In Fall 1988, Eastern Michigan University dedicated the 1895 Town Hall School, which had been given to the University by the Geddes family of Ann Arbor. The schoolhouse was moved to the EMU campus, where it underwent restoration.

In January of 1991, a One Room Schoolhouse Survey Project started, a joint effort of the College of Education at EMU and the Historical Society of Michigan, using grant funds from Phi Delta Kappa and the Washtenaw County Historic District Commission. This project grew out of a desire, by the EMU Town Hall Schoolhouse Project Advisory Committee, to determine how communities were using and interpreting their educational heritage. It was planned that the Town Hall School should be used as a museum and repository for the interpretation of Michigan educational history. It should be noted that a list of One-Room Schools in Michigan, 1986-87, from the Michigan State Board of Education is included in these project files.

A survey form was developed and interest was generated through press releases. By June of 1991, the One Room Schoolhouse Project had received information on 268 structures in 42 counties. In some cases the reports came from individuals living in or owning a particular property. In other cases, earlier or new data had been collected by interested individuals or historical societies.

In the fall of 1991, Jennifer Tucker, an EMU graduate student, continued the project under the direction of Tom Jones, executive director of the Historical Society of Michigan. Existing responses were organized by county and by January 1992 Ms. Tucker had compiled a master list of some 524 known sites. Estimates of the number of original existing sites began at 2000, with many now demolished.

On April 10, 1992, Ms. Tucker gave a presentation on the project at the Local History Conference at Wayne State University, Detroit. A draft of her speech and slides are included in these files. Her June 1992 report from the Historical Society of Michigan concisely summarizes history and findings to that date.

In the fall of 1992, a new survey form was constructed specifically for museums and archives in order to gather more information on operations, as well as the structures themselves. This survey identified 60 one-room schoolhouse museums.

Out of the initial project developed a nucleus of interested individuals, who came together on May 14, 1993, at the first Michigan One-Room Schoolhouse Conference held at EMU. The Michigan One-Room Schoolhouse Association was formed. This group, a “consortium of owners, historians, teachers, students and preservationists dedicated to promoting and preserving these treasured buildings…”(1), have conducted an annual day-long conference each year since formation. A building registration and marker program has been initiated. The Slate was established as the title of the bi-annual newsletter.

A 1998 communication from the Board of MORSA, states that they were undertaking the completion of the survey at that time, with the goal of creating a computer database of the results for existing structures. Another new form was prepared for this purpose.

---This biography has been prepared from various documents found in the files of this collection.