Two for the Price of One, Part 1

Ray Township District No. 1 School

Date Visited:  August 25, 2019

Stop:  #53

One of the most fun aspects about our Michigan Wines and Signs quests is that, no matter how much we prepare, we invariably encounter surprises and/or adventure.  Our next stop would offer something we had never encountered before.

After concluding our visit to The First Methodist Episcopal Church historical marker in Davis, Michigan, we hopped onto Romeo Plank Road and drove north 2 miles to 29 Mile Road.  We made a right and headed east until we came to Wolcott Road (about 1.76 miles).  We turned left and headed north until Wolcott Road ended at Indian Trail, about 0.57 miles, and made another left.  On the left- hand side, just over 500 feet from Wolcott Road, was the location of our next destination.  Now, because I had researched our route for the day, I knew that we were going to visit two historical buildings at this location.  The first was the Ray Township District No. 1 School, and the second (located right next door) was the Religious Society Church.  So, of course, we were anticipating two historical markers.

Since the Ray Township District No. 1 School was the first building, we decided to visit that site first.  We located the historical marker at the northern-most entrance to the parking lot, situated about halfway between the two buildings we would visit.  From the marker, we learned that Ray area farmers built the school in 1863.  It was popularly known as the Mill School (since Wolcott Mill, another historical site, was located nearby).  This school conducted classes for kindergartners through eighth graders for 91 years.  In 1953, the Ray Township School District consolidated with the Romeo School District, which had no further plans for the school so they transferred ownership of the property to Ray Township.  For many years, the township used the building for elections and community meetings, and in 1983, the school became the Ray Township Library.  It still serves in that capacity today.

The building architecture is Greek Revival. The frame structure was built by neighborhood farmers and is a traditional one-room school house design - 26 ft. wide by 40 ft. deep.  It has a one-story front-gable, clapboard siding, and it is topped by a double-gabled open belfry.  On February 16, 1989, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Kathy and I took our typical slew of pictures of the building and its surroundings.  Since it was a Sunday, the library was closed (Hours of Operation:  Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 1:00 to 8:00 pm, Tuesday 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, Saturday 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, and CLOSED on Friday and Sunday).  It would have been fun to go inside, but it would not be an option on this day.  I began to walk across the parking lot in the direction of our next historical building to look for the historical sign.  In the meantime, Kathy made sure that we did not repeat our Rookie Mistake (not reading the backside of the sign to make sure there wasn’t anymore information written) when she yelled to me that the historical marker for the school also doubled as the historical marker for the Religious Society Church, each with its own unique Marker Identification number.  I would have never considered that, so Kathy saved us a lot of time looking for a sign that was right in front of our eyes the whole time, and just reinforced that we always need to check BOTH sides of every marker we visit.  I will save the rest of the story for the next blog!

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