Events affecting Public Schools of the City of Grand Rapids
1785 - Land Ordinance Act of 1785 establishes system for townships and schools Legal Land Descriptions in Federal Township and Range System
1787 - Northwest Ordinance establishes rules for the formation of future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.
1834 - Kent Twp organized
1835 - establishment of Kent Twp School District 1
1837 - Walker Twp organized
1838 - Paris Twp organized
1842 - Kent Twp renamed Grand Rapids Twp
1848 - Wyoming Twp organized and Grand Rapids Twp divides school district into a minimum of six districts if not more.
1850 - City of Grand Rapids established annexing two schools from Grand Rapids Twp and one school from Walker Twp. City retains the three separate township school district designations.
1860 - Black students are enrolled in Primary #4 and Primary #5
1872 - Grand Rapids Board of Education established and replaces the three separate city districts. Starts an evening school for adults.
1873 - hires a music teacher
1874 - court decision allowing instruction of foreign languages
1875 - business course added debate over corporal punishment
1881 - compulsory education
1883 - The pattern of numbering primary schools ceases when Straight Street becomes the thirteenth primary school.. Schools are identified by the street on which they are located.
1884 - first truancy school with eight students.
1887 - Now have 23 buildings in our charge containing 152 rooms and 8,169 sittings. (During this era it was common for the schools to carry insurance for about 10% of the total value).
1891 - City of Grand Rapids annexes 9 schools; four from Grand Rapids Twp, three from Walker Twp, one from Paris Twp and one from Wyoming Twp. The City assumed debts of $30,000 from GRT District 1, $5,100 from GRT District 15; $1,000 from Paris Twp District 13 and $1,900 from Paris Twp District 7. There are also 8 rental units and six annexes to Grandville, Hall, Pine, Straight, Walker, and rented Paris by Madison and Adams.
1891 - It is unclear but it appears that Widdicomb, Sibley and Hall were just empty lots. Walker and Lake were small buildings. Since the cost of these three new schools was very close to the cost of Jefferson, I assume those schools may have looked like Jefferson.
Jefferson Avenue School.
1891 - manual training is introduced
1893 - Schools are now listed in the annual report in alphabetical order.
1895 - Sanborn Fire Map published showing location and construction style and materials of buildings.
1896 - Much needed repairs such as painting -- have been omitted -- owing to lack of funds ---.
1898 - The Board owns, jointly with District No.6 of Grand Rapids township, a school site located on the corner of Coit and Knapp Avenues (SE corner). The site is valued at $3,000 of which the share of the Board is 9/16ths.
1900 - first local kindergarten. Recommendation to buy a lot east of the railroad by North (Richmond).
1901 - all schools except Central High and Central Grammar have primary grades. Of the 33 schools having primary grades, 17 do not go past the Sixth grade and 5 do not go past the Fourth grade. Emphasis on manual training and domestic science for those students not bound for college in an attempt to keep them in school. Purchased a lot between Quarry and Elizabeth and Webster and North (Richmond)
1903 - plan to do away with basement closets (toilets) and 3-story buildings.
1905 - Most of the schools plumbing condemned. Last year a physical description of each school is listed in alphabetical order.
1906 recommend selling Coit/Knapp lot and Quarry/Elizabeth lot (by North (Richmond)). There is a new person writing the annual reports. Instead of specific information on each building, it's just more general and grandiose, although more specific construction information is provided on some of the changes. In addition there are pages of displays of student's art work and manual training. .
1907 -
1907 - Standard Atlas of Kent County published by George Ogle & Co of Chicago, 1907, showing location of schools.
1909 - need to sell lot at Coit and Knapp, several lots on Quarry and Elizabeth as well as four lots and a building on Oakdale avenue, none of which will be of future use. New emphasis on manual training as too many boys are dropping out before high school.
1912 - Due to lack of sufficient funds, there were no vacation summer schools. -- introduction of a system of public playgrounds under the direct control of the board of park and cemetery commissioners and were very successful. The evening schools have shown remarkable growth. The greatest need just now is for many new buildings. The deal for the Smith Memorial church was completed ad plan prepared for remodeling - and it is expected that the building will be ready for use by September 1st. Equip a repair shop for janitors in the basement of the manual training shop on Barclay Avenue. The foreman - be supplied with some means of transportation - instead of being obliged to depend upon the street cars. New adjustable seats to be installed in every grade above first grade.
1913 - Sanborn Fire Map published showing location and construction style and materials of buildings was used for at least fifty years by the City Assessor whose staff cut and pasted new construction info onto the map and erased demolished buildings.
