I saw this old school somewhere between Kingsley and Buckley south of Traverse City. I don’t know anything about it but it looks like it was a nice school at one time.
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This old schoolhouse sits down the road from the Sparr Mall. I am not sure what its story is, but the sign on the front reads, Dist. No. 2 Dover. It looks as if someone is or was working on converting it into a home.
P.S. I have been posting daily for several years not but lately I have not been traveling because of the gas prices. I still have photos to share but I not as much as I would like. I wanted to let you know that I may be skipping a few days a week so if you don’t get your daily email that is why. I really miss my road trips and hope that the price of gas will come down soon.
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This large brick building stands along M-25 near the tip of the Thumb. Above the front door carved in stone are the words. GRINDSTONE CITY SCHOOL. I have seen several one room schoolhouses around the Thumb, so I imagine when this building was built in the early 1900s, the citizens of Grindstone City were proud of it. I am not sure when it closed, but it is privately owned now.
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I see a lot of old schoolhouses on my travels around the Great Lakes State but I have not seen many that are made from logs. The Becking School stands with a collection of historic log buildings in Bad Axe’s Pioneer Log Village. The Becking School was built in 1895 and the first teacher was Fred Linton who was paid $20.00 per month. It was moved to the log village in the 1980s along with the other buildings from around Huron County.
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This old school house sits in School Section Lake Veterans Park. It is a Mecosta County park near the town of Mecosta.
Issac Berry was born a slave in 1831. He escaped from bondage in Missouri and made his way to freedom in Canada in 1858. There he married Lucy Millard. The Berrys moved to Morton Township in 1877 with other black and multi-racial families. They bought cutover land and Isaac served as the postmaster, blacksmith and school director. Lucy became the Little River Schools first teacher.
The original school was a one-room, log schoolhouse built in 1877. The current school still standing in the park was constructed in 1905. It was the local school and community center until 1935. The Berry family landscaped the property around the lake, including the beach, calling it Pleasant View. They sold it to Mecosta County for a park after Lucy Berry’s death.
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Hidden among the trees is this old forgotten school. It is in the town of Forester on the shoreline of Lake Huron in the Thumb. Forester’s most well-known resident is Minnie Quay who committed suicide after she found out her lover’s ship sank while sailing the Great Lakes. You can read more about her HERE
I have driven through the town of Forester many times since M-25 passes through it. I never noticed this school before because it is covered by the foliage during the summer months. It is a rather spooky looking school, And I am sure it was a school because of the rusty old playground equipment next to it. I am thinking Minnie never attended this school since it looks as if it was built after she died.
Note: I took this pic from the road and do not trespass. It may not be used anymore, but someone still owns it.
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This little schoolhouse stands a few miles south of Hastings. From 1872 to 1963 Hope Township children attended school in this building, known as the Hinds School because of its location at the crossroads community of Hinds Corners. The school had stood vacant for almost twenty years when Robert Casey, a Hinds student during the 1930s, purchased it in 1981. Casey (1928-1997), a teacher here and in Hastings, restored the building as a place for children to visit.
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The small town of Leonidas north of Colon has one of the most unique school buildings in Michigan. The shape of the building is a rather ordinary square but it is adorned on the outside with ornately placed fieldstone. The school was constructed in 1935 as part of Roosevelt’s Civil Works Administration. The building was built by two local stonemasons Charlie Blue and Laverne Harmon. They were acclaimed fieldstone builders who were well known in Southern Michigan from the 1920-1950s. The stones came from local farm fields and they were placed on the outside of the building. The patterns on the outside are beautiful and it is amazing to see in person.
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This old schoolhouse near Ionia is believed to be the oldest schoolhouse still standing in Michigan. The Sessions School was built in 1847 with local fieldstone by Alanzo Session, a New York school teacher who moved to the Ionia area. He built the school on his property to educate the local children. Session’s house is gone, but the old schoolhouse still stands in the northern part of the Ionia State Recreation Area.
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A few miles south of Unionville is an old schoolhouse. Above the door is the lettering 1909 Columbia Dist. No. 2. Most of the old schools I find have the date when they were constructed, but I have never seen the date when they closed. I am not sure when this old schoolhouse last taught children inside its brick walls. However, I did find out that the school was part of a small town called Columbia Corners. The community started in 1854 and it had a post office from 1879 until 1903. Not much of the town exists today, but I wonder how many kids learned to read and write in the little schoolhouse.
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