Alamo Avenue School
Rural School in Kalamazoo Township
Location: District #14 – Section 7, west side of Nichols Road at intersection with Alamo Avenue.
Kalamazoo County 1890, Published by Wm. C. Sauer. Local History Room
Small brick schoolhouse built about 1835 at the end of “the ‘Mile Hill’ road” (Alamo Avenue). Torn down about 1903 and replaced with a more modern brick structure (with basement), which later became part of the Kalamazoo Public School System. In 1953 it was purchased by the Seventh Day Adventist Church and remodeled for use as the Seventh Day Adventist Junior Academy. Ten years later it was demolished and replaced by the present structure on the same site.
“District school No. 14 on mile hill, in charge of W.D. Parsons, discontinued its session Monday and Tuesday on account of a lack of fuel. The need has been supplied and school work resumed.”
—Kalamazoo Gazette, 17 December 1902
Compiled by Catherine Larson, Local History Specialist, Kalamazoo Public Library, 1999. Mapped October 2008. Last updated 1 April 2024.
Sources
Articles
“Jottings”
Kalamazoo Gazette, 17 December 1902, page 8
“New school house”
Kalamazoo Gazette, 11 September 1903, page 2
“Old Strong home on Mile Road is full of memories of Kalamazoo pioneer days”
Kalamazoo Gazette, 10 August 1913, page 6
“Adventists operate new parochial building”
Kalamazoo Gazette, 20 April 1963
“Alamo Avenue School had full house in 1945”
Kalamazoo Gazette, 25 June 2000, page A4, column 1, includes picture of many students posed in front of the building
Maps and atlases
USGS topographic maps for Kalamazoo County, 1918 (Kalamazoo Quadrangle)
History Room topographic map case, drawer 7A, folder 21A
School shows as a symbol on this map, but is not named.