In the decade from 1859 to 1869, four school districts were formed in the areas surrounding the Michigan Agricultural College. None were near enough to be convenient for faculty children, the majority of whom were home schooled until 1900 when a new fractional school district was created, later to become East Lansing Public Schools.
Brickyard school (Lansing Twp. District № 6) was formed in 1859 at the southwest corner of Saginaw and Clippert Streets, so named because it was located between two brickyards. Its later history is unclear. It appears on a township map in 1914, but not in 1939.1
Carl school (Meridian Twp. District № 7), which was formed in 1860, stood on the northeast corner of Saginaw and Pine Lake (Lake Lansing) Road. It was named for the family of brothers Benjamin and Isaac Carl, who settled the land in 1843. The original wood-frame building lasted until 1882, and a brick replacement remained for over seventy years, 1884 to 1960. It was demolished for the M-78 highway right-of-way. The last school built in the Carl District, Donley School (1952), is now part of the East Lansing Public Schools.2
Champion school (Lansing Twp. District № 8) was formed in 1869 at the northeast corner of Mount Hope and Harrison Roads. Its frame structure was used for fifty-five years, after which a brick schoolhouse replaced it in 1924. The latter was torn down in 1957 to widen Mount Hope Road.3
These three school districts have faded or been absorbed, and no longer exist. The fourth district, however, has a somewhat different history.
Marble school (Meridian Twp. District № 8) was formed in November 1860. John P. Marble donated land for the first schoolhouse, which was completed two summers later at the southwest corner of the roads known today as Hagadorn Road and Burcham Drive.
For years the school was the heart of Marble community life, acting as a church and social center as well as a classroom. A belfry was added to the building in 1894, a front porch in 1903. But as the population of the Marble community dwindled in the early 20th century, the school closed,† and its pupils were forced to make the long trek to Central School, and later to Bailey School. Still, “the district retained its autonomy and the schoolhouse its other functions.” According to local historian Blanche Coggan, “once a year, a three-man school board unlocked the door and stepped inside long enough to vote to discontinue the school for another year.”4
In 1934 the old schoolhouse was torn down and the school district reopened with a new, one-story brick schoolhouse on the site of the old frame building. Its second story was added in 1948. The school, known today as “Old Marble,” ultimately merged into the East Lansing Public Schools. Its replacement Marble Elementary was built to the north across Burcham Drive in 1952, and stood until June 2020 when it too was replaced. Old Marble School is now a child development center.5
A nearby historical marker, erected in 1967 by the Michigan Society, Daughters of the American Colonists, reads:
MARBLE COMMUNITY
The first school on this site was
built in 1860, on land donated by
John P. Marble. The nearby beech
tree was called the “Indian Sign
Tree,” reportedly used by the
Chippewas on annual hunting and
fishing treks. Also nearby stand:
1847 Alonzo Proctor Tollhouse
1849 Horace Bigelow House
1849–1860 Sturges–Marble House
1859 Mary Willmarth House
Fifty years after the erection of the historical marker, all of these houses are apparently still standing, although the Tollhouse was moved a second time and is no longer quite so nearby. The Mary Willmarth house, known to the city as the “Chester Clark house” after a subsequent owner, is listed as a Landmark Structure.†† The beech tree died in the 1970s and was removed.
Personal footnote: I attended Marble Elementary School for my entire grade-school education in the 1970s, most of it under the loving authority of Principal Swartz. Mrs. Swartz had a long-standing policy of sending each child a birthday greeting card with a lollipop taped inside. I have fond memories of her, and of those purple-ink mimeographed cards.
- Kestenbaum, p. 93. Chadwick, p. 1. Hixson (1939), p. 6. ↩︎
- Beers, p. 51. Kestenbaum, pp. 93, 103. ↩︎
- Kestenbaum, pp. 93, 101. ↩︎
- Kestenbaum, pp. 94–95. LSJ, 29 Jan 1956, p. 30. Coggan, pp. 48–49. ↩︎
- Kestenbaum, pp. 99, 103. Coggan, p. 55. ↩︎
- † Kestenbaum [p. 99] states the date of closure as June 1911, while Coggan [p. 48] says “about 1917.” It is not clear who is correct.↩︎
- †† A 1967 Lansing State Journal article by staff writer William J. Duchaine makes the claim that 1101 Burcham is the “1859 Mary Willmarth House” mentioned on the historic marker at Old Marble School. Duchaine wrote the article in advance of that marker’s installation, so his uncited source was likely the same person or persons who did the research for the marker itself. Unfortunately the article contains numerous statements that are contradicted by other sources.
It is exciting to think that this house could possibly date from the pre-Civil War era, but I have found only one Mary among the Willmarth family, and while she was the last member of the family to live there (in 1927), she was only four years old in 1859. The house does not appear in the 1874 Beers township map, and census data imply that Mary, along with her siblings Edwin, Harvey, and Lydia, was living with their mother Louisa on Hagadorn Road as late as 1900. In short I have not been able to reconcile Duchaine’s article with any other sources about this house, and its actual build date (1859, 1894, or 1905) remains a mystery.↩︎
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