Saugatuck Public Schools

Location: Allegan and Elizabeth Streets, Saugatuck
Date: 1866, 1897, 1927, 1950, 1951

In 1866 the Saugatuck School Board began discussing the need for a larger and higher level school. Stephen A. Morrison and his wife, who was the village’s first school teacher, donated land at the intersection of Elizabeth and Mason streets at the top of Allegan Hill. A two-story wooden building with an ornate cupola was erected there in 1867. This school on the hill served all of the pupils in the Saugatuck system, kindergarten through high school. It was accredited in 1874, and graduated its first class in the spring of 1878. In July of 1896, while the local newspaper columns were full of discussions about “the dilapidated condition of our school building,” the entire structure burned to the ground. A new building, this one of brick, was opened in March of 1897. In 1927 a wing that included a gymnasium/auditorium was added to the structure. In March of 1950 the old portion of the building burned, but the new gym and a few classrooms were saved. A new red brick section was added to remaining school and opened in September of 1951. In 1963 voters approved a merger of the Douglas and Saugatuck school systems, with the elementary level students from both towns attending school in Douglas, and the upper level students occupying the Saugatuck building. The school on the hill served until 1974, when a modern one-story school was built farther north on Elizabeth Street, on the old athletic field. The old school building (both the 1951 classroom wing and the 1927 gymnasium) was razed and the property sold by the district; it is now a condominium site. The new school was later enlarged to serve as both a high school and a middle school.