I remember going to football games at the field behind the fieldhouse, both Carthage College Redmen and Carthage High School Blueboy games. As a young teen, I attended many RMC basketball games in the packed fieldhouse and played many pickup games there with my friends on Sunday afternoons as well as pickup football games on the field. The field is now planted with crops and the fieldhouse is beyond repair and will eventually be torn down.

One of the bright spots of the old campus now is the auditorium. In its early days it hosted the president of Kiwanis International when the first Circle K Club was organized as well as many concerts (Ted Nugent!). When I was in high school I was an Indian in the play Annie Get Your Gun which was performed there. The auditorium fell into the same blighted condition as the rest of the campus but a few years ago the campus was purchased by an ag business who donated the auditorium and attached building to Carl Sandburg. After a great deal of effort, time and money from Carl Sandburg, a local car dealer (Rob Carson), and the community the auditorium has been returned to its former glory.

Although many of the former campus buildings have been or will be destroyed, several others have been or will be renovated and repurposed. The former dorm across the street from the fieldhouse has been redone and now houses offices and conference rooms for the ag business that bought the property. I believe some work has also been done on the building that housed the student union.

Dollar General recently purchased the southwest corner of the property and have broken ground for a new store. I’ve heard that it will be unique for a Dollar General in that it will have a brick exterior to blend in with remaining college buildings. Although it’s sad to see some of the places of my childhood disappear, it’s nice to see a connection to the past maintained.