1914 - introduction of sprinkler systems in the basements. Sudden emphasis on statistics. Mentions the 1.Oral School for the Deaf (not the first year) 2. Open Air Schools (for victims of TB) including Sigsbee and West Leonard and a new one at Walker - windows were kept open the entire year, additional clothing furnished by the Fortnightly Club, milk was also furnished. 3. Auxiliary (mentally retarded) - commenced in 1910. Psychological lab for the inspection of Backward Children. Pedagogical Record (teaching). Instrumental Tests - Spirometer, dynamometer, audiometer. 4. Truant School - 71 students. I hope that the truant school will be a vanishing quantity. 5. Kent County Juvenile Home - This is the last year - (as) the children were moved to new quarters outside the city limits.6. Evangeline Home School - The first year. The girls who are sent to this home by he juvenile court are not delinquents; they are girls who, influenced by bad surroundings (got pregnant). 7. Blodgett School (orphanage - The GRBE - started in 1906 in a rented room on Eastern avenue. Since the erection of the new Home excellent quarters have been provided in the building for the school 28 boys and 26 girls. 8. Ungraded schools - (for kids who were behind their grade level). 9. Kindergarten - is no longer a separate institution.
(More emphasis on the social activities and the need for gyms and auditoriums) The six year high school, consisting of the six upper grades for our school system, will take a prominent position in the reorganized school of the immediate future. The work now done entirely in the high school will be extended to the seventh and eight grades. The six-and-six plan of organization of the schools is best for the children. (This idea would be discarded by 1968. The previous system of primary 1-4, grammar 5-8 and high 9-12 lasted much longer).
More statistics: GRPS owns the Ryerson library, the public museum, the Fletcher & Wanty Farm. (I couldn't resist. The only person named Wanty in the 1900 census was George who lived on Prospect Ave in the third ward of the City of Grand Rapids. He was a judge of the US Court. No listing found for 1910. By 1920 his widow and children were living at 405 Washington St . There were 61 Fletchers. If the Grantee/Grantor index still existed we could look this up in a flash but since it got thrown out ------ )
GR NEws 3 Aug 1915 - $5,000 fo sprinkler systems to be installed in Junion High, Straight, Widdicomb and Sigsbee and new cement walks at Diamond, Sibley and Division schools.
1917 - It is a serious question what the board ought to do with reference to their building program which was adopted before war with Germany was declare and at a time when entirely different conditions prevailed.
1920 - rapid growth and expansion. New schools and new additions to existing schools.
1921 - the style of the annual reports change again. Now the emphasis is on statistics. And there is more reference to social development. There is mention of Quarry Street Lots in old 6th Ward. Lots 359, 361, 363, 365,477, 479, 481 and 483 Leonard & Co's Addition. I don't think a school was ever built here. Needs more research.
1921 - Session of the Legislature, Section 16 of Act No. 141 of the Public Acts of 1917 was amended by raising the maximum (for amounts levied) from six to nine mills -- (We can) raise teachers' salary - proceed with building program. (Also) Act No 421 of the Public Acts of 1919 - provide for vocational --of employed and other minors. The compulsory age - reduced to 17. Married minors - exempt. Completion (through 9th grade). Superintendent (can) excuse minors - physically unable - or wages are essential to their (or family's) support. (Offering part-time classes - for which parents are obligated to send their children - truant officers). (Some change in who is eligible to vote due to) an amendment Section 17 of chapter 2 of Act No. 164 of the Public Acts of 1881.
1922 - Special Departments in the Regular Grades:
1. Manual training
2. Art
3. Physical education
4. Music
5. Ungraded classes for those pupils who are old and usually large for their
grade.
6. Coaching for small children who are falling behind.
7. Auxiliary classes for the permanently retarded mentally.
8. Open air for children who are anemic or tubercularly inclined.
9. Deaf school where deaf children are taught to read lips.
10. Sight-saving classes - books have large print.
11. Junior College
12. Speech correction work
13. Vocational school is primarily a school to which boys and girls may go for a
part of the day even though they have a job.
In September, 1923, it is planned open a school for crippled children in the new
Stocking school. This is a new and untried experiment in our school system. Le
us hope that it will be as successful or those children as the work has been or
the other special classes.
During the year 1921-22 there were 404 non-resident pupils. Our Tuition rates are $40 a year for primary and kindergarten, $60 for grammar, and $80 for high school. South Ionia Industrial School for Boys and the Ransom School for Girls.
1922 Inventory:- See Alpha List for specific information
Original Buildings:
Pine 1879 1898
Coit 1880 1908 1922
West Leonard 1882
Plainfield 1884 1887
South Ionia 1884
South Division 1884
Stocking old 1885
Michigan 1885 1890
Straight 1885 1903 1919
Turner 1886 1908 1922
Madison 1888 1919
Diamond 1890 1905 1921
Burton 1890 1911
Sibley 1892
Widdicomb 1892 1903 1921
Hall 1892 1908 1919
Jeff 1892 1898
Palmer 1893 1907
Buchanan 1896 1907
Alex 1901 1913
Sigsbee 1906 1915
Finney 1912 1921
Franklin 1915
Dick 1920
Harison Park site 1922
Kesington Site1922
Replacements.
East Leonard 1897 1913
North Division 1908
Coldbrook 1909
Oakdale 1910
Lexington 1915
Sheldon 1916
Walker 1917 1921
Fountain 1918
Henry 1919
Congress 1920
Lafayette 1922
Stocking new 1922
1950's - (new idea of an extensive school playgrounds set up by the City Parks Dept replaced the old which still existed when I was very young. I can still remember my inability to reach even the lowest bar. It resulted in tearing down nearby homes to make room.)
