Kinross Township Hall and School

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Kinross Township Hall and School
Old Kinross Township Hall, 2019.jpg
New building on the site in 2019
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Location7305 W. Kinross Rd., Kinross Township, Michigan
Coordinates 46°16′36″N84°30′56″W / 46.2768°N 84.5156°W / 46.2768; -84.5156 Coordinates: 46°16′36″N84°30′56″W / 46.2768°N 84.5156°W / 46.2768; -84.5156
Area1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built1905
Architectural styleLate Victorian
NRHP reference # 03001549 [1]
Added to NRHPFebruary 4, 2004

The Kinross Township Hall and School is a government and educational building located at 7305 West Kinross Road in Kinross Township, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. [1]

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

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. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred in preserving the property.

Contents

History

In 1887, the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad laid a railway through this area of Michigan, connecting Minneapolis to Sault Ste. Marie. A handful of settlers established what is now the village of Kinross near this site, and in 1891 the railroad opened a station nearby. In 1899, coalescing around the village, Kinross Township was established from portions of surrounding townships. The school district serving the village (designated Kinross Township's School District No. 2) already had a school building, but in preparation for the construction of a new school, the lot on which this building originally stood was purchased by the district in 1902. [2]

The Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad was a Class I railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Midwest United States. Commonly known since its opening in 1884 as the Soo Line after the phonetic spelling of Sault, it was merged with several other major CP subsidiaries on January 1, 1961, to form the Soo Line Railroad. As time passes, more and more Soo Line equipment is being repainted into the Canadian Pacific's current paint scheme, slowly erasing the Soo's identity as a subsidiary railroad.

Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan City in Michigan, United States

Sault Ste. Marie is a city in, and the county seat of, Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is on the northeastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, on the Canada–US border, and separated from its twin city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, by the St. Marys River. The city is relatively isolated from other communities in Michigan and is 346 miles from Detroit. The population was 14,144 at the 2010 census, making it the second-most populous city in the Upper Peninsula. By contrast, the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie is much larger, with more than 75,000 residents, based on more extensive industry developed in the 20th century and an economy with closer connections to other communities.

In April 1905, the Kinross Township Board and Board of Education of the Kinross Township School District met jointly and voted to erect a new building to house both a town hall and a school, with the school on the lower floor of the building and the town hall on the upper. [2] Construction began later in 1905, and the building opened in September of that year as a school and meeting house. [3] In the early 1930s, the construction of US 2 was planned through the original site of the school, necessitating a move. After some discussion, a new location was selected, and the building was moved to its present location in 1931. [2]

US Highway 2 (US 2) is a component of the United States Numbered Highway System that connects Everett, Washington, to the Upper Peninsula (UP) of the US state of Michigan, with a separate segment that runs from Rouses Point, New York, to Houlton, Maine. In Michigan, the highway runs through the UP in two segments as a part of the state trunkline highway system, entering the state at Ironwood and ending at St. Ignace; in between, US 2 briefly traverses the state of Wisconsin. As one of the major transportation arteries in the UP, US 2 is a major conduit for traffic through the state and neighboring northern Midwest states. Two sections of the roadway are included as part of the Great Lakes Circle Tours, and other segments are listed as state-designated Pure Michigan Byways. There are several memorial highway designations and historic bridges along US 2 that date to the 1910s and 1920s. The highway runs through rural sections of the UP, passing through two national and two state forests in the process.

The school originally had a single teacher, and served grades K-8. Over the next decade, the population of Kinross Township increased, and by 1915 there were seven school districts serving the township. However, economic downturns in the next few decades resulted in a substantial loss of population and a reduction in the number of districts, and by 1943, Kinross was the only public school left in the township. In 1952, the nearby Kincheloe Air Force Base opened a school on its grounds, and by 1959 the base was educating 200 children. A new school site on the base was chosen by the nearby Rudyard Township's school system. Since the base was within Kinross Township, the Kinross Township school system decided to annex itself to the Rudyard Township schools, sending area children to the new school on the base. [2] With the move, the Kinross school closed in 1960. [3]

Kincheloe Air Force Base human settlement in United States of America

Kincheloe Air Force Base was a U.S. Air Force base during the Cold War. Built in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in 1943 during World War II, the base was in service until 1977.

Kinross Township continued to use the building's second story for township meeting, and in 1965 set up a township office. In 1973, the lower school portion of the building was refurbished and used as a Senior Citizen's Center. In 1978, the township offices were moved to another building, and in early 1979, the Senior Citizen's Center also moved. The last organization to use the building, the Kinross Grange, folded in 1979 and the building was abandoned. [2] In 2000 repairs were made to the roof. [4] The building was sold to private owners in 2010. [5]

Description

The Kinross Township Hall and School is a rectangular two-story hip-roof building on a concrete block foundation, measuring 40 feet across and 26 feet in depth. The building is clad with white-painted clapboard, with plain cornerboards and window trim and projecting eaves with brackets. The front elevation has four symmetrically spaced double-hung one-over-one windows on the second floor, with three identical windows with the same spacing on the first floor. The first floor also has a gabled entry porch at one end of the front facade with a turned-post support at each corner The porch contains paired entry doors, leading to an enclosed, shed-roofed stairwell along the side of the building. A wooden cupola housing a bell was originally located atop the main roof, but has been removed. [2]

The interior originally housed a single classroom on the first floor, with one or more small coatrooms and perhaps bathrooms. The second floor was a single large meeting space. Both stories had wooden floors and narrow tongue-and-groove walls and ceilings. The interior was remodeled in the 1970s, with a kitchen and restrooms installed in the first floor space. In addition, was installed over the original flooring, synthetic wood paneling on the walls, and acoustical tile the ceilings. [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Robert O. Christensen (August 2003), NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES REGISTRATION FORM: Kinross Township Hall and School
  3. 1 2 Rena T. Thompson (1981), A History of Kinross Township, North Star Communications, pp. 108–110
  4. ↑ "Kinross Charter Township Meeting Minutes, 2000" (PDF). Kinross Charter Township. January 5, 2000.
  5. ↑ "Kinross Charter Township Meeting Minutes, 2010" (PDF). Kinross Charter Township. January 4, 2010.
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