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Brook Farm School

Kalamazoo Township


Location: District #13 Fractional – Section 4, west side of Douglas about half way between Mosel (H) and G Avenue.

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

Brook Farm School. Photos by Beth Timmerman, 2011

First appears as “S. H.” (school house?) in the 1861 Kalamazoo County atlas. It consistently appears as a school symbol on subsequent atlases without a name. It was probably called Brook Farm School when the Michigan Asylum for the Insane established the Brook Farm Colony on the property that included the school, although the use of the name has not been reliably documented until 1933. It apparently closed at the end of the 1951-52 school year. The building that is currently standing on the site is undoubtedly not the original building, and appears to have been remodeled since its days as a school. It has also served as a church and a private home.

Teachers

1925-26 LaRue Payne
1927-28 Mrs. Arbutus Corbine
1929-31 Mrs. Grace Meulenberg
1931-33 Gwendolyn Layne
1932-33 Garnet Layne
1933-34 Mrs. Gwendolyn Stafford, Garnet Layne
1934-36 Emma Musson, Garnet Layne
1936-37 Emma Musson, Viola Crane
1937-38 Jean Edelman, Mrs. Opal Barrett
1938-39 Jennie L. Smith, Mrs. Opal Barrett
1939-43 Jennie Smith
1943-50 Mrs. Hazel Sweet
1949-50 Mariell Gazdag
1951-52 Mrs. Hazel Sweet, Mrs. Ruth Reynolds

Sources

Maps and atlases

Map of Kalamazoo Co., Michigan

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

Atlas of Kalamazoo Co., Michigan…

  • New York : F. W. Beers & Co., 1873
  • Reproduced in Combined atlases of Kalamazoo, Michigan 1873, 1890
  • History Room atlas case, left shelf #1

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

  • Sauer, William C.
  • Wm. C. Sauer, 1890
  • Reproduced in Combined atlases of Kalamazoo, Michigan 1873, 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

Atlas of Kalamazoo County, Michigan

  • Chicago: H. C. Maley, 1913
  • History Room atlas case, left shelf #1

Plat book of Kalamazoo County, Michigan

  • Wheaton, Glen C.
  • Rockford, IL : Thrift Press, Map Makers, 1928.
  • History Room atlas case, left shelf #1

USGS topographic maps for Kalamazoo County

  • Several editions (Kalamazoo Quadrangle)
  • History Room topographic map case, drawer 7A, folder 21A

Files

Directory of teachers and school officers, Kalamazoo County, 1925-52

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

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