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Finch School

Alamo Township


Location: (#1 Fractional District, with Cooper Twp) – section 1, northwest corner of  B Avenue &  12th Street.

Kalamazoo County 1890, Wm. C. Sauer. Local History Room

Details

The first school in the township was built of logs in 1837 on land donated by William Finch. It was replaced by a brick school, which was demolished by a tornado in the 1880s. The building that shows on the 1910 and 1918 maps is the third Finch School. Classes last held there in 1947.

Teachers

1837: Miss Powers
1925-26: Mabel Cooper
1927-28: Mary Eagan
1929-36: Bessie DeLong
1936-38: Howard F. Bargwell
1938-40: Nellie Payne
1940-43: Ruth Hollowell
1943-47: Florence A. Warnement

Finch School class ca1936

Compiled by Catherine Larson, Local History Specialist, Kalamazoo Public Library, 1999. Mapped October 2008. Last updated 21 October 2021.

Sources

Books

Alamo Township, most northwest corner of Kalamazoo County, Michigan: past and present

Snow, Florence
Published by the Author, 1958
H 977.417 S67, page 42

History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan…, 1880

Durant, Samuel W.
Evansville, IN : Unigraphic, 1976
H 977.417 H67u (oversize), page 299


Maps and Atlases

Map of Kalamazoo County, Michigan

Geil & Harley, Philadelphia. 1861
History Room atlas case, left shelf #2

Atlas of Kalamazoo County, Michigan from Recent and Actual Surveys and Records

F. W. Beers & Co., New York. 1873
Library of Congress

Illustrated atlas of Kalamazoo County [Michigan] with early and present history of Kalamazoo County

Sauer, William C.
Wm. C. Sauer, Detroit. 1890
History Room atlas case, left shelf #1

Standard atlas of Kalamazoo County, Michigan

Geo. A. Ogle & Co., 1910
History Room atlas case, left shelf #1

USGS topographic map for Kalamazoo County, 1918 (Kalamazoo Quadrangle)

History Room topographic map case, drawer 7A, folder 21A


Files

Teachers’ and school officers’ directory, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, 1925-1947 (title varies)

Shelved in a pamphlet box with H 379.774 K149 (History Room Storage)

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