St. Joseph Indian Normal School

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

From the record

“Joseph's Indian Normal School is a former school for American Indians in Rensselaer, Indiana. The school building is now known as Drexel Hall and part of the Saint Joseph's College campus.”
Wikipedia article St. Joseph Indian Normal School, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 12 National Register listings published here for Jasper County · listed in 1973 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. St. Joseph's College Campus off U.S. 231, Rensselaer, 47978
When was it listed? June 1973
Category. building
Township. Marion township
National Register reference number. 73000018 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Mines and quarries near this property

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of St. Joseph Indian Normal School: 3 producers, 1 past producer, 1 occurrence. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Lead, Zinc. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Jasper Co. Hwy. Dept.	Stone	Producer
Rensselaer Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Sphalerite and Galena Occurrence	Lead, Zinc, Sulfur	Occurrence	Galena, Sphalerite
A. Metz, Inc.	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Babcock Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer

Every working recorded in Jasper County

Storms near this property

42 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rensselaer, the town this property stands in, in 42 storm reports between 1994 and 2022: 20 thunderstorm wind, 11 hail, 4 tornado, 2 flood. The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
April 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	2 hurt	no account filed
November 2013	Tornado (EF1)	Rensselaer	$150,000	Multiple empty grain bins and outbuildings were destroyed across four farmsteads with large paths of debris thrown two miles downstream. Utility poles were blown down along with dozens of trees that were snapped. Maximum winds were estimated to 100 mph.
November 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	$50,000	Several grain bins were knocked down. Trees and power lines were blown down on the east side of Rensselaer. Roof damage occurred to several businesses and outbuildings.
May 2011	Tornado (EF1)	Rensselaer	$50,000	A tornado touched down along Sparling Road halfway between Schuster and Mt. Calvary Roads. The tornado moved northeast across southeastern portions of Rensselaer. A truck was overturned near Route 231 and and Drexel. Power lines, tree limbs and shingles were blown down. The tornado lifted near Highway 114, just east of the high school.
July 2001	Tornado (F0)	Rensselaer	$10,000	A tornado touched down near County Road 400E and 200S destroying a garage and damaging the corner of a roof of a barn. The tornado continued through corn and bean fields and exited Jasper County 12 miles east of Rensselaer and moved into Pulaski County. (See Storm Data for Indiana, Northeast)
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	$5,000	Widespread trees and power lines were blown down.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	Over 30 trees were uprooted at Weston Cemetery.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	Widespread tree and power line damage was reported throughout Rensselaer with numerous large trees blown down. Many trees were snapped several feet above ground. At least one car was damaged by a fallen tree limb. A 25 foot tall tree was uprooted at the courthouse. Roofing material was blown off buildings in downtown.
May 2020	Funnel Cloud	Rensselaer	-	Several reports of funnel clouds were received from the Rensselaer area.
June 2018	Heavy Rain	Rensselaer	-	Rainfall of 1.25 inches was measured in 60 minutes.
June 2018	Heavy Rain	Rensselaer	-	Rainfall of 2.67 inches was measured in 90 minutes.
June 2018	Flash Flood	Rensselaer	-	Several roads were flooded with one to one and half feet of water.
September 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	Winds were estimated to 70 mph.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	A semi was blown over on the north side of Rensselaer.
April 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	A large tree was blown down near the Iroquois River.
May 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	Numerous large trees and tree limbs were blown down which required heavy equipment for removal.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	A few trees were blown down.
August 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	Several tree limbs were blown down in Rensselaer including one large limb near Cherry and Melville Streets.
August 2006	Flood	Rensselaer	-	The coop observer in Rensselaer reported streeting flooding in parts of the city. Rainfall from midnight to 7 am was 1.34 inches with 2.20 additional inches falling between 7 am and 930 am.
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	Trees were blown down.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	Trees were blown down at 100W and 300N and at 200S and 600W.
May 2004	Hail	Rensselaer	-	Hail damaged barns and storage buildings in a rural farming area.
May 2004	Tornado (F0)	Rensselaer	-	A tornado was witnessed brielfly about 1/8 mile east of US 231 on Amsler Road. There was no damage.
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	70 mph winds were reported in Rensselaer.
May 1998	Flood	Rensselaer	-	Heavy rain with embedded thunderstorms moved across the southern portion of the county, and accumulated around 2 inches of rain in and around Rensselaer. No major flooding was reported.
April 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	Several trees were blown down and one barn was destroyed.
July 2019	Hail	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
June 2015	Hail	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
July 2009	Funnel Cloud	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
July 2004	Hail	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
August 2003	Hail	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
April 2001	Hail	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
July 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
May 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	no account filed
May 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Rensselaer	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Jasper County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Schwietermann Hall	0.3 miles	2016
Charles Halleck Student Center	0.5 miles	2016
Hugh and Leona Rank House	0.7 miles	2016
Oren F. and Adelia Parker House	0.9 miles	2014
Jasper County Courthouse	1.0 miles	1983
Rensselaer Courthouse Square Historic District	1.1 miles	2012

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 73000018 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Jasper County	All 12 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.