USA > Michigan > Ingham County > Lansing > Past and present of the city of Lansing and Ingham county, Michigan > Part 10
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Then came the question of a site, which was a difficult one, for there was opposition to every one proposed. It was discussed for some time in the common council where, at one time, it was voted to locate it upon lots donated for it by Dr. Ranney on the east side of the river, on the south side of Michigan avenue near Cedar street. That stirred up great commotion in all other parts of the city and it was ascertained that it was not at all in the province of the council but that of the Board of Education, at which the council heaved thirteen sighs of relief. The Board of Education, by resolution passed October 13, 1902, accepted Mr. Carnegie's offer and located it on the south side of the high school block, whereat many who favored the acceptance of Mr. Carne- gie's gift heartily wished they had not ; and it is difficult to find many who do not say "it is too bad to spoil the beauty of that block by placing upon it any building other than the high school building." It is a good lo-
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cation only for the convenience of the high . benefit of the high school pupils. A stair- school students, but there were others, very case at the front of the building leads to the second story, which contains on the left side an auditorium with a capacity of seating 150 people, a corridor with space for art exhibits, on the left side a club room, with study, cloak and toilet rooms adjoining. convenient, that could have been obtained at comparatively small expense. But it is there and there it must stay, and, in the language of the street, "there is no use of kicking," but instead, enjoy its great benefits to the fullest extent, be thankful that the city will not have to build one, and feel grateful to the SCHOOLS. giver, Mr. Carnegie. It is in the middle of the block fronting on Shiawassee street. The In the spring of 1847, on the day that the stakes for the capitol were driven, John P. Powell, with his wife and daughter, Eliza, corner-stone was laid, with appropriate cere- monies, November 7, 1903, and the building was completed and accepted by the board of education on the 9th day of November, 1904. Its cost was covered by the $35,000, except for a part of the furniture for which the board voted to expend not to exceed $523, from the library fund.
The building is 100x74 feet and is of red pressed brick with trimmings of Amherst grey stone and is furnished in red oak. For a fuller description we will, by permis- sion, append a part of a report made by Miss Gertrude Humphrey, School Librarian :
There are two stories besides the base- ment, containing various work rooms, boiler rooms, a class room, public toilet rooms and space for a stock of 20,000 volumes capacity on the first floor, which can be increased to 60,000. The main entrance is reached by a flight of stone steps 28 feet wide. The vesti- bule opens into the main hall, 17x29 feet. This leads directly into a delivery room 20x 30 feet. At the left of the delivery room is the general reading room, 30x32 feet, and back of this a reference room, 16x21 feet. At the rear of the delivery room is the stack, 18 feet high. At the right hand rear end of the library are the librarian's and cataloging rooms and in front of these opposite the gen- eral reading room is the children's room, 30x32 feet. The ceilings are 12 feet high. There is an entrance on the east side, for the
MRS. J. N. BUSH, NEE MISS ELIZA POWELL, LANSING'S FIRST SCHOOL TEACHER.
came into the woods at North Lansing and stayed that night at the home of Zalmon Holmes (grandfather of C. E. Holmes), a slab shanty of one room with one bed. A few others, thirty in all, slept there that night, one of whom was Isaac Townsend, who had located large tracts of land here and for whom Townsend street is named. Mr. Powell, wife and daughter, were given
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INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
the bed and the others slept on the floor. Miss Eliza engaged with Joab Page, school director of district No. 2, to teach the district school for two dollars per week and board herself. Mr. Page had a shed roof board shanty hastily constructed on the lot where the first ward school building now stands. It had a door with leather straps for hinges
Lansing and Miss Powell, now Mrs. John N. Bush, has the honorable distinction of being the pioneer teacher in Lansing. She has been a resident of Lansing from that day to this. She is a woman of intelligence, with all of her faculties, mental and physical, well preserved and would, doubtless, resent being styled an old lady-and she is not.
NEW TOWNSEND ST. SCHOOL.
and one window, without glass, made by cut- ting a piece out of one of the boards and hanging the piece from the upper board with leather hinges so that it was opened by rais- ing the board and closed by letting it down.
