Grand Prairie School
Kalamazoo Township
Location: District #3 Fractional – Section 7, southeast corner of Grand Prairie Road and Drake Road (12th Street).
Kalamazoo County 1890, Published by Wm. C. Sauer. Local History Room
Grand Prairie School. photo courtesy, Helen Hooker.
Established about 1856. “…its original school outlasted all other one-room schoolhouses in the county.”
Teachers
1925-27 Mrs. Sarah Bourner
1927-35 Mrs. Bertha Smith
1935-36 Wilma DeYoung
1936-39 Mrs. Molly Smith
1939-43 Mrs. Hazel Sweet
1943-44 Mrs. Bethanna Van
1944-48 Mrs. Georgia Shaw
1948-50 Marianne Luegge
1951-53 Mrs. Muriel L. Cronkhite
1953-55 Mrs. Ruth Gearhart
1955-58 Mrs. Doris V. Chance
The bell from this school is now on permanent display as part of the Core Exhibition in the atrium of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. For a picture of it and some history, see Museography, Fall 2007, p.13 in the Library’s Local History Collection, or the Museum’s website (scroll to p.13).
Grand Prairie School. Photo courtesy, Helen Hooker
Compiled by Catherine Larson, Local History Specialist, Kalamazoo Public Library, 1999. Mapped October 2008. List of teachers compiled by Lisa Frazier, KPL Intern. Last updated 4 November 2021.
Sources
Articles
“The end of an era [Grand Prairie School]”
- Kalamazoo Gazette, 21 June 1959
Maps and atlases
USGS topographic maps for Kalamazoo County, 1918 (Kalamazoo Quadrangle)
- History Room topographic map case, drawer 7A, folder 21A
Files
Teachers’ and School Officers’ Directory, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, 1925-1958 (title varies)
- Shelved in a pamphlet box with H 379.774 K149 (History Room Storage)