The Canton Historical Society and Museum located in Canton, Michigan was originally a one-roomed school house, which was built in 1884. It showed clearly that the museum was built using Georgian Revival architecture. The one-roomed school house was built for grades K-12, which was one of many school houses in the city of Canton, MI. This particular one-roomed school house was the last operating school house in Wayne County, MI, and the school house was the most popular of the school houses in the area. This old school houses' fate would eventually become that of a historical society and museum for the city of Canton, MI.
Contents |
The Canton Historical Museum was built in 1884, and the architecture of the building clearly was an example of Georgian Revival, which was very popular in the architecture of most one-roomed school houses. This one-roomed school house was the youth's favorite of the school houses in Canton, MI. Every family in Canton wanted their kids to attend that school. As people rushed into Canton, MI during the post WWII years, school houses began to shut down. The Canton Center School, however was still up and running. It was in 1962 that the one-roomed school house had its last graduating class. The Canton Center School was the last operating one-roomed school house in Wayne County, Michigan. The future of the school was still at hand. [1]
The one-roomed school house was built on the crossroads of Canton Center road, and Heritage Park road. The museum is located on the southwest corner of the intersection. Dating back to the last ice age the museum would be engulfed with water and ice. Canton, MI used to be the shores of what is known today as the Detroit River.[2]
There were big plans to convert the what was once the most popular one-roomed school house in Canton, MI into Canton's Historical Society and Museum. This was decided in 1977 by the newly developed Plymouth Canton School District.[3]. The Plymouth Canton School District decided to donate this great old school house to the City of Canton, MI for use as a museum. This old school house, went through several years of renovation by the efforts of the Canton Historical Society. Soon enough on December 5, 1982 the Canton Historical Museum was finally dedicated.
The museum experiences many kids and people who walk through the museum to get a first-hand experience of what students were like at the one-roomed Canton Center School House. Everything from old-fashioned desks to the original dunce cap used by students is displayed. The museum has many other interesting facts and documents: old pictures, historical documents, Civil War pension records, genealogical materials, township tax records,and historic kitchen items. The museum features special themes according to the time of year, and change the setup of the museum accordingly. The exhibits includes clothing, jewelry, books, tools, toys, furniture/furnishings, textiles, and kitchen goods. The Canton Historical Museum is not the only museum serving another purpose. The rest of the school houses slowly but surely had post academic uses. They were converted to churches, alternative schooling, or storage space. These newly transformed locations have nothing to do with teaching the community anymore, but they still provide the community with great uses.[4]