In May, 1847, Miss Powell commenced her school with ten scholars; but settlers came in so plentifully that, at the end of her three months' term, she had forty schol- ars. That was the first school taught in
The next school was a private school taught by Mrs. Laura A. Burr, lately de- ceased. Her reminiscence, published in 1893, in a letter by the late Hon. C. B. Steb- bins to the State Republican, is interesting reading and we insert it here in full.
"I came to Lansing (then called Mich- igan) in August, 1847. The school section had been platted only a few weeks before and the lots appraised. River street was the
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only open street from upper town to the capitol grounds and on this street my hus- band and I purchased a lot. It was situated on the bank of Grand river and covered with a fine growth of maple trees. We built for ourselves a pretty little house of clean, frag-
I could find. I explored the woods in the capacity of a botanist and artist. Early in September I was called upon by some of their parents, with the request that I should open a school. Accordingly, after having made several long benches, under the canopy of
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Group
of
Schools
UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER MICHIGAN AVE. SCHOOL.
UPPER RIGHT HAND CORNER KALAMAZOO ST. SCHOOL.
LOWER LEFT HAND CORNER WALNUT ST. SCHOOL.
CENTRAL BUILDING AND THREE WARD SCHOOLS.
rant pine boards while the work of building our permanent home was under way.
"The forest extended all around us, but as the underbrush had been cleared away. it afforded delightful rambles, and availing myself of the company of whatever children .
the trees our school was begun. There were nine pupils on opening day, the Gouchers, Hunts and the Dearing children. The sea- son was fine, and the weather warm until late in October. Occasionally we were obliged to go into our little board house,
INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
6
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GROUP OF SCHOOLS
INCLUDED IN THE GROUP ARE THE FOLLOWING SCHOOLS: FROM LEFT TO RIGHT. TOP ROW. CHERRY ST., BINGHAM ST .. EAST PARK: CENTER. SOUTH ST .: BOTTOM ROW, FROM LEFT TO RIGHT. CEDAR ST., LARCH ST.
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where we were very closely packed. Before Christmas day, however, we were nicely set- tled in a commodious apartment in our new house.
"On Christmas day my school numbered eighty pupils. Miss Delia Ward, now Mrs. Mortimer Cowles, was my assistant, and my husband coming in at 4 o'clock p. m. to teach the pupils music and to close the school. Our pupils were of all ages. I taught A, B, C's and algebra, English, Latin and French. The River Grove School was our name. The tuition was $3 per quarter of twelve weeks -- all grades the same.
"In January, 1849, my school was brought to a close by the appearance of the epidemic to which our physician gave the name of brain fever. Its visitation was so sudden and its attacks so fatal that we became a terror-stricken community. The legislature, which had just convened, disbanded. Several of my pupils were among the first victims. My husband, Dr. H. S. Burr, after a few weeks of unparalleled effort as a physician to cope with the disease, was himself stricken down with it and died on April 15, 1849; and River Grove School, which, in the con- fidence of my young years, I had believed to be enduring, and in time might vie with the Troy and other institutions of learning, had only this ephemeral existence."
Besides Mrs. Burr's school, in the summer of 1848 William Sprague had a school for a few months, with thirty or forty pupils, in a log house, a few rods east of Washington avenue, on Main street. The school was supported in part by subscription and partly by tuition.
Later in 1847, Miss Powell's shanty school house was removed and a respectable frame school house was built in its place, fronting on Wall street, and painted white. Elihu Elwood was the first teacher in that school house, followed by George and Mary Lath-
rop, the writer being one of their pupils. In 1851 this building was removed and a two- story brick was erected, fronting west. Many competent men and women taught there, but he who will longest be remembered was Prof. Taylor. It had two school rooms below and a large school room and two reci- tation rooms above. It was then called the Union School. It was succeeded by the pres- ent commodious building. In March, 1848, school district No. 4 was organized on the west side of the river and included all of section 16 and, May 20th, lot 6, block 117, on the corner of Townsend and Washtenaw streets was selected for a site for a school house and in 1849 a frame building, painted white, was erected. The first teacher was Ephraim Longyear and the last Rollin C. Dart. In 1856 the building was sold to the United Brethren for a church and moved to the corner of Capitol avenue and Kalamazoo street, and is still there, but as a dwelling. Two lots adjoining on the north were added and a brick building was erected. It was afterwards enlarged and was occupied as the Townsend street school until 1904. Pre- viously, it had been condemned as unsafe, closed, repaired, and used again, until it was considered so unsafe that some of the parents refused to let their children attend school there, and the board of education decided to submit to the taxpayers a proposition for the erection of a new building and at a school meeting held on the night of April 28, 1904, it was voted to raise $16,000 by taxation for such a building. Some of those present ad- vocated selling the lots of the old site, they having become valuable, and choosing some other, several of which were mentioned, but it was voted to place the new building on the old site. The old building was taken down in May, 1904, the lots regraded and the erec- tion of the present building was commenced in August, 1904. and is not yet completed.
