NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in National Register Bulletin, How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions.
1. Name of Property Historic name: _Bingham School______Other names/site number: _ Bingham Elementary School______Name of related multiple property listing: _ N/A ______(Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing ______2. Location Street & number: _555 South 5th Avenue______City or town: _Alpena______State: __Michigan______County: _Alpena___ Not For Publication: Vicinity: ______3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that this nomination ___ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property ___ meets ___ does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant at the following level(s) of significance: ___national ___statewide _X__ local Applicable National Register Criteria: __X_ A ___B _X__ C ___D
Signature of certifying official/Title: Date ______State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Bingham School Alpena County, MI Name of Property County and State In my opinion, the property meets does not meet the National Register criteria.
Signature of commenting official: Date
Title : State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government
______4. National Park Service Certification I hereby certify that this property is: entered in the National Register determined eligible for the National Register determined not eligible for the National Register removed from the National Register other (explain:) ______
______Signature of the Keeper Date of Action ______5. Classification Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply.) Private: X
Public – Local X
Public – State
Public – Federal
Category of Property (Check only one box.)
Building(s) X
District
Site
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Bingham School Alpena County, MI Name of Property County and State
Structure
Object
Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in the count) Contributing Noncontributing ______1______0______buildings
______sites
______structures
______objects
______1______0______Total
Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register ____0______6. Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions.) _EDUCATION/school______
Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions.) _VACANT/NOT IN USE ______
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Bingham School Alpena County, MI Name of Property County and State ______
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______7. Description
Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions.) LATE 19TH AND 20th CENTURY REVIVALS/Late Gothic Revival/Collegiate Gothic______
Materials: (enter categories from instructions.) Principal exterior materials of the property: __BRICK, STONE______
Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current physical appearance and condition of the property. Describe contributing and noncontributing resources if applicable. Begin with a summary paragraph that briefly describes the general characteristics of the property, such as its location, type, style, method of construction, setting, size, and significant features. Indicate whether the property has historic integrity.) ______Summary Paragraph
Built from 1935 to 1936, Alpena’s Bingham School is Collegiate Gothic in style. It is an imposing two story masonry building laid out in a traditional ‘H’ plan. Its red brick is trimmed in light colored limestone detailing that is most prominent on its south and west facades. Large windows highlight entrances, classrooms, and gymnasium. The architectural integrity of the building’s interior and exterior is very strong, including original wood windows, terrazzo floors and ceramic faced wainscoting throughout the corridors.
______Narrative Description
Setting: The city of Alpena is the seat of Alpena County and the largest city in northeast Michigan's lower peninsula, an area of the state defined by the Northeast Michigan Council of Governments as including Alpena County, and those of Alcona, Presque Isle County, Montmorency, Cheboygan, Crawford, Oscoda, and Otsego. The city is situated at the eastern end of the county, along the northern shore of Thunder Bay, which extends to Lake Huron to the west, and at the
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mouth of the Thunder Bay River. The Bingham School is in the heart of the city and nestled in the residential neighborhood, just a block from West Washington Avenue, the main street leading into the city from the west. Many of the houses near the school were built prior to the school’s construction in 1935 and 1936, with a few being built during the middle of the twentieth century. It is arranged in a residential grid pattern however, throughout the city, portions of residential neighborhoods are angled off true north by forty-five degrees, such that north-south streets angle northwest-southeast, while east-west blocks angle northeast-southwest. To simplify this description, cardinal directions are used throughout this nomination. The school has large greenspaces on the south, fronting South Fifth Avenue, and on the west, overlooking McKinley Avenue. A former playground that has reverted to nature is located on the east side between the building and Saginaw Street. On the north side there is a long, narrow parking lot at what has been the traditional back of the building.
Exterior: Bingham School is a two-story masonry structure built in the late Collegiate Gothic style around an "H" floor plan with a highly intact exterior. The red blend masonry is offset with limestone used as windowsills, banding, a tall base that encircles the building, copings, and decorative squares above windows and at the tops of pilasters. Brick is laid in a simple, common bond with seventh course headers. Decorative, sawtooth masonry patterning infills the space above the elegantly arched windows along the main south facade. Masonry detailing is simplified in a soldier course over windows on the other elevations. Around the entire building, there is a top course of brick just under the uppermost coping and under the copings on the projecting building elements that creates a delicate pattern by recessing every other brick in the course.
There are two main entrances that are two story elements on the south façade. They project out from the building with stone surrounds, recessed entries, and large segmental arched windows. Within each stone entry surround are carved the words "Bingham School." Between the entry elements, there are five very large windows on this facade that feature six individual panes in segmental arched split transoms located above nine-over-nine double hung windows. The plane of this wall is broken by projecting this windowed area and framing it with pilasters. On either side of this large projected area are three smaller, four-over-four double hung windows on the second floor balanced over two six-over-six double hung windows on the first floor. The doors are not original to the building, but they are complimentary.
