Twin Lakes School / Wilson School / Skunk Hollow School
Alamo Township
Location: (#5 Fractional District, with Cooper Township) – section 25, west side of 12th Street, north of F Avenue.
(1890 map places it on the south side of Ravine Road at the 12th Street intersection.)
Kalamazoo County 1873, F.W. Beers. Local History Room
Details
On the 1918 topographic map, this is called Wilson School, although there are brief newspaper references to it as Twin Lakes School in both 1916 and 1918. It was later officially known as Twin Lakes School and unofficially as Skunk Hollow School. In 1944 it was closed, and the students transferred to Alamo Center School. It reopened for a few years in 1951, then closed again in 1956 when the new Alamo Valley School opened. In 1955 this district consolidated with Oak Grove and Tamarack districts. It was maintained as a private home for some time after that.
Teachers
1915-16: Helen Rix
1917-18: Mrs. N. Van Buskirk
1921: Mrs. Eagen (probably Mary Egan)
1922 Willo Foulk
1925-26: Willo Foulk
1927-28: Bessie DeLong
1929-32: Sarah Bourner
1932-33: Mildred Sliter
1933-36: Mildred Carter
1936-37: Verna Curtis
1937-41: Eleanor Burdick
1941-43: Violet Smith
1943-44: Ruth Reynolds
1944-51: Closed
1951-52: Helene Fanberg
1952-53: Myra Flynn
1953-55: Charlotte Doyle
Compiled by Catherine Larson, Local History Specialist, Kalamazoo Public Library, 1999. Mapped October 2008. Last updated14 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 46
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.
“Twin Lakes School served Alamo Township children”
Kalamazoo Gazette, 5 January 2003, page A13, column 1 – a 1921 photo of students posed outside the school, all identified by name.
Maps and atlases
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
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: Twin Lakes 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)