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INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
District No. 3 was organized in the spring of 1851 and embraced all of section 16 that lies south of Michigan avenue and on the east side of the river and other sections ad- jacent ; and schools were kept first in a rented dwelling on the east side of Cedar street a little south of Main street, and afterwards in a frame school house farther south on the same side of the street, until the erection of the brick building, the sixth ward school. In 1861 the entire city was, by the legis- lature, made one district, with a board of education with two members from each ward. This board is non-political, one mem- ber in each ward having always been a re- publican and one a democrat, selected in school caucuses, the one selected being placed on his party ticket to be voted at the city elections and a blank left on the opposition ticket. In 1868 the schools were graded by the board and provisions made for a super- intendent and for a high school department, and a two-story frame, four-room building for a high school, temporarily, was erected on the southeast corner of block 81, it having been platted as a State block and reserved from sale and the State, by an act of the legislature in 1861, having virtually donated it to the city for school purposes, by leasing it for ninety-nine years for the sum of one dollar per annum. In 1872, an addition of two rooms was made to the building, at an expense of about $1,000. The original cost was about $3,000 and in 1874 it was sold for $1,025 and moved away, made over into a dwelling and now stands on the south side of Shiawassee street, ten rods west of Wash- ington avenue.
In that year the taxpayers voted to bond the city for $50,000 with which to build a high school building. The building was completed in 1875 and is the present high school building, on block 81, now called the Central School. It is said to have cost a
great deal more than-$50,000. The last $5,- 000 of bonds will come due April 1, 1905, and will be paid.
Other school buildings have, from time to time, been erected and besides the Central, the first ward, now known as the Cedar street, and the Townsend street schools, there are the Bingham street, Cherry street, East Park, Kalamazoo street, Larch street, Logan street, Michigan avenue, Pine street, South street and Walnut street; all good brick buildings, and yet the school accom- modations are claimed by the board of edu- cation to be inadequate and more buildings will be required in the near future and will, doubtless, be voted by the taxpayers who are very liberal when asked to furnish money for schools.
The Roman Catholic church, in 1903, erected a fine large brick school building on Walnut street, between Ionia and Ottawa streets at a cost of $24,000.
CHURCHES.
The first church in Lansing was on the north side of Wall street, between Center and Cedar streets. It was a barn, built by James Seymour and in 1848 purchased and fixed over into a church by the Methodist and Presbyterian societies, and on Sundays one of them would liold services in it fore- noons and the other, afternoons. It was sometimes profanely called "God's barn," but it was fully appreciated and services in it were well attended, not only by members of both of the church denominations, but also by the citizens generally, who were com- paratively more of a church-going people than are they of today. It also has many sacred memories for those whose friends were buried from it. It was not usual in those days to hold funeral services in the homes.
In 1852 the Presbyterians erected the first
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pretentious church, on lots one and two in block 82, on the southwest corner of Wash- ington avenue and Genesee street. It was a frame building with a tall spire and was the pride, not only of Presbyterians, but of
OLD FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, CORNER OF WASHINGTON AVE. AND GENESEE ST.
the people generally. The first church bell for Lansing was placed in its belfry in 1856. It cost $450 and was the result of the efforts of the Presbyterian ladies. It rang cheerily for church services: riotously for fires and tolled drearily for deaths and funerals.
OLD TOWNSEND ST. SCHOOL, USED YEARS AGO FOR CHURCH SERVICES.
