Frank Street School

1871-1921

The Frank Street School is one of several school buildings that have called the Northside Neighborhood its home, and one of the first of several southwest Michigan schools to offer eight complete grades under one roof. Considered “a model of comfort and convenience”, the two-story school was fashioned with eight rooms, and could hold 400 students. Built in the spring and summer of 1870 on Frank Street, near the corner of Burdick at a cost of $16,000, it was razed in 1924.

“Frank Street School: the school that put Kalamazoo on its feet.”

–School Motto

As was the case with many schools during Kalamazoo’s 19th century population boom, it quickly became overcrowded with students and faculty, forcing the school district to build a larger school (Lincoln School) just to the northwest in 1922. “As early as November 1873, it was overcrowded, and an old dwelling in Summer Street, North of Kalamazoo Avenue, was rented and used for a one-room school with 48 pupils. This school was called the Northwest school.” (Dyksterhouse, p.47)

Additions to the original Italianate building occurred in the mid-1890’s, expanding the diminutive school. The building had a mansard roof, a cupola, arched and rectangular sash windows, roof pediments, and an ornamental cornice.

The Segregated School

Ten years prior to the creation of the Frank Street School, another school was established that would serve only Kalamazoo’s black children. Little is known about the motivation of those school board members who advocated for the creation of a separate and unequal school for black children, but there is evidence that the ward schools that existed to 1860 were racially integrated. Kalamazoo’s “Colored School” was located on the corner of North and Walbridge streets until 1871, when the school was discontinued, and the attending students were transferred to the newly created Frank Street School.

Article written by Ryan Gage, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, March 2022