The west facade features three very prominent, one-story bays on the first floor, each with five six-over-six double hung windows that allow maximum light penetrations into the rooms. Between the bays there are single, small four-over-four double hung windows. On the second floor, aligning over each of the projecting bays is a series of six more six-over-six double hung windows framed in bays of two windows each. Centered over the series is a simple stone square matching those on the south façade.
At the rear, north facade, there are two modest entrances that project from the building as single- story recessed entries. In the middle, the building recesses further, exposing the basement roof at the former coal chute. A low wall is built in front of the roof area and spans from one end of the recess to the other. The wall is in poor condition since it’s lost its protective cap and there is exposed brick at the top. Along this rear wall of the building, there are ten six-over-six double
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hung windows on the first floor, six of these featured in pairs of two. There are two eight-over- eight double hung windows and two fixed six pane windows lighting the stairwells. There are six eight-over-eight double hung windows at the second floor. At the western-most entry, there is a decorative masonry detail that features four vertical X-patterns in brick projected over a fixed and recessed window on either side of the doors. These areas project slightly to give the feeling of solidly framing the entry bay. The series of two doors at this location each have twelve individual panes with a segmental arched, split transom with eight panes over each door. The doors at the east end do not have individual panes in the doors but feature the same transoms. The doors are not original to the building, but they are complimentary in style. There are a pair of six-over-six double hung windows on the second floor, centered over each entry bay. Each of the bays and the pairs of windows above feature a simple stone square centered overhead. At the west end of the building, there is a one-story room that projects from the building, assumed to be the “playroom” described by Goddeyne in the Alpena News in 1935. Brick work matches the original building exactly and it appears to be original to the building. Three former windows have been removed and infilled with brick.
On the east façade, there are three, two-story recessed bays of windows. Within each bay, the windows are in pairs, six pairs per bay. Paired windows on the second floor align with the pair on the first floor, three pairs per floor. Each pair is framed by two-story pilasters. All the windows are six-over-six double hung windows. Centered over each bay is a simple stone square above the second story windows. All the windows are wood and appear to be original to the building.
Interior: As Goddeyne described his design in the Alpena News in 1935:
there are three grade rooms on each floor on each side. On the main floor, between the classrooms are toilet facilities for boys and girls, principal's office, music teacher's office and teachers' rest room. In the front, between the entrances is a combined gymnasium and auditorium, lighted by five large windows. The auditorium extends up to the second-floor ceiling. Classrooms on the second floor are located directly over those below and toilets are arranged similarly.
A library and conference room are located above the offices and teacher's lounge. The classrooms are approximately twenty-two feet by thirty-two feet with large bay windows at the two kindergarten rooms and the first-grade room on the west side of the building. The interior of the building is still very much as described in 1935.
The corridor and stairwell floors are three colors of terrazzo with a harlequin diamond pattern centered between borders running the length of all corridors. Walls in these locations are ceramic glazed brick wainscot in two shades of green with a bullnose border along the top of the wainscot. The black base is reminiscent of the color combinations of the Art Deco period. The stairwells are treated to a shelf-like detail with this glazed brick, creating a unique feature that has stood the test of time. Although stairwells have been enclosed, this has been completed with sensitivity to existing conditions, preserving the integrity of the space and materials. Corridor
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doors appear to have been replaced with fire rated doors that are also respectful of the building’s history.
Classrooms use minimal wood trim in their design, typically in the form of a picture rail and in some rooms, a wood base. Trim that is visible appears to be original. Window framing is only lightly trimmed and includes a wood window stool with apron that runs the full length of the window wall in some rooms. In one of the kindergarten rooms, there is a simple, brick faced fireplace built into a recessed plaster and wood paneled alcove with a segmented arch. In the other kindergarten, there is a brick surround that gives the illusion of a fireplace but is not deep enough nor built with a flue and chimney to be a functioning fireplace. It may have been used as the backdrop for a wood-burning stove. The original linoleum classroom floors have been long covered with carpet. One row of early cabinets and one cubby system, as described by the architect in a newspaper at the time of construction, appear to have survived. Lay-in acoustical ceiling tiles have been added throughout the classrooms and corridors to hide the more recently installed mechanical system. A few of the painted interior doors between classrooms and at closets may be original.
The gymnasium and auditorium has a stage with proscenium and scenery fly at one end, concrete bleachers with chairs bolted to the concrete, and a generous ceramic glazed brick vestibule located under the upper seating area on the west end. Some of the chairs have been removed, but the concrete bleachers remain. The original windows light the two-story space and there are smaller, interior, segmented arched windows in the second-floor corridor on the north side that allow borrowed light in as well. These are newer, replacement windows on the interior. The first- floor walls duplicate the green ceramic glazed brick wainscot found in the corridors up to about eight feet then extend about half-way into the second-floor space in a cream-colored ceramic glazed brick. A wood or plaster molding with a variation on a Greek key pattern tops off the wall. The proscenium has simple wood moldings either side and an egg and dart trim across the top. The wood stage floor is still in place and the front of the stage is covered in wood panels. The gymnasium floor is wood, narrow tongue and groove boards. All appear to be original, and no historical records were located that suggest replacement.