This church was occupied by all of the Presbyterians until 1863 when the Franklin street church society was organized. Then it
was the church of the first society until the new church was completed in 1889 on the southwest corner of Capitol avenue and Al- legan street It was dedicated June 9, 1889. The old building and lots were sold to Mc- Pherson Bros. of Howell, remained vacant for a long time and finally used for manu- facturing purposes and was burned, in the forenoon of January 9, 1904. It had become quite dilapidated, and no doubt many were glad to see it go, but not so with its old friends, many of whom still survive.
The Franklin avenue church was erected in 1865. After the withdrawal of the Frank- lin street society from the first. it held ser- vices in the old church on Wall street until their church was completed.
OLD CENTRAL M. E. CHURCH, COR- NER WASHINGTON AVE. AND OTTAWA ST.
The First M. E. society occupied the church on Wall street until 1868, when a very respectable frame church was erected on the southeast corner of Franklin avenue and Cedar street which was occupied until June, 1904, when it was taken down for the purpose of erecting a new church, the pres- ent fine structure, upon the site. This new church has just been completed and was dedicated January 29, 1905.
The early members of this church society are entitled to the distinction of having the first sermon in Lansing, preached by a min- -
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INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
ister of its denomination, Rev. Lewis Co- burn, in Joab Page's log cabin in 1845. The M. E. church denomination was also the first to organize a church society in Lansing ; for in 1846, Joab Page, Abigal Page, Or- cella Pears and Eliza Lester formed them- selves into a M. E. church society.
In 1863 the first Universalist church so- ciety erected a brick church on the south- east corner of Grand and Allegan streets, which it occupied for their services, until they moved into their more pretentious edi- fice on the northeast corner of Capitol ave- nue and Ottawa street in 1897. The old
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OI.D UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, COR- NER OF GRAND AND ALLE- GAN STS.
building and lot were sold, used as a manu- factory for some time and taken down in 1904, as before stated under the head of "Fire Department."
In 1859, the Roman Catholics built a large brick church, St. Mary's, on the northwest corner of Madison and Chestnut streets. It contained the only chime of bells Lansing has had.
In 1863 the Central Methodist Episcopal church society completed their brick building on the northwest corner of Washington ave- nue and Ottawa street and occupied it until they moved in the year 1890, into their new, fine, large stone edifice on the northwest cor- ner of Capitol avenue and Ottawa street.
The Plymouth Congregational church, on the southeast corner of Allegan and Town- send street, was erected in 1876 and enlarged in 1891.
OLD FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. COR- NER OF CAPITOL AVE. AND IONIA ST.
The Baptist church, which is perhaps the largest in the city, though that honor may be contested by the Methodists, was built on the southwest corner of Capitol avenue and Ionia street in 1892.
Pilgrim Congregational church society have a fine church on south Pennsylvania
3
OLD FIFTH WARD SCHOOL, FIRST HOME OF PILGRIM CHURCH.
avenue. They erected one on the site. of which they had good reason to be proud, but it was burned on the day it was to be dedi-
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cated. Farewell services were held in their old church June 8, 1899, and the next day, June 9, it was burned to ground. Immedi- ately preparations were begun for the erec- tion of another and its corner-stone was laid May 2, 1899, and it was dedicated January 28, 1900.
There are many other churches in Lan- sing, but time and space allow mention of only the fine structures above noted.
For many years Lansing did not have any very imposing church edifices as com- pared with other places of like population; but now she has no cause for shame in that regard, for she will compare favorably with cities of even greater population and age.
CEMETERIES.
The first "graveyard" was at North Lan- sing, north of Franklin avenue and east of Turner street, on block 6. Many of the re- mains were not removed and some of them have recently been exhumed by workmen in excavating for cellars.
In 1857 James and Horatio Seymour deeded to the Township of Lansing twenty acres of land, for a cemetery, on the south- east corner of East and Saginaw streets. It was a square tract, as shown on the early maps, extending on East street about two- thirds the distance from Saginaw street to Shiawassee street, and on Saginaw street to about two-thirds the distance from East street to Pennsylvania avenue. It was in use until the establishment of Mount Hope cemetery, in 1873, when the removal of the remains was commenced and no more burials there were permitted. Several years were required for making the removals from graves that could be identified, and, no doubt, very many still remain in unknown graves. When all had been done in the way of re- movals that could be done, it was deter- mined to make a park of the tract and it is
now the "East Side Park." Not much has been done towards beautifying it, but it has the making of a beautiful park.
