The East Ward School, also known as the Teresa Merrill School, was an educational building located at 106 North Traver Street in

St. Johns, Michigan St. Johns is the largest city and county seat of Clinton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 7,698 at the 2020 census. St. Johns is located in the north of Clinton County, surrounded by Bingham Township (although the two are ...

. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1980. It was unusual for its size and its elaborate brickwork. The school building has been replaced with a housing development and a preschool.

History

The East Ward School was constructed in 1876 from plans by Bay City architect Oliver Hidden. An addition was constructed in 1906. In 1976, the school was renamed the Theresa Merrill School in honor of a former principal, and was used for adult education classes. It was replaced with a housing development and a preschool in 2003.

Description

The East Ward School was a single-story brick structure consisting of two sections: the original building, constructed in 1876, and a 1906 addition. The 1876 building was a rectangular structure, with a low

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

with a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

at each end. A projecting entrance had an arced, recessed porch topped with another gable. The brickwork contained an elaborate decorative scheme with corbelled and paneled bricks. There were two rooms in the interior. The 1906 addition was approximately the same size as the earlier section, and also contained two rooms. It had a high hip roof and brickwork that matched that of the earlier section. A bell tower which was originally above the front entrance to the older section had been removed. In addition, the original narrow windows of the older section had been removed and replaced with wider windows which matched the newer section.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan School buildings completed in 1876 Buildings and structures in Clinton County, Michigan Michigan State Historic Sites National Register of Historic Places in Clinton County, Michigan