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School Days,
School Days
The attendance in the high school room this year is unprecedented.
Principal Holmes stated this morning that the enrollment will undoubtedly exceed 500. The
total seating capacity in single seatings is 441. The senior class will number about 65
and there may be some additions to it.
Lansing State
Republican, September 7, 1897
Lansing Schools
 Most Lansing residents
of the 1890s considered a basic education important, and 94% of children age 10-14
attended school. Attendance was lower among older youth, but a high school education was
clearly becoming important to more families. Girls outnumbered boys 2 to 1 in the class of
1897 at Lansing High School.
One of the 45 graduates of Lansing High School in 1897 was Roy Chapin. A member of the
school's Science Club and business manager of the yearbook, the Oracle, Chapin also
worked weekends delivering orders for a local grocer. Following high school, he attended
the University of Michigan. In 1901, he drove a curved-dash Olds Runabout from Detroit to
New York City to demonstrate the car's durability. Chapin became a millionaire at age 30
as president of the Hudson Motor Car Company, and later served as Secretary of Commerce
under President Hoover. The exhibit includes a copy of the Oracle.
 May McKibbin taught
second and third grades at Lansing's South Street School in 1897. Still in her twenties,
she lived with her parents at their farm on South Washington Avenue. Unlike most of her
female colleagues who married and left teaching, she remained single. She became principal
of the Logan Street School in 1912 and retired from the Lansing School District in 1938.
Industrial School for Boys. Established in 1855, the Industrial School attempted
to reform delinquent boys through a combination of discipline, schooling and vocational
training. Students raised much of their food on the 260-acre grounds of the school. The
Industrial School was crowded in 1897, averaging 80 boys over its 500-student capacity.
Michigan School for the Blind. About 100 students from around the state were
enrolled at the Michigan School for the Blind in 1897. In addition to basic academic
instruction, students learned practical skills. Boys studied trades thought suitable for
blind workers: piano tuning, broom making and carpet weaving. Girls learned
to cook and sew.
Michigan Agricultural College
 Relatively few students went on to college. At the east end
of Michigan Avenue, Michigan Agricultural College was growing, but still had fewer than
500 students. M.A.C. offered vocational training to aspiring farmers and engineers, as
well as a course for women.
The only men's dormitory on campus in 1897 was Wells Hall, the first of three buildings
to carry that name. The college supplied each of the 100 rooms in Wells Hall with an
ironstone water pitcher. The exhibit includes a pitcher rescued from the flames when the
building burned in 1905. Most of the artifacts in the M.A.C. exhibit are from the
collections of the M.S.U. Museum.
Women had been admitted to MAC since 1870, but their numbers remained small until 1896,
when the Women's Course was introduced. Academic requirements included English, botany,
chemistry and mathematics. Abbot Hall, where cooking and sewing were taught, was also the
first women's dormitory.
Maud McLeod of Ionia began her studies at MAC in the fall of 1897. The exhibit includes
some of her notebooks and papers, along with a chemistry test (on which she did very well)
and a pillow she made in one of her domestic economy classes.
Lansing schools in 1897:
- Lansing Public
- High School, west side of Capitol Ave., between Shiawassee and Genesee
- Central Building
- Bingham Street School, east side of Bingham, between Michigan Ave. and Eureka
- Cedar Street School, northeast corner Cedar and Wall
- Cherry Street School, west side of Cherry, between Lenawee and Hillsdale
- East Park School
- Kalamazoo Street School, south side of Kalamazoo between Chestnut and Pine
- Larch Street School, west side of Larch, between Michigan Ave. and Shiawassee
- Logan Street School
- Michigan Avenue School, southeast corner Michigan Ave. and Logan
- South Street School, south side of South, between Platt and Oak
- Townsend Street School, northwest corner Townsend and Washtenaw
- Walnut Street School, northeast corner Walnut and Kilborn
- Ungraded School
- Parochial
- German Lutheran Emanuel School, 214 Kilborn w.
- German Lutheran Dreinigkeits School, 413 Saginaw w.
- St. Mary's (Catholic) School, northwest corner Jefferson and Chestnut
- Other
- Industrial School for Boys, east end of Shiawassee
- Lansing Business College, 231-237 Washington Ave. s.
- Lansing Industrial School for Girls, 119 Shiawassee e.
- Michigan School for the Blind, w end of Franklin
- State Agricultural College, three miles east of the capitol
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