When it was decided that the city must have a new cemetery it was found to be a difficult matter to find a suitable site, and more difficult, in fact, impossible, to suit all of the people in a selection from several that were offered and considered; but the location must be made and what was known as the John G. Miller farm, of eighty acres, was purchased and deeded to the city May 6, 1873, for the sum of $8,000. It was not a prepossessing piece of land in appearance, and did not look like a proper place for a cemetery, and the common council were roundly abused for purchasing "that sand hill." Few, if any, had any idea that it would or could ever become the beautiful place that Mount Hope is, and now no one can doubt the good sense of the council in making the selection. It was outside of the city, and in the township of Lansing, but the city charter was amended so as to ex- tend the city limits around it though it made an eighty acre niche into the township. It is managed by a board of cemetery trus- tees, in the selection of whom the city seems to have been very fortunate. They have, economically and judiciously, expended the city funds in beautifying it, and have made it a great pride of the people.
POSTOFFICE.
The first postoffice was, in 1847, in the store of Bush & Thomas on the east side of Cedar street, a few rods south of Main street, and Geo. W. Peck was postmaster, appointed by President Polk. Later in the same year it was moved into the Carter Block, which stood on the northeast corner of Washington avenue and Washtenaw street. Its location was changed from time to time, to rented rooms, always small quarters, until October,
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INGHAM COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
1879, when it was moved to and occupied the entire first floor of what is now known as the Dodge building, on the northeast cor- ner of Washington avenue and Ottawa street, and fitted up into what was then con- sidered a very respectable and commodious postoffice, with 1,650 boxes. For rent of this room the government paid $1,000 per annum. This did very well until 1890, when it was thought Lansing was large enough and the business of the office had increased to such an extent that the city was entitled
1890. The government furnished plans and specifications for a one-story building, and the construction was commenced and contin- ued until the walls had reached the height provided for, when it was found that the building would appear unsightly and "squatty," and it was so represented to the authorities at Washington, who stopped the work, that the citizens might make an at- tempt to have the plans changed and pro- vision made for a second story. Schuyler S. Olds, of Lansing, was in Washington, pri-
THE POST OFFICE BUILDING.
to have a Government building, and in that year, Congress was induced to make an ap- propriation of $100,000 for a site and build- ing; the act was approved by the President, March 19, 1890. The present site was se- lected as the most appropriate one, and the government endeavored to purchase it, but the owner, a non-resident, set such an ex- orbitant price upon it that condemnation pro- ceedings were resorted to, and resulted in a deed to the United States of America for the sum of $17,666.66, dated October, 29,
vate secretary to U. S. Senator Stockbridge, and it was largely through his influence that by an act approved by the President on the 5th day of August, 1892, another appro- priation of $25,000 was obtained, the plans changed, and the present two-story building was erected. It was first occupied on the first day of April, 1894, by Postmaster L. E. Rowley. Seymour Foster is the present postmaster. The population of the city and the business of the office have so increased that the accommodations have already be-
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come inadequate and the building will soon have to be enlarged. To show the increase of the business in the office, during the last twenty years, we have obtained statements of the gross receipts for the fiscal years end- ing June 30, 1884, and June 30, 1904, as follows :
For 1884 the receipts were $25,883.61. For 1904 they were $75.570.18.
THEATERS.
Lansing had no hall fitted for dramatic performances until 1862, when "Capital Hall" was opened over the two stores at 109 and III South Washington avenue. The building was erected and the hall provided by Judge Chapman, who realized the neces- sity for such a place, and it was highly ap- preciated by the people. It was supplanted by "Mead's Hall," over the two middle stores in the "Mead Block" erected in 1865 by James I. Mead, on the southeast corner of Washington avenue and Ottawa street. It was fitted up with scenery and chairs, and was an improvement on the other. Both of these halls were the scenes of many enjoy- able events-plays, lectures, fairs, and dances to which men and women who sur- vive-many have crossed the dark river- look back with a great deal of pleasure and of which they love to tell. Possibly, some young men and women owe their existence to one or the other of these halls, where their parents met for the first time. One young man, now a grandpa, the writer re- members to have exclaimed. "By jove, isn't she pretty?" when he first beheld his present wife in Mead's Hall. Well, she was and has not entirely outgrown it.
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