Integrity: Bingham School retains historic integrity. The site and location remain much as originally planned. The quality of its design and workmanship are evident and have stood the test of time. The feeling evoked within the community is of fond memories and associations. On the exterior, the masonry is in good condition and has not been significantly altered. It appears that original wood windows are still in place throughout. Most of the original materials in the corridors, gymnasium and stairwells are still in place and in good condition. Some of the corridor wall plaster has been replaced with gypsum board, but the original plane of the wall has been maintained. The layout of the classrooms is still accurate to Goddeyne's description in the Alpena News. Some of the rooms have been altered with new walls as noted by missing trim. The teacher’s lounge and principal’s office have been altered with the addition and removal of minor dividing walls. Carpet and lay-in ceilings have been added. There are some exposed pipes and electrical raceways scattered throughout.
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Because the building closed in 1982, windows were not replaced with an exterior insulated finishing system (EIFS), as was typical of schools throughout the state in the 1980s and 1990s. It was sold by Alpena Public Schools to a private investor and by the time it was reopened as a charter school in 2004, infilling windows was no longer a common practice. Aluminum storm windows have been installed over many of the original windows. Minor repairs and renovations took place on the interior of the building prior to reopening. It has been empty since it closed as a charter school in 2015.
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______8. Statement of Significance
Applicable National Register Criteria (Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for National Register listing.)
X A. Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. X B. Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past.
X C. Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction.
D. Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.
Criteria Considerations (Mark “x” in all the boxes that apply.)
A. Owned by a religious institution or used for religious purposes
B. Removed from its original location
C. A birthplace or grave
D. A cemetery
E. A reconstructed building, object, or structure
F. A commemorative property
G. Less than 50 years old or achieving significance within the past 50 years
Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions.) _EDUCATION______
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_ARCHITECTURE______
Period of Significance _1936-1970______
Significant Dates _1936______1982______
Significant Person (Complete only if Criterion B is marked above.) ______
Cultural Affiliation ______
Architect/Builder Goddeyne, Joseph C., Architect_ _Spence Brothers, Builders ______
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Statement of Significance Summary Paragraph (Provide a summary paragraph that includes level of significance, applicable criteria, justification for the period of significance, and any applicable criteria considerations.)
Bingham School is significant under National Register Criterion A under the theme of education in the city of Alpena, Michigan, the major population center in the northeast region of Michigan’s lower peninsula. The school, completed in 1936, was a modern replacement for three small ward school buildings that dated from the late 1800s. Construction began in 1935 and was completed in 1936. The building included dedicated kindergarten rooms and a large- capacity combination gymnasium and auditorium space. The stage was the largest in town, and was used for theatrical productions, as well as social activities and educational presentations for the entire community. Built during a period of financial stress for the school district, Works Progress Administration funds made the construction of the Bingham School possible. Bingham School is also significant under National Register Criterion C, under the theme of architecture, as an unusually late example of Collegiate Gothic, the dominant style of American school architecture through the first three decades of the twentieth century. Architect Joseph Goddeyne’s restrained use of the style’s characteristics is particularly noticeable in the original, two-story arched windows that illuminate the building’s gymnasium. Goddeyne has received recognition for his work in northeastern Michigan, but that recognition has been predominantly focused on his work in modern styles, making this Alpena elementary school an outlier, stylistically an example of his earlier work. Bingham School is one of only three non-residential buildings that were built during the 1930s and are still standing in the city of Alpena.
______Narrative Statement of Significance (Provide at least one paragraph for each area of significance.)
Alpena was first permanently settled in 1856. Lake access and surrounding forests provided Alpena’s first major industries: fishing and lumbering. The Thunder Bay River provided both a natural power source and excellent transport for felled logs from the interior of the state. In his 1876 account of Alpena’s history, William Boulton counted eighteen mills along the river: shingle, paper, and grist mills in addition to numerous lumber mills. Although Boulton records a figure of more than eighty million cuts per year by lumber-based businesses, area forests were largely logged out by the 1890s. As the logging and lumbering era came to an end in Alpena, and Michigan more broadly, entrepreneurs looked to another resource: immense limestone deposits found throughout the region. A group of former lumbermen, including Herman Besser, founded Alpena Portland Cement Company in 1899. Herman and son Jesse purchased a simple machine to make concrete blocks from the cement. By 1904, Jesse had invented a more efficient version; father and son founded Besser Company, which continued to perfect block-forming machines, became a worldwide leader in concrete block technology, and remains one of Alpena’s largest employers. Alpena Cement closed in 1909, but cement production remained. Huron Portland Cement Company moved its operations to Alpena in 1907, and the new location became the world's largest (currently second largest) cement plant. Alpena’s economic base had switched to a new building product for the twentieth century. Jesse Besser’s philanthropic support for local institutions was often conditioned upon new buildings, or improvements to
