Albion Interactive History / Buildings / Public Schools
East Ward School, 1869
Closed 1927
Demolished
The East Ward School, located at E. Michigan Avenue and Jackson Street intersection.
During the year 1869, the school board ordered the creation of three new primary school buildings, patterned after the Marshall primary school buildings. A blueprint used to build a Marshall school was purchased by the Albion board, and construction began. The three primary schools were practically identical in appearance.
East Ward school was constructed on E. Michigan Avenue at Jackson Street to replace the East Division School that had been built for the old Albion and Sheridan No. 3 Fractional district a decade earlier. Property was deeded by Albion College in 1873, consisting of an imaginary Prospect Street just west of the East Ward property, for one dollar. P10
At the end of the 1926-27 school year, the East Ward School on E. Michigan Avenue at Jackson Street was closed, and students were transferred to the Gardner Grade School. The board allowed the Boy Scouts use of the vacated building in 1928. Other groups were also allowed use of the facility in subsequent years, until the property was deeded over to the city of Albion as a park, and the structure was demolished. Today, Gold Star Park occupies the site where formerly stood the East Ward School.
Source: Frank Passic. A History of the Albion Public Schools. Albion, Michigan: E. Weil Publishing Services. 1991.
Image Source: James B. Field, Souvenir of the City of Albion, 1894.