Birmingham has always been passionate about education.  The following virtual exhibit is Part 1 of our school history.  It includes vignettes that illustrate some of the earliest school history, with a timeline at the end for quick reference.  Or, download the 9-page.pdf slide show. (Part 2 will be available soon, and will cover the later 20th century schools of Birmingham.)

Birmingham's Pioneers and Education
The earliest settlers in Oakland County were mostly from New York, Pennsylvania, and other eastern states.  Though often from well-educated families, they often were not themselves very well-off. Coming to the Michigan Territory in the early 1820s gave them new opportunities to farm the land and start businesses.

Bringing their young families with them, one of the pioneers’ first priorities after clearing the land and providing food was education.  Settlers’ children in a given area would gather together in a barn or other structure, share books, and begin rudimentary lessons.  As soon as they could afford it, locals would pool funds to pay the meager salary of the frontier schoolteacher—room and board with a small stipend.   (Images: 1825 Risdon Map, Detail, 1836 McGuffey Reader, courtesy Wikipedia Commons) 

This simple log building  was built in a manner similar to that used by Birmingham’s first settlers.  After  becoming established, pioneers often built frame houses, but continued to use the sturdy log structures for various purposes.  In Birmingham, the first schooling took place in log cabins on both Ziba Swan’s land (near Quarton and Woodward) and on John Hamilton’s land  (abutting Woodward at Hamilton in downtown Birmingham). 

Settlers valued education, although no public school system yet existed.  While in a city students would pay tuition, in the wilderness it was common to provide firewood in lieu of payment.  The first teacher at Hamilton’s school was Captain Hervey Parke, who took the job in 1820-21 while waiting for the go-ahead to start surveying Oakland County, then part of the vast wilderness of territorial Michigan. Parke boarded with John West Hunter, later living in an unused outbuilding (probably of log) on the Hunter property. (Images: Early Montcalm County, MI log cabin, courtesy MIGenWeb; Hervey Parke portrait courtesy Findagrave.com)

Elijah Willits sold an acre of land to Fractional School District  #1 of Troy and Bloomfield Townships, and  a schoolhouse of local brick was built in 1856.  It provided tuition-free education for lower grades.  Student attendance was optional. Often called “the ‘Little’ or ‘Old’  Red Schoolhouse,” it was a comfortable building in what was then the current Gothic style.  It operated for twelve years, and one of its later teachers was Birmingham’s Martha Baldwin.

When Harry and Marion Allen built the Allen  House (now the Birmingham Museum)  on the same site in 1928, the red school building was still standing.  They tried to reuse it as part of their new house, but were only able to save a part of the wall.  If you look carefully at the brick front of the Allen House at the east end of the large porch (at the corner of the gray arched addition), you can make out the outlines of the school’s window openings that were bricked in for the new house, with the stone window sill still there. (Images, Birmingham Museum)


1850s-1867: The Academy
The Academy provided  private secondary education to Birmingham students on the upper floor of a frame building owned by Roswell T. Merrill at Mill (Maple) and Pierce Streets.  Reverend Samuel Hill taught class to older students who paid a fee.  At the time, there was no compulsory education requirement in the State of Michigan.  The only way for secondary students to pursue their education after graduating from the Red Schoolhouse was to find private schooling.  When the Academy building burned in 1867, the community pushed to get a new, larger school built to serve all ages.  This led to the building of the Union School (later Hill School, after Rev. Hill). Like other promising Birmingham students, Martha Baldwin attended the Academy.  (Images: Detail of 1872 Beers map and young Martha Baldwin, Birmingham Museum)

1869-1969: The Hill School 
Built at a whopping cost of $14,000 in 1869, the Union School was designed to accommodate primary and secondary students.  The incorporation of the Village of Birmingham in 1864 allowed for the raising of tax revenue to build it.  It stood at the corner of Chester and Merrill and served Birmingham and the surrounding communities well for many years.

A large bell was cast in 1902 and placed in a cupola (bell tower) atop the building to call the students to class and dismiss them, becoming a part of every school day for all students and faculty. But by 1912, the burgeoning population of Birmingham led to the need for a separate elementary school, and Barnum Elementary was built (see below). After that, the Hill School was used only as a high school until 1917, when it became exclusively an elementary school. The bronze bell was saved when the building was demolished in 1969, and has been reinstalled in its own special site at the museum. The outdoor structure was designed to suggest the original cupola. (Images:  Hill School, c.1905; bell from the Hill School, and architectural drawing of permanent bell structure, Birmingham Museum)

In 1912, the increasing number of Birmingham’s elementary students required a new building. The Barnum school was built at Frank and Purdy Streets, while Hill School was reserved for 7th-12th grades. 

By 1942, the growing student population required that Barnum School become the junior high for Birmingham.  The building eventually became disused, changed hands, and  and was demolished in 2008.  In its place is Barnum Park, which has the original school entry portal retained as a memorial. (Images: Barnum School, c. 1920s; Barnum School's Flint Faience & Tile Company storybook fireplace (rescued and installed as a permanent exhibit), Birmingham Museum) 

1918-1974:  The Baldwin School
The cornerstone of Baldwin High School was laid in 1916. The school opened in 1918.  The venerable Martha Baldwin provided the means to build the school in her will (specifying its name and that it have an auditorium and separate bathrooms for men and women).  It was located at Maple and Chester, where the current Chester Street parking deck is located.    

The more things change, the more they stay the same…is a truism that can be applied to Baldwin High.  Like Hill School, it was sometimes referred to as Birmingham High School as well.  It took  on that name because the Hill School had changed from a high school to an elementary school in 1917, just before the Baldwin School was built.  Some years later in 1952, Baldwin High itself became an elementary school when another new high school was built.  Adding to the confusion: this new high school itself was also briefly called Birmingham High School!  Shortly after it was built, it was re-named Seaholm High. In 1974, Baldwin closed altogether, and the building was demolished.  (Images: Baldwin High School, c.1920, and diploma of Edna Taylor, valedictorian of Birmingham High School at the Hill School, 1916) 

Brief Timeline of Birmingham's First Schools