The History of Stone School

Stone School's story begins in 1853, when Michigan was still a young state and Dr. Benajah Ticknor of Cobblestone Farm looked at a small triangle of land and saw a schoolhouse. He leased the plot to the local school district, and by the following year, the first Stone School had opened its doors to the children of the community.

That original building served the community well for half a century, but by 1911, it could no longer keep up with a growing population of students. Rather than start from scratch elsewhere, the community rallied together, tore down the small original schoolhouse, and built the larger Stone School House that stands today — carrying the old stones forward into the new structure, along with additional stones donated by the neighboring Hutzel and Ticknor families. It was, in a sense, the same school reborn.

By mid-century, even this larger building was bursting at the seams. In 1949, the community passed a $90,000 bond to build a new, "ultra-modern" school just across the street — and with that, the original Stone School House closed its doors as a school for the first time in nearly a century.

A Second Life as a Community Space, Then a Nursery

The old schoolhouse didn't stay empty for long. Parents banded together to renovate it into a gathering space for the community — adding paneling, ceiling tile, and a full kitchen in the basement, and replacing the two outhouses with an indoor bathroom addition at the rear of the building. But this second chapter was a short one: by 1953, the building was once again standing silent and unused.

That's when Millie Seltzer stepped in. She led a group of parents who petitioned the school board for permission to turn the old schoolhouse into something the community badly needed: a nursery school. Months of fundraisers and renovations followed, and in September 1955, Stone School Cooperative Nursery officially opened its doors, welcoming its first classes of three- and four-year-olds.

Fires, Fathers, and Seabees: Nearly Losing Stone School — Twice

Stone School's history has never been short on drama. In 1958, the Fire Marshal declared the building unsafe — a potential ending for the young nursery school. Instead, eleven co-op fathers rolled up their sleeves and spent over 100 hours enclosing the furnace in a cement block wall behind a fireproof door, and the school reopened.

Two decades later, in 1979, a fire damaged the wiring and paneling in the basement. This time, help arrived in the form of a company of Navy Seabees, who stripped the damaged paneling from the walls and, using materials donated by the nursery school, installed new wiring and fire-resistant paneling. Once again, Stone School was back in business.

Growth, a Threat of Sale, and Finally, Ownership

Through the following years, Stone School Cooperative Nursery grew steadily — expanding from two classes to four, and adding a popular eight-week summer camp program. Then, in 1994, the Ann Arbor Board of Education announced plans to put Stone School up for sale. After forty years of calling the schoolhouse home, the nursery faced the very real possibility of losing it for good.

The community negotiated a one-year lease extension and got to work. Following months of fundraising and negotiation, Stone School Cooperative Nursery purchased the building outright on October 11, 1995 — making the historic schoolhouse its permanent home for the first time in its history. That same month, in recognition of its history and architecture, Stone School was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

A Legacy of Careful Stewardship

Owning a piece of history came with real responsibility, and Stone School has taken that responsibility seriously ever since. In 1996, a federal grant of $15,930 helped fund the restoration of the Spanish tile roof and chimney, a skilled stonemason repaired the stonework at the front entrance, the basement playroom got its first redecoration since 1979, and the exterior trim was finally repainted. The following year, a new high-efficiency furnace bypassed the old, crumbling chimney flue, and the playground got additional paving to make room for bike riding.

Next came the schoolhouse's original wooden sash windows, which were carefully removed, restored at a local wood shop, and reinstalled in two phases — half by the spring of 1998, and the rest by the spring of 1999. Around the same time, the building's warped front door was replaced with a solid mahogany door custom-built to resemble the original, and new carpet was installed in the front hall and office.

By 2005, Stone School had paid off its mortgage entirely, becoming one of the few cooperative nursery schools in North America to fully own its building. In 2007, the school invested over $37,000 — funded mostly through savings, with the remainder through a bank loan — to improve drainage and waterproof the foundation. That loan was repaid by 2009, and the school has been saving ever since for a future basement renovation.

An Ann Arbor Landmark, Still Growing

Stone School holds a genuinely special place in the history of southeastern Michigan — a true historic gem and Ann Arbor landmark that, with continued care, is built to last well into the next century. Stone School Cooperative Preschool is proud to carry that legacy forward, one generation of children at a time.