces. Eventually, they hung it on a concrete wall outside their home — a small slice of Wiley High 1,775 miles away.

Ray died in 1981. In 1988, Jane remarried to Bert McMillen. Four years later, Hurricane Andrew tore through their neighborhood, leveling numerous homes. "We had seven broken trusses, but the lamp stood," Jane said.

Only the lantern's finial — the ornamental cap — got damaged by the Category-5 storm in August 1992.

Jane and her second husband, Bert McMillen, whom she married in 1988, sold the house as-is and moved into a new home. "Of course, I took the lamp with me, broken finial and all," Jane said. The lantern didn't fit the look of the McMillens' new place, so Jane put it in storage.

After more than two decades packed away, the lantern reemerged in 2021, when Jane and Bert decided to downsize and move into a smaller place. Sadly, the lantern had to go. Jane alerted fellow former Wiley Red Streaks that the school relic needed a new home and that it would have to be retrieved in person. The lantern was too bulky and heavy for Jane and her husband to lift and transport to be shipped.

Autumn Standley answered the call and came up with a rescue plan through her soon-to-reunite Class of '71. Standley also lives in Florida, but in the state's northern panhandle, 10 1/2 hours away from Miami. Standley knew Terre Haute resident Bill Llewellyn, a fellow member of the Class of '71 and its reunion committee, had a vacation home at North Hutchinson Island, just 2 1/2 hours from Miami. Standley called Llewellyn, and he just happened to be in North Hutchinson at the time.

Llewellyn agreed to drive to Miami and pick up the lantern, and then shuttle it up to Standley in Fort Walton Beach along Florida's panhandle.

It was a labor of school loyalty and friendship, rather than a connection to the lantern itself. Llewellyn had played on the Wiley basketball team as a high schooler and probably walked under the lantern countless times, but didn't recall noticing it until he picked it up from Jane McMillen in Miami.

"I wish I could tell you that I was conscious [of it] when I was in high school, but I don't remember it," Llewellyn said, laughing. "I'd be lying if I told you I did."

Regardless, Llewellyn was anxious to play a role in its return to Terre Haute. "I think our [class] just felt like it was a neat thing to do for Sarah [Jane]," he said.

So, Llewellyn, a 68-year-old retired controller for a Terre Haute beer distributor, motored from North Hutchinson to Miami, talked with Jane ("a very sweet lady"), loaded the lantern ("it was damned heavy"), and took it north to meet Standley and her husband in a Cracker Barrel parking lot in Fort Walton Beach on his way home to Terre Haute.

Standley, a retired Air Force veteran, wanted to get the lantern's broken elements — suffered in Hurricane Andrew — repaired. She took it to a welder, who said it was a job for a blacksmith. She found a blacksmith, "who was in awe" of the antique and excited to fix it. "He was like, 'Oh, my, look what I've got here,'" Standley said.

The repairs cost $250, but "to me that was well worth it," Standley said.

She and her husband then drove the lantern on the final leg of the lantern's homecoming journey to Terre Haute for her 50-year class reunion in September. It drew rave reviews at the Class of '71 reunion, a physical reminder of their bygone school. "It's almost like you had to go to Wiley to understand the connection most of us had not only with each other, but the building itself," Standley said.

After the reunion, Standley and Llewellyn took it to the Vigo County Historical Museum on Wabash Avenue. Museum curator Suzy Quick hopes to get a sturdy display crafted, so the lantern can hang, just as it did outside the Wiley gym.

"This is a project I hope to get rolling in December [or] January," Quick said. "Of course, we'll have to do some fundraising to get the display built."

Jane McMillen, now 81, believes the museum is the best destination for the lantern. Lots of Wiley alums, Hauteans and visitors will be able to see it there.

"Now that I look back, it always belonged in a museum," Jane said. "We all went to dances and ball games in that gym, and the lantern is a part of all that."

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.