Tamarack School / Gerald School
Alamo Township
Location: (District #5) – section 28, southwest corner of Owen Drive and 6th Street.
(1861 map places the school on the south side of Owen Drive a half mile west of 6th Street.)
Kalamazoo County 1890, Wm. C. Sauer. Local History Room
Photo by Sarah Hultmark, c. 1981, History Room Photo File P-1291.
Details
The first Tamarack School was built in 1880 and may have gotten its name because it was built from tamarack logs, although it was called Gerald School on the 1918 topographic map. Supposedly it was built in another location and later moved to Owen Drive and 6th Street. If so, it was moved soon after it was built because it shows at the latter location in the 1890 atlas. The last building on that site appears to have been built about 1914. Closed in 1956 and converted to a private residence.
Mary Ensfield, long-time superintendent of Kalamazoo County schools, tried to visit each of the rural schools at least once a year. In November 1928, her comment was “I welcome Mrs. Butler back to her old school as one of the best teachers we have ever had in Kalamazoo County.” Someone else has penciled in below that “correct.”
Class Photo 1893
Annual statistical report, 1918
Annual statistical report, 1919
Charles Putnam tuition application, early 1920s
Class Photo 1921
Class Photo 1927
Class Photo 194?
Class Photo 1951
Class Photo 1954
Class Photo 195?
Teachers
1898 Luella Rolfe
1922 Grace L. Butler
1925-26: Rosa Norton
1927-28: Violet Stiff
1928-29 Grace L. Butler
1929-33: Fern A. Price
1933-34: Lawrence V. Chapman
1934-36: George Annable
1936-38: Bert Adams
1938-40: Marion Lewis
1940-41: Marion Lewis DeWinter
1941-42: Esther Lancaster
1942-43: Veronica Kailing
1943-44: Katherine Eash
1944-46: Marion E. Geis
1946-48: Ruth Reynolds
1948-51: Mildred Clapp
1951-52: Linnie Smith
1952-55: Katherine Eash
Compiled by Catherine Larson, Local History Specialist, Kalamazoo Public Library, 1999. Mapped October 2008. Last updated 14 October 2021.
Sources
Manuscripts
List of one-room school still standing in Kalamazoo County in 1982
Hultmark, Sarah.
Local History Collection, Kalamazoo Public Library
Possibly from Tamarack School.
Articles
Rural schools break records in attendance
Kalamazoo Gazette, 31 January 1923, page 13, column 2.
Copy in Education (Kalamazoo County) Scrapbook #1, page 1.
“Historic school with turn-of-the-century roots to hold reunion”
Kalamazoo Gazette, 2 May 1996, page C3, column 1
“Bright young faces light up Tamarack School classroom”
Kalamazoo Gazette, 5 May 1996, page D2, column 2 – photograph of the class of 1954 in their classroom
“One-room school alums say good old days really were”
Kalamazoo Gazette, 13 May 1996, page 7 , column 2 (Hometown Gazette, Alamo edition, filmed after the regular edition and the Portage Hometown Gazette)
“Reunion set for alumni of old one-room school”
Kalamazoo Gazette, 27 April 1997, page B6, column 4 (see also correction on 30 April 1997, page A2, column 1)
“Tamerack (sic) School taught these youngsters in the late ’30s”
Kalamazoo Gazette, 3 May 1998, page C2, column 2 – photograph of the students in 1938 or 1939, all identified by name.
Books
Manual of the Public Schools of Kalamazoo County, Michigan for 1898-1899
J. W. Hazard, Commissioner of Schools
Kalamazoo: Ihling Bros. & Everard, Printers, 1898
History Room Orange Dot File: Education (Kalamazoo County)
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
History Room Subject File: Tamarack School
Teachers’ and school officers’ directory, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, 1925-55 (title varies)
Shelved in a pamphlet box with H 379.774 K149 (History Room Storage)