While passing through the town of McMillan near Newberryin da U.P. I saw this old school building and I had to stop and take a pic of it. I am thinking it has not been used in a while, but it looks like it is in great shape and someone is taking care of it. I thought it was strange there are almost no windows in the front wall. I guess that is where the chalkboards are hung. I found out it was called the Lincoln School and funny enough I found this old postcard of almost the exact same angle as the photo I took, you can see it on Amazon HERE

P.S. I asked my daughter who is in high school if she ever used a chalkboard and she did not know what I was talking about. I told her it was a dark green or black slate hung on the wall and we used chalk to write on it instead of the whiteboards you have now. She said “that just sounds weird”

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In southern Michigan near Onsted is an old stone schoolhouse. It is built with fieldstone but it is known as the Wooden schoolhouse because it was built in 1850 by Reverend Robert Wooden. The school was used for over a century until it closed in 1955. By 1979 it was in such bad condition the township condemned it and it was slated for demolition. A group of citizens convinced the township to deed the historic stone schoolhouse to the newly formed Wooden Old Stone School Association. The group restored the schoolhouse in 1989 and it remains standing today as one of the oldest schoolhouses in Michigan.

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This brick school is located on Ferry Street in the southwestern Michigan city of Niles. The historical marker standing next to it reads:

Constructed in 1867 at a cost of nearly $3,000, the Ferry Street School opened in January, 1868 as Niles’s school for “colored children.” In 1870 the Niles school system was integrated, and this facility closed. It reopened as an integrated school in 1873. The west wing was added in 1903. From 1956 to 1975 the School for Exceptional Children was located here. In 1975 concerned citizens began restoring the original building to its nineteenth century style. Nineteenth century one-room schools in this community typically contained a woodburning stove, woodbox, water bench, coat pegs, wooden blackboards and long rows of desks. One teacher often taught two grades. Lessons were in reading, writing, spelling, numbers, declamation and geography – – all with a moral. This school provides a link to schools of yesteryear.

If you read what was on the historical marker, you probably wondered about declamation as I did. According to Wikipedia, it is an artistic form of public speaking. It is amazing what I learn from reading historical markers.

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Somewhere south of Cheboygan I came across this old boarded-up building. I thought it looked like a schoolhouse so I stopped and took a pic. When I zoomed into the pic I can read BENTON 1918 on a stone in the front above the entrance.

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This old forgotten schoolhouse, or at least what is left of it, stands hidden behind the trees not far from the shadow town of Ray. It is somewhere between Romeo and New Haven. The town goes way back to 1827 and was named by Noah Webster. It was originally named Rhea for the Latin name of a river in Europe but it was later changed the Ray. The post office closed in 1906 and not much around but a few newer houses and this crumbling old schoolhouse.

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East China is situated along the St Clair River and is in the eastern part of China Township. I guess that is where the name of the town came from. While passing through town I saw this cute little brick schoolhouse with a historical marker mounted to the brick wall. It reads:

East China Township was set off from China Township in 1859. In 1868 Harriet J. Comstock, an heir of pioneer Andrew J. Westbrook, sold a parcel of land to School District No. 2. A frame school, built in the site prior to 1853, was replaced by this brick school around 1873. It was one of three mid-nineteenth-century schools in the township, and is the only one remaining. Classes were held here until 1954. The township restored the building in 1988-1991 for use as a museum

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