This two-story wooden school stands in downtown Douglas. It was constructed in 1866 and is one of Michigan’s oldest union schools. In 1843, the state of Michigan adopted a law authorizing separate school districts, located within a township that contained a city or village, to merge into a “union” district. Districts 3 and 4 of Saugatuck Township merged into a union district and used the school building which stands to this day. It had one female and one male teacher when it opened for the first school year. The school closed in 1957 and the bell was removed and hung in the new elementary school. In the 1960s the building was converted into apartments. In 2007, the Saugatuck Douglas Historical Society acquired the building and substantially renovated it, turning it into the Old School House History Center.
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