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existing ones, being constructed of concrete block. Such conditions led architectural historian Kathryn Bishop Eckert to describe Alpena's architecture of the nineteenth century as wooden Queen Anne and limestone and the architecture of the twentieth century as grey concrete.1
The Besser Company continued to develop innovations in concrete block machinery, and Portland Huron Cement continued to employ many area workers in the twentieth century. The Fletcher Paper Company, founded at the turn of the century, was an echo of the earlier timber- based economy. Alpena’s population, which had swelled from 6,153 to 11,283 at the peak of the logging boom between 1880 and 1890, continued to increase through 1910, but decreased in 1920. Although the 1930s were plagued with high unemployment in the wake of the Great Depression, the Alpena Garment Company, which was founded in 1920, was the country’s largest manufacturer of popular-priced women’s dresses and a definite bright spot on the city’s economic horizon. By 1940 the population had risen to just over the 1910 figure, and continued to rise through 1960, when Alpena’s citizenry totaled 14,682. Annual public school pupil counts were on the rise, as well, and a community college was established and held its first classes in district classrooms before building a separate campus in 1957. In the same year, Decorative Panels International was founded to manufacture a variety of paneling products. A field study compiled by Alpena Public Schools personnel in 2009 cites peak school enrollment at 9,200 in the 1970s and the then-current figure of 4,558 (2019-2020 figure 3,821). The study notes building closings in the 1980s and the early 2000s (two more followed the 2009-2010 school year). The study states that, in addition to budgetary issues, the schools were experiencing, and had been for some time, a dynamic common to small towns – residents leaving for bigger towns and more career options.2 Industries had disappeared as well: profitable as it was, the ladies’ dress factory had closed in 1940, and the Fletcher Paper Company ceased operations in 2000. The 2010 population was 10,482, and concrete block machinery, cement, and paneling production remain strong factors in the local economy.
As a regional center, Alpena boasts the region’s sole institution of higher learning. Alpena Community College offers an Associate Degree in Applied Science in Concrete Technology, the only one of its kind, and houses the World Center for Concrete Technology. The Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan is devoted to the art, history and science of the region. The former Alpena General Hospital, expanded over the years and now known as MidMichigan Medical Center – Alpena, is the city’s largest employer and serves the surrounding counties. With Alpena’s location on Lake Huron, tourism has become a significant industry; Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center both highlight the region’s contribution to Great Lakes maritime history.
Significance under Criterion A Bingham School is significant at the local level under Criterion A under the theme of education as Alpena's sole remaining exemplar of educational architecture predating the middle of the twentieth century. In A Century in Alpena Schools, longtime educator Ella M. White notes education among Alpena’s highest priorities from the very start. White attributed this to the
1 Kathryn Bishop Eckert. Buildings of Michigan. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 2012, p. 260. 2 Diane Block, Matt Poli, and Hans Stevens, “APS Field Study”, Alpena Public Schools, compiled during 2009-2010 school year, sites.google.com/a/alpenaschools.com/aps-field-study/home.
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many pioneer settlers who came to Alpena from eastern states “where education had always been held in respect.” Accordingly, settlers had organized a school in an abandoned cooper’s shed in 1858. In the following year, students were taught in the upper rooms of a new building on the south side of the river. Interestingly, a bridge had not yet been constructed, and students who lived north of the river were ferried across in row boats to attend school.
A dedicated school building, the first district school in Alpena County, was erected during 1863 and 1864. In 1869, a barn owned by early settler George N. Fletcher was sold to Alpena’s union district for use as a school to serve millworkers’ families on the north side of the river. A wing was added to accommodate the growing student population, and the school was named Jefferson School.
As Michigan’s population grew and administration of a growing number of small, autonomous districts became increasingly cumbersome and expensive, legislation was enacted in 1843 to allow formation of union districts for all villages and cities. As a result of this unification, a larger total number of students in the union districts made it possible to separate students into grade levels (earlier district schools had been ungraded). To house multiple grades, union districts began to construct larger buildings, known as union schools, with rooms to accommodate individual grade levels: primary (ages five to seven-and-a-half years), intermediate (seven-and-a-half to ten years), grammar (ten to fourteen years), and high (fourteen to seventeen years).3 A three-story union school building to serve Alpena's students was completed in 1870.
Union schools were regarded as a long-term solution to housing student populations, but as cities continued to grow and prosper, the large buildings were soon overcrowded. A common solution was to build additional schools to house younger students. Built within residential neighborhoods, these buildings were known as ward schools. During his tenure as Michigan’s Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1859 to 1864, John M. Gregory suggested establishing ward schools once a district’s student population exceeded five hundred pupils.4 During the 1880s, five small ward schools of two-, three- and four-classrooms were built in Alpena, and a six-room building was added in 1899.