Old playground: New playground: New school map: :
Hall School
. 1951 - February 1951, the Grand Rapids Taxpayers authorized a two-mill tax levy per year to finance a twenty year school building program resulted in a ten year period:
New schools in rapidly developing residential areas - Mulick Park, Brookside, Kent Hills, Maplewood, Campau Park, Westwood Hills, Crestview
new elementary buildings to replace old unsafe structures then in use -- Madison Park, Fairmount (Riverside) Palmer, Hall, diamond (Hillcrest), East Leonard and Buchanan. Riverside Junior High and Ridgeview Junior High are the first two of six planned junior high schools. A new Service Building has also opened.
Frills and gingercake are conspicuously missing. The buildings are contemporary in style and are intended both to complement and compliment the residential area where located.
1952 High Schools and corresponding Feeder schools
c. 1953 newspaper clipping from Hall School scrapbook "GR Schools Book to Be Published - 25,000 copies of an illustrated report - $475 each - on the four buildings now under construction - Madison, Brookside, Mulick Park and Fairmount -- a picture of the old Palmer school - soon to be razed -- and the site of Spencer School for which plans are on the drawing board". Another article talks about a much cheaper report being sent home with the kids. " 'Still to Come' - lists five community junior high schools for the north south, east, west and northeast parts of the City , a replacement for Straight, additions to Jefferson and Coit building and a new facade on Alexander school.
1960's - new state law requiring all district's to have a high school resulted in consolidations.
1960 - annexed: Beckwith, Burr Oak, Covell, C A Frost, Huff, Michigan Oak, North Park, Oakleigh, Shawmut, Wellerwood, Oakleigh Junior High.
August 1966 "Planning for the "Future" considered the purchase of Central Christian High School on the NE corner of Madison and Franklin. Plans were being made for a new Union High School including leasing old Union to temporarily replace Central Christian while their new school was being built. These plans included keeping South High School. These plans came to naught.
1968 - forced City racial integration without considering ethnicity or neighborhood identify results in the destruction of the ethnic neighborhoods. and mass flight to the suburbs. South High School is closed and busing replaces walking. Forced social change doesn't work, results in social destruction.
4 Dec 1973 - Coit school's neighborhood's desire for preservation is interpreted as racism. Plans for a new Alexander, Sigsbee and Straight go ahead as well as an expanded Jefferson. The Board President Charles F. Porter stated in regards to the City's declining enrollment, "We'll have more vacant classrooms and have to close some schools before these (five new schools) are open" References were made to U. S. District Court Judge Albert J. Engel's ruling last summer concerning integration in City schools excluded outlying areas.
School thermostats are to be set lower for energy conservation. Also the number of school bus stops will be reduced. These cuts can be converted into a learning experience for the students..
1998: Bond issued proposed for the complete destruction of neighborhood schools.
Aberdeen, 928 Aberdeen ST NE, 1929, remodeled 1995
Alexander Elementary, 1010 Alexander St SE, 1975, renovated 1980's
Alger Park, 921 Alger St SE, 1927
Beckwith, 2405 Leonard St NE, 1958, remodeled in 1982
Coit, 617 Coit Ave NE, 246 students, renovated in 1993. New school proposed. Defeated
Congress, 640 Baldwin St SE.
East Leonard, 410 Barnett St NE, 1957
Eastern 758 Eastern Ave NE, 1929
Fountain, 159 College Ave NE, 1918
Franklin, 801 Oakland Ave SW, built 1915, new school to be built to the north, maybe
Henry, 419 Henry Ave SE, built 1919, renovated in the 1960's.
Hillcrest, 1415 Lyon ST NE, 1956
Huff, 2286 Ball Ave NE, 1934, addition in 1956
Jefferson, 1656 Jefferson Ave SE
Ken O Sha Park, 1353 Van Auken St SE
Kent Hills, 1445 Emerald Ave NE, 1954
Madison Ave SE, 538 Madison Ave SE
Mulick Park, 1761 Rosewood Ave SE, 1953
North Park, 3375 Cheney Ave NE, built 1908, addition in 1948
Oakdale Elementary, 944 Evergreen ST SE, 1910
Ottawa 1515 Fisk St SE, 1925, renovated in 1995
Palmer, 309 Palmer ST NE, 1954
Ridgemoor Park, 2555 Inverness Rd SE
Riverside Elementary, 2420 Coit Ave NE, 1954
Shawnee Park 2036 Chesaning Dr SE, 1962
Sheldon, 1010 Sheldon Ave SE
Sherwood Park, 3859 Chamberlain Ave SE, 1969
Sigsbee, 1250 Sigsbee St SE, 1975, renovated in 1993.
VandenBerg 409 Lafayette Ave SE, 1922
Wellerwood, 800 Wellerwood St NE, 1959
From article
School HistoryFrom Heading History and the City of GrandRapids
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