Warren Township District No. 4 School
Historic Photo, sourced from the National Register of Historic Places filing
Warren Township District No. 4 School — historic photograph, 1875, National Register of Historic Places filing, 27900 Bunert Rd., Warren, Detroit
National Register of Historic Places Filing
The District No. 4 School is the last one-room schoolhouse left in once rural Warren Township, now a city largely built up with industry and post World War II residential neighborhoods. The school meets national register criterion A for representing the history of district school education in old Warren Township. The building meets criterion C as a well preserved example of later nineteenth-century one-room school buildings.
Physical Description
The District No. 4 School is a simple gable-front one-room school building built in 1875. The building is sided on all four sides in vertical board-and-batten wood siding. A central front entry is sheltered by a small shed-roof canopy, supported by a triangular bracket at each end and displaying a central front-facing gable finished with sunburst motif. The school is finished with square-head windows, mostly of double-hung, four-over-four type, set in simple frames- those for the two front windows (only) with low gable caps. Green-painted board shutters were added during the restoration to protect the windows. The building's front gable is crowned by a square-plan belfry with louvered pointed-arch opening in each face and a low pyramid roof (the present belfry, built in 1997, attempts to reproduce a historic one removed decades ago). A raised circle centered in the front gable, visible in old photographs, now displays the school's historic name and date of construction, 1875. The school has ground dimension of forty-seven feet in length by twenty-five in width. Sold into private ownership in 1944, the school was moved one-quarter mile to its current location in 1988 and, restored over a seven-year period, now serves as a museum.
NRHP Ref# 12000308 • Data from National Park Service • Content available under CC BY-SA 4.0
Historic Photos
(8)Sourced from the National Register of Historic Places filing
Warren Township District No. 4 School — Warren Township District No. 4 School — historic photograph, 1875, National Register of Historic Places filing, 27900 Bunert Rd., Warren, Detroit
Public Domain (Michigan filing for National Register of Historic Places)
From Wikipedia
The Warren Township District No. 4 School, also known as the Bunert School, is a one-room schoolhouse building located at 27900 Bunert Road in Warren, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012 and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1989. It is the last one-room schoolhouse remaining in Warren.
History In January 1875, August and Mine Bunert sold a plot of land at the northeast corner of the intersection of Bunert and Martin Roads to the Warren School District for the purpose of constructing a school. The district constructed this one-room schoolhouse on the site later in the year, formally known as the Warren Township District No. 4 School, but commonly called the Bunert School after the original landowners. The building was used for K-8 students until 1928, when a second building was constructed nearby for older students. The original Bunert School was then used for K-4 until 1944, when the nearby Charwood School was built. That span makes the school the longest-used one-room schoolhouse in Warren. After 1944, the district used the structure as a meeting hall; it was later sold to John O'Connor (along with the 1928 structure), and converted into a six-room residence. The Santa Maria Lodge purchased both buildings in 1970. In 1987, the Lodge offered the 1875 building to the Warren Historical Society, who raised $22,000 to restore it. The structure was moved to its present location in 1988, and is used as an educational museum. The 1927 school is still in its original location.
Description The Warren Township District No. 4 School is a single-story wood frame structure with a gable roof sitting on a concrete foundation. The exterior is covered with board and batten siding, and the interior has wooden floors, tin ceiling, and wooden wainscoting.
See also National Register of Historic Places listings in Macomb County, Michigan
References
External links Bunert School Museum history (with pictures) Saving Bunert School Warren Historical Society's page on the Bunert School Warren Township District 4 School from the City of Warren
Content available under CC BY-SA 4.0
Building Details
- Year Built
- 1875
- National Register
- Listed
- Ref# 12000308