By the twentieth century, the ward schools were woefully inadequate to serve a growing student population. A case in point, the 1883 Obed Smith School on the city’s north side had resorted to renting rooms in a nearby public hall and hanging blankets from the ceiling in the old building as “walls” to make more classrooms.5 Avery Elementary School opened in 1908, an improvement over the earlier schools, but still small at four rooms instead of the six originally planned. An upstairs hall was soon converted to eke out additional classroom space. Malcolm McPhee Elementary School, which opened in 1913, was built of brick, and its eight rooms included a principal’s office, an office for specials teachers (music, art, languages, etc.), and a library room. The building was well lit and ventilated and was considered the most modern school building in the city to date. The 1883 Obed Smith School burned in 1922, which exacerbated the need for a
3 An Honor and an Ornament: Public School Buildings in Michigan, Lansing, Michigan: State Historic Preservation Office, September 2003, p. 11. 4 An Honor and an Ornament: Public School Buildings in Michigan, Lansing, Michigan: State Historic Preservation Office, September 2003, p. 12. 5 Ella M. White, A Century in the Alpena Schools. Alpena, Michigan: published by popular subscription sponsored by the Alpena News, 1959, p. 69.
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new building. The completion of Lincoln Elementary School in 1925 provided the city with a brick building of twelve rooms (among the rooms were an office, a gymnasium with a small, elevated stage, and a library). This building was constructed with materials considered fireproof.
As in many communities in Michigan in the nineteenth century, fire was a significant concern. Several fires had destroyed portions of the commercial areas in Alpena before the turn of the century, and since many early school buildings were constructed of wood, fire was perceived to be a problem for these buildings as well. And had been an issue from the very beginning: of the 1868 union school, Ella White noted, “fate was indeed kind to the district in that the building did not burn down before completing its usefulness.”6
Alpena Public Schools entered the third decade of the twentieth century with small, antiquated buildings from the 1880s still in use. Concern about this issue was nothing new: in the late 1880s, School Superintendent L. S. Norton expressed concern over students widely scattered in a group of small schools. “There are more schools scattered over the city than in any other city of this size in Michigan. Pupils should be brought together rather than distributed among so many buildings, for the good of the children.”7 Reporting to the School Board in the summer of 1921, Superintendent George R. Curtis struck a similar chord. He termed the quality and distribution of city schools “not very fortunate,” some too poor and old to be considered modern and too small to be efficient and economical. Prior-year expense figures showed the per-pupil cost to satisfactorily complete first-grade work was eleven dollars higher in a two-room building than in a six-room building. He pointed to Detroit schools, which faced the problem of dealing with numerous small schools overcrowded by a rapidly growing city; upon realizing, by means of a district survey, that upkeep and overhead on such buildings was considerable, Detroit determined to abandon its small, inefficient buildings as soon as possible and developed long-range planning for new construction. (The survey and planning fell during Malcomson and Higganbotham tenure as Detroit’s Board-appointed architects. The firm designed seventy-five percent of the city’s schools in that period.) Curtis concluded, “it would seem not out of place to suggest that it might be well for Alpena to make such a survey and outline such a building program on which each year we should be working.”8
Overcrowding remained a problem, but school funding was stretched as far as it could go, and new problems developed. The school district needed to provide vocational classes at the aging (1891) high school and determine how to fund instructors for such classes if space could be found. In the throes of the Great Depression, the superintendent, the board secretary, and all instructors took a twenty percent pay cut to ease the district’s financial burden. Many repairs were needed, and Emergency Relief Administration funds covered some of them during 1934 and 1935: improvements at the high school, plumbing improvements in all buildings, and complete redecoration of Lincoln School.
In 1935 the issue of replacing antiquated schools on the south side with a centralized, modern school was finally addressed and, in the final year of his seventeen years as Alpena Public
6 Ella M. White, A Century in the Alpena Schools. Alpena, Michigan: published by popular subscription sponsored by the Alpena News, 1959, p. 19. 7 Ibid., p. 52. 8 Ibid., p. 74.
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Schools Superintendent, George Curtis saw his longtime wish for a truly modern school realized. The new elementary building would replace Franklin (1880), Lockwood (1882), and Cass (1885), buildings still in use at that time. The projected cost to build from Joseph C. Goddeyne’s plan was 180,000 dollars. Fortuitously, WPA funding was approved for 81,000 dollars of the amount, and work commenced.9 With twelve classrooms, student capacity was larger than any of the schools built since 1900, and there were rooms devoted to functions added to school architecture in the first three decades of the century: offices for building principal, a music teacher, and a physical training instructor; an “opportunity room”; and a kitchen. Wide corridors ran straight through the building, a design practice instituted to improve fire safety in the wake of a disastrous school fire in suburban Cleveland, Ohio, in 1908. Two kindergarten rooms were located in bays with built-in benches so that, in the architect’s words, “the little tots may easily gaze outdoors,” there was a fireplace in one of the rooms and, through French doors, a playroom off the other; such attention to young learners’ needs was new to Alpena schools.
It was decided that Bingham, a name that resonated in the Alpena community, should adorn the new school building. Moses Bingham had been among Alpena’s pioneer citizens, the owner of its first hotel and a partner in the city’s first gristmill. His three daughters had all taught in Alpena’s public schools, and his son was the president of the school board at the time the building was constructed. Of all the features the new school brought to the citizens, perhaps the one that endeared it to them most was the large combination auditorium and gymnasium. Well-lit by capacious two-story arched windows, the gymnasium space accommodated up to four hundred people in auditorium seating, and bleacher seating provided space for another two hundred people. As the largest performance area in the city, the space was used and enjoyed by the entire community. The gymnasium was also used by Alpena residents on Friday nights for roller skating. Other public activities included plays produced during the summer and wildlife lectures during the winter as part of the district’s adult education program. From time to time there were University of Michigan extension lectures. In 1952 the auditorium became the home theater to a newly organized summer stock troupe, The Jatoma Players. It is a point of pride with Alpena residents that the 1954 company included a young actress, and future Emmy Award winner, then known as Eddi-Rue McClanahan in her first summer stock appearances.
