news::March 22, 2006

School for the Blind: Women, Wonder and Odd Fellows

(Editor's note: This is the first installment of a new monthly feature examining the Lansing area's historical roots.)

Courtesy of State Archives of Michigan Bird's-eye view: The Michigan School for the Blind property on Lansing's near west side as seen circa 1935.

Additional information: For local Lansing history go to the Forest Parke Memorial Library, Lansing Public Library, 401 S. Capitol Ave., Lansing, MI 48901 (517) 367-6300 http://www.cadl.org For more School for the Blind records including photos, maps and papers: State Archives of Michigan, 702 W. Kalamazoo St., Lansing, MI 48815 (517) 373-1408 http://www.michigan.gov/statearchives For information on Lansing’s historical markers: http://www.michigan.gov/shpo

By ROBERT GARRETT

It was 1963, and Little Stevie Wonder had a problem — the Detroit schools couldn’t accommodate the young entertainer’s touring schedule. Fortunately, he found a solution at the Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing. Wonder is, of course, the school’s most famous alumnus, but he was one of many people to walk the grounds at 715 Willow St. That site has its origins in a very different sort of educational institute: The Michigan Female Seminary.

The Michigan Female Seminary was established through the efforts of two sisters, Abigail and Delia Rogers. The two hailed from New York and taught at Albion College and at the State Normal School in Ypsilanti (now Eastern Michigan University). Birt Darling, author of “City in the Forest: The Story of Lansing,” described Abigail as a “big, raw-boned spinster” and Delia as timid.

Yet both women had a calling — to respond to the male-only enrollment practices of the University of Michigan and the newly opened (in 1855) Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University). The sisters lobbied the state Legislature, hoping to establish a ladies’ school that would provide higher education opportunities to young women.

However, state support never happened. Undaunted, the women began holding classes at the Capitol in 1855. They soon moved to the Ohio House, an early Lansing hotel on West Washtenaw Street, which is part of the area west of the current Knapp’s Building.

The sisters used private donations to build a brick building at 715 Willow They enjoyed considerable community support — enough to aid them in closing down a neighboring brewery at the corner of Pine and Maple streets. The name of the brewery may be lost to antiquity, but its proprietor was a German immigrant named Weimann. The Rogers sisters objected to the smell of both the beer and of Weimann’s pigpens, and to loud nocturnal singing from the beer garden.

The seminary closed after Abigail Rogers’ death in 1869. According to author Helen E. Grainger, more than 1,000 women attended the school during its existence.

In 1871, the Grand Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal organization similar to the Masons, acquired the Willow Street property. There the group established the Odd Fellows Institute, a home for its elderly and disabled members. Brown’s 1873 Directory of Lansing noted that Lansing citizens donated 45 acres of land as well as the north wing of the Misses Rogers Female College Building to the Odd Fellows. The directory also credited Delia Rogers as the donor of “a very large portion of the land purchase, a library of about 1,500 volumes and a fine philosophical apparatus.”

In addition, the International Order of Odd Fellows also established a hall on Washington Avenue. That building now houses Elderly Instruments.

Eventually, the Odd Fellows found the institute too expensive to maintain. Meanwhile, the state needed some property for the Flint-based Michigan School for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, which had run out of room. Officials decided to move the blind students (relatively few in number) to a new location at 715 Willow. The state signed a two-year lease with the Odd Fellows.

The Lansing location was meant to be temporary. The Legislature felt that there were already enough state institutions in Lansing and that another city should be selected for a permanent location. However, the Odd Fellows, anxious to sell, made a generous offer for the property. The Legislature approved that offer in 1880, and the Michigan School for the Blind relocated to Willow Street, holding its first class on Sept. 29, 1880.

By 1883, the school had about 80 students, according to Polk’s 1883 Lansing City Directory. Michigan residents attended the school free of charge, and the school’s trustees provided aid to indigent children. The curriculum included broom and basket making, and the girls also learned to sew, knit and make beadwork. The directory listed three buildings: a main edifice, a boys’ dormitory and a laundry.

None of those original buildings remain. Today, the campus’ three oldest surviving buildings are the High School Building, the Superintendent’s House and the Administration Building (or Old Main), which all sit on the east end of the campus. The buildings were built in 1912, 1914 and 1916, respectively, by celebrated Lansing architect Edwyn Bowd.

Bowd also designed Lansing City Hall, Lansing’s first Baptist church, the agriculture and engineering buildings on the campus of Michigan Agricultural College and Pilgrim Congregational Church. The west side of the campus features more recent additions, built in the 1950s and 1960s. The newer structures are mostly one-and two-story buildings with low gabled roofs. Campus visitors can thus experience a nice mixture of the modern and the historical. In 1986, the State Historical Preservation Office erected an historical marker on the grounds.

In 1995, after 115 years, the School for the Blind remerged with the School for the Deaf. The blind students were transferred to Flint and the Lansing campus was abandoned.

Soon after, the Mid-Michigan Leadership Academy, a charter school, leased the grounds from the state and began holding classes there.

The fate of the land remains up in the air, caught in a tug-of-war between the charter school and the city of Lansing.

Meanwhile, the School for the Blind’s legacy can still be experienced. One year ago, Michigan School for the Blind and Deaf officials contacted Michigan Historical Museum personnel. A 1930s Chickering baby grand piano, once used by Wonder during his studies in Lansing, was transferred to the museum, where it sits on the third floor as a landmark of Lansing’s heritage.

(Robert Garrett is an archivist at the State Archives of Michigan.)