11854 Peacock Road Laingsburg, MI 48848 (517)651-9193
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11854 Peacock Road Laingsburg, MI 48848 (517)651-9193 |
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Sprague School House The Story of the Schoolhouse For years we had admired the little one room schoolhouse on the corner of Woodbury and Winegar. We had even talked about how neat it would be to have it on the farm. Ed would often reminisce about the one room schoolhouse he attended as a boy. We heard through the grapevine that the house was listed on E-bay and there was some interest from folks out of state but it was cost prohibitive to move. We made some inquires and bought the schoolhouse on May 18th, 2003. On July 30, 2003, the school house was moved to the farm. This sounds so simple, but there was a lot that had to be done between May and July. We hired Williams House Moving Company. They had to raise the house off its foundation and put steel beams under it to prepare for the move. Then the foundation had to be removed. We decided it would be best to protect the house from possible damage from trees we would brush by, so we put boards over all the windows, on the roof edges and corners. (It turned out that this was a good move on our part, there was a tree branch that caused some damage to the roof, but it was minimal.) The cable company, telephone company and power company all had to be notified and scheduled. We had to hire a tree trimming company to remove all the tree branches over the roadway. Both Clinton and Shiawassee Counties required written permission from all the property owners to trim their trees. Every neighbor signed and were happy to hear the schoolhouse was coming to the farm. July 30,2003 finally arrived and everyone was ready to go. It took 3 1/2 hours to move the house to the farm. That is roughly 1 mile per hour. We had a few nervous moments, especially when the house go stuck in the road. Luckily it was by the farm, and Ed could dig out the embankment. The house was moved over its foundation on August 27, 2003 and placed on the foundation September 3, 2003. On October 25, 2003 we placed the bell tower back on the roof. We began to use the schoolhouse for school tours and private events in November 2003. After 50 years, the school is once again filled with the sounds of children. The schoolhouse is part of our farm heritage program. Pictures of the Move
Pictures of Bell Tower Placement
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