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Local History

Culp School

Wakeshma Township

Location: District #5 Fractional – Section 24, north side of X Avenue between 46th and 47th Streets.

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

schools-culp-598
Photo by Sarah Hultmark, c. 1981, History Room Photo P-1277

 

Called School No. 15 on 1918 topo, but that is probably an error. It would be unusual for a township as sparsely populated as Wakeshma to have a district numbered that high. Culp School was identified as #5 Fractional in the front of the 1935-36 county school directory, which is more likely correct. The school is not listed in the directories after 1940-41, so it is likely that it closed at the end of that school term.

Teachers

1921-22 Irene Latham
1925-26 Florence Martin
1927-28 Helen Thomas
1929-30 Margaret Koenig
1930-31 Mrs. Pearl Culp
1931-32 Elizabeth Van Fossen
1932-34 Rachel Shook
1934-36 Mrs. Gertrude Brock
1936-38 Lowell Snyder
1938-41 Marian Frost

Compiled by Catherine Larson, Local History Specialist, Kalamazoo Public Library, 1999. Mapped October 2008. List of teachers compiled by Lisa Frazier, KPL Intern, January 2017. Last updated 21 June 2022.

Sources

Manuscripts

List of one-room schools still standing in Kalamazoo County in 1982

  • Hultmark, Sarah.
  • Manuscript, Local History Collection, Kalamazoo Public Library

Maps and atlases

USGS Topographic Map for Kalamazoo County, 1918 (Leonidas Quadrangle)

  • History Room topographic map case, drawer 1B, folder 23

Files

Teachers’ and School Officers’ Directory, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, 1921-22, 1925-1941 (title varies)

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

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