Douglas Elementary School

Location: 261 Randolph Street, Douglas
Date: 1957

With four classrooms and a multipurpose room, this school was built to replace the Old School on Center Street. The cost was $90,000. At the time, the careful attention paid to proper lighting, temperature control and ventilation, lavatory facilities, interior colors and even chalkboards was considered advanced for a “country school.” For this it won an Association of School Administrators award for excellence in design. Additional classrooms were added in 1963 when the Douglas and Saugatuck school district was combined, and then again in 1994. The original “new school” is now incorporated inside of these additions. The stationary school bell on display at the front of the school has been moved to its original site: the bell tower of the Old School House “History Center” on Center Street, where it is ringing once again.