Notice of Public Meeting: Kalamazoo Public Library Board of Trustees | April 29th| 6 pm | Central Library/Van Deusen Room. The packet of information for the meeting can be found on the library’s website. 

Our website will be offline temporarily for scheduled maintenance beginning at 10pm on Sunday, April 28th.

NOTICE: The Eastwood Branch will be closed on April 29th & 30th for maintenance needs. 

Local History

Brooks School

Portage Township

Location: Fractional District #3 (partly in Texas Township) Section 6, northwest corner of Milham Road and Angling Road.

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

There was a wooden Greek Revival structure at this location built sometime in the early 1840’s. A brick building replaced it in the 1860’s. That was demolished after the school was consolidated in 1947.

Teachers

1921-22 Eva W. Strandt
1925-26 Eva Hoffman
1927-28 Gwendolyn Layne
1929-30 Gwendolyn Layne
1930-32 Mildred Sliter
1932-34 Bonnie Gould
1934-35 Mrs. Bonnie Dailey
1935-38 Clarence Bushnell
1938-40 Mrs. Anna Berry
1940-42 Dea Keim
1942-47 School closed
1947-48 No longer listed in directory

Compiled by Catherine Larson, Local History Specialist, Kalamazoo Public Library, 1999. Mapped October 2008. Last updated 12 April 2022.

Sources

Books

An oral history of Portage schools : Cleora Skinner to Pete McFarlane

Tom Vance, editor; introduction by Steve Rossio.
Portage, Michigan : Portage District Library, Portage Schools Collection, 2017.
H 370.9774 O633 (circulating copy also available)

Articles

“It was last day of school fifty years ago [Brooks School]”

  • Kalamazoo Gazette, 21 May 1944.

Maps and atlases

USGS topographic map for Kalamazoo County, 1922/1950 (Schoolcraft Quadrangle)

  • History Room topographic map case, drawer 5B, folder 37.

Files

Teachers’ and School Officers’ Directory, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, 1921-22, 1925-1947 (title varies)

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

Share: Facebook Twitter