Bingham was the last elementary school erected in Alpena until Ella M. White School was built in 1950. The intervening years were difficult for the district. The city’s library came under the school board’s administration and, when a public building housing the library burned to the ground in 1936, Goddeyne was engaged to design a new building to house the library collection, in hopes that PWA funds could be procured. Funding did not materialize, and the library materials were relocated to an existing building to avoid further financial burden. There was a fire at McPhee school that same year, but damage was contained, and repairs made. In 1940 the 1891 high school building burned to the ground, students were temporarily placed in buildings all over the city, and a new concrete block building was constructed. During war years, with men serving in the military and women stepping into their jobs at factories and elsewhere, it was difficult to fill teaching positions. In 1946, the Churchill School burned to the ground.
A field study of the Alpena Public Schools compiled in 2009 considered the state of the schools as 2009-2010 school year began. District enrollment had peaked in the 1970s at 9,200 students,
9 Additional information on Federal Relief projects in Alpena is included in Appendix B.
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but had dropped to 5,842 in 1995, and further to 4,558 in 2008. (Nor did the downward trend end there – 2019-2020 enrollment was 3,821 students.) In addition to dwindling enrollment, the schools faced budgetary issues that came to a head in October 1981. After a school-related millage was defeated for the third time in five months, all buildings were closed on October 17, 1981, and did not reopen until a minimal operating millage passed on October 30. In addition to Bingham school closing, Besser Junior High closed at the end of the 1982-1983 school year (reopened as an elementary school in 1986). Two elementary schools closed at the end of the 2003-2004 school year, and two more closed at the end of the 2009-2010 school year. Describing the thirteen buildings in operation in 2009, the study finds them a mixed lot. The 2009 report described a group of 1950s buildings as one-story “plain vanilla structures” and the 1967 high school building “with an excess of doors and a confusing front entrance.” Since the report subsequent improvements and additions were made. Mention is made of a 1952 elementary school that is “a two-story behemoth” in the center of town and an alternative high school building that “consists of unusual angles and spaces.” The study finds, overall, that “the buildings might be described as no-frills, blue-collar buildings that are functional rather than fancy.”10 Bingham School, by comparison, possesses both historical and architectural significance.
All the other pre-1950s schools are long gone. Cass School was razed in 1945, Avery in 1978, Lincoln in 1997, and the 1941 high school building was razed in 1999. A November 4, 2019, Alpena News article notes that the Baldwin (built 1884) and McPhee buildings are gone as well. Of all the schools built after the turn of the twentieth century and before 1950, Bingham School alone is still standing. Joseph Goddeyne ended his article for the November 23, 1935, Alpena News by projecting the building’s lifespan: “Modern it is in every particular, fire proof [sic], and built with such lasting materials as described, the building will, we are confident, last at least a century.” Preserving this building for adaptive reuse will prove Goddeyne’s statement prophetic.
Significance under Criterion C (Architecture) The only extant public school building constructed in Alpena prior to 1950, Bingham School stands in the city as the sole example of school architecture influenced by, or constructed during, the Modern Movement. Designed in a restrained Collegiate Gothic style, the school was a bit of an anomaly at the time it was built.
Collegiate Gothic had been the dominant style for school buildings in the United States through the 1920s. It was an outgrowth of the Gothic Revival style popular in the second half of the nineteenth century. Referencing the great cathedrals of medieval Europe, Gothic Revival was chosen for churches and institutional buildings for its connotations of morality, solid permanence and antiquity. The style utilized prominent features of cathedrals, including arched and recessed entryways, stone moldings, vertical support expressed on building exteriors, crenelated parapets, and sculptural devices. Windows were particularly distinctive: they were tall, made up of small panes with wood or lead dividers, often soaring to a familiar Gothic arch and outlined in stone tracery. As colleges in the United States grew in size and prosperity, administrators looked to this style as suitably august for new buildings, finding particular inspiration in English universities at Oxford and Cambridge. Although early examples of Collegiate Gothic exist –
10 Diane Block, Matt Poli, and Hans Stevens, “APS Filed Study,” Alpena Public Schools, compiled during 2009- 2010 school year, sites.google.com/a/apenaschools.com/aps-field-study/home.
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“Old Main,” built in 1857 at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, two 1870 buildings at Holy Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, among them – the 1894 design for Pembroke Hall at Bryn Mawr College by Cope and Stewardson has been cited as “patient zero” for the spread of Collegiate Gothic.11 Charles D. Maginnis’ design for Gasson Hall at Boston College in 1908 gained wider notice for the newly popular style of educational architecture. His plan, published the following year, was widely written about and highly praised, and the publicity helped establish Collegiate Gothic as the prevailing style of architecture for college and high school buildings across the country. Some grand school buildings utilized the full vocabulary of Gothic features and resembled medieval halls of learning, but many more expressed pared-down versions using only selected hallmarks of the style. These buildings, often found in smaller towns, are still highly recognizable as expressions of Collegiate Gothic by their tall ached windows, recessed arched entryways and restrained use of the style’s more sculptural features.
Prominent Michigan firms that designed schools in Collegiate Gothic were Malcomson and Higganbotham, who served as Detroit Public Schools’ School Board-appointed architects from 1895 until 1923, and Robinson and Campau of Grand Rapids. Although there are examples of the style found in Michigan as early as the first decade of the twentieth century, schools were seldom constructed in this style after the onset of the Great Depression.12 Significant twentieth- century population centers in the state like Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Flint, as well as university towns like Detroit, Ann Arbor, and East Lansing have more numerous (and sometimes grander) examples of the style and work by these (and other) firms. The same cannot be said of the smaller towns in the state.
Bingham School is not only a notably late example of the style, but it is also the only example of Collegiate Gothic architecture in Alpena. The building conveys its significance through integrity of location, setting, design, workmanship, feeling and association.
There are some fine examples of non-residential, architectural styles in Alpena. They are typically located in the downtown, on both sides of the Thunder Bay River, as well as along the main streets leading away from the downtown and into the residential neighborhoods. Significant examples include the former federal building (Classical Revival, 1913) and Alpena City Hall (Georgian Revival, 1904 to1908). Just north of the downtown is the Art Deco Alpena County Courthouse completed in 1935 with PWA funding. Typically, the historic commercial buildings are Italianate or Commercial Style, some with Richardsonian Romanesque influence, and date from the 1870s through the 1890s. The German Aid Society (Arbeiter) Hall, (1904) east of the downtown and set within a residential neighborhood, is a fine example of Georgian Revival.
The only commercial building remaining from the 1920s appears to be the former Alpena County Infirmary (the original hospital) now used as an office annex to the hospital. The 1930s in Alpena were lean times, as they were in most of the country, and few large-scale projects were undertaken during the decade. As noted previously, school board employees and all teachers
11 Robinson Meyer, “How Gothic Architecture Took over the American College Campus,” The Atlantic. September 11, 2013. Accessed online at theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/how-gothic-architecture-took-over-the- american-college-campus/279287, July 10, 2020. 12 An Honor and an Ornament: Public School Buildings in Michigan. Lansing, Michigan: State Historic Preservation Office, September 2003, page 88, which cites 1929 Stiles School in Rochester as a late Collegiate Gothic building.
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took substantial pay cuts in order to keep the schools in operation. Twenty-five percent of Alpena’s population had registered with unemployment, and the city, unable to collect revenues, was issuing warrants against unpaid taxes. 13 The city’s population had fallen from 12,706 in 1910 to 11,103 in 1920 and did not exceed the 1910 figure again until 1940.
Bingham School is unique as one of only three buildings constructed in the 1930s that still stand in Alpena, all of which were completed with federal funding; the Alpena County Courthouse, Bingham School, and the Alpena State Police Post. Stylistically, these three buildings could not be more diverse. The courthouse is a fine example of Art Deco design with its smooth concrete walls and two-story stylized columns. Bingham represents the only Collegiate Gothic structure in Alpena, with sweeping arched windows between buttressed pilasters. The State Police Post is designed in a state standard style that incorporates early Prairie style with its low hipped roof and solid two-story box form.
Joseph C. Goddeyne, Architect Joseph Charles Goddeyne was born May 8, 1889 in Bay City, Michigan. He attended Bay City’s Saint James High School,14 received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Notre Dame College in 1911 and graduated from University of Michigan in 1921 with a Bachelor of Science in Architecture. His biographical entry in the 1962 American Architects Directory noted that he worked as a draftsman for Emil Lorch, the first director of University of Michigan’s department of Architecture in 1906 and dean of the College of Architecture from its inception in 1931 until his retirement in 1940.
City directories for the respective cities indicate that Goddeyne worked as a draftsman in Lansing in 1922 and in Ann Arbor in 1925. He established his own firm in Bay City in 1927 and remained an active architect until his death in 1964. Classified advertisements in Detroit and Lansing newspapers in the 1940s characterize his firm’s focus as “hospitals, schools and public buildings.” The firm’s oeuvre included many church, hospital, and school buildings in Bay and Saginaw counties and small towns across northeastern Michigan.
Goddeyne’s designs represented a number of styles in addition to the Collegiate Gothic he employed for Bingham School. James Clements Airport Administration Building built in Bay City in 1929 expresses Georgian Revival. A Catholic church built in Unionville in 1939 is described as Mission style. Several of his latest designs utilized more modern styles including Art Deco and Art Moderne.
Goddeyne received other commissions in Alpena after completion of Bingham School. The school board engaged him again in 1936 to design a building for the Alpena Public Library. (The board applied for Works Progress Administration funds to help cover construction costs, but when the grant did not materialize, Alpena Public Schools’ budget was stretched too thin to finance the building. The George N. Fletcher Alpena County Library was built in 1974 from a
13 Law, Deloris and John Wesley, Home was Alpena, A Bicentennial Biography. Alpena: Village press, 1975, page 34. 14 The Saint James school was established in 1873 to serve elementary through high school grades. In 1968 the high school was merged with others in Bay City to form All Saints High School. According to the October 10, 2013, Bay City Times, “the old St. James building was used as part of the new high school campus.”
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design by Carnell, Callahan & Holt of Traverse City.) Goddeyne’s 1939 design for a new home for Alpena industrialist Jesse Besser incorporated custom pink-toned concrete blocks, an appropriate choice for the head of the Besser Company, long a driver of innovation in concrete block-forming machinery. The house was a stunningly modern addition to its neighborhood. Goddeyne also designed the clean-lined, modern 1940 building for Alpena General Hospital, which was partially financed with PWA funds.
The bulk of Goddeyne’s career was dedicated to designing churches and parochial schools throughout northeast Michigan. Perhaps because it was an early commission in his solo career, Bingham School is a rare example of a public school building designed by Goddeyne; the only one in the state that is attributed to him. Because of this and its unique Collegiate Gothic architecture, this is a truly rare building within Goddeyne’s list of accomplishments.
Several buildings designed by Goddeyne have been recognized as historically significant, many located in Bay City, Michigan. His 1933 Art Deco Bay County Courthouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places March 25, 1982, and his 1929 James Clements Airport Administration Building in the south end of Bay City, identified as Georgian Revival, was added November 22 of the same year. Three of his buildings – his own residence, constructed in 1939 and identified as Art Moderne; Farragut Elementary School, 1939, also identified as Art Moderne, and his sister Julia’s residence, 1950, identified as Modern – are contributing structures to Bay City’s Center Avenue Neighborhood Residential District, added to the National Register April 22, 1982 and expanded December 12, 2011. His Jesse Besser House was listed in the MichiganState Register of Historic Sites on July 21, 1988.
A list of identified works by Joseph C. Goddeyne is included in Appendix A.
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______9. Major Bibliographical References
Bibliography (Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form.)
American Architects Directory, edited George S. Koyle. New York: published under the sponsorship of American Institute of Architects, R. R. Bowker Company, 1962.
An Honor and an Ornament: Public School Buildings in Michigan. Lansing, Michigan: State Historic Preservation Office, September 2003.
Ashlee, Laura. Traveling Through Time: A Guide to Michigan’s Historical Markers. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, May 27, 2005.
Block, Diane, Poli, Matt and Stevens, Hans. “APS Field Study,” Alpena Public Schools, compiled during 2009-2010 school year, sites.google.com/a/alpenaschools.com/aps- field-study/home. Accessed July 10, 2010.
Boulton, William. Complete History Alpena County, Michigan. Alpena, Michigan: Argus Books and Job Rooms, 1876.
Coburn, Marc, Fukushige, Tatsuya, Gross, Evan, Jackson, Cory, Jones, Mark and Masserang, Elizabeth. Alpena Port & Community Asset Inventory. Michigan State University practicum project, 2012.
“Collegiate Gothic 1910 – 1950.” Department of Archaeology + Historic Preservation. dahp.wa.gov/historic-preservation/historic-buildings/architectural-style- guide/collegiate-gothic, accessed July 10, 2020.
Eckert, Kathryn Bishop. Buildings of Michigan. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 2012.
“Emil Lorch.” Michigan Modern: Design That Shaped America, www.michiganmodern.org/designers/emil-lorch, accessed January 10, 2020.
Haltiner, Robert E., with assistance from Ann Taber. The Town That Wouldn’t Die: A Photographic History of Alpena, Michigan from Its Beginnings Through 1940. Alpena. Michigan: Jesse Besser Museum, Alpena, Michigan, 1986.
Hopkins, Harry L., Administrator. WPA Projects Selected for Operation Through April 15, 1936. Prepared by Special Tabulation Unit Under Direction of Thomas B. Rhodes, May 25, 1936. Accessed at Archives of Michigan, Lansing, Michigan, November 22, 2019.
“Joseph C. Goddeyne AIA.” Mid-Century Modern Midland website, www.midcenturymidland.org/joseph-goddeyne-aia/, accessed August 30, 2019.
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Joseph C. Goddeyne Architectural Papers Finding Aid. Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan. (Index to drawings providing an overview of architect’s work.)
Kujawa, Robert, personal interview. August 27, 2019. (Mr. Kujawa is a longtime chronicler of Alpena schools and one-room schoolhouses across northern Michigan. His photo collection is archived at Alpena County George N. Fletcher Library.)
Law, Deloris and John Wesley. Home Was Alpena: A Bicentennial Biography. Alpena: Village Press, 1975.
Meyer, Robinson. “How Gothic Architecture Took Over the America College Campus.” The Atlantic, September 11, 2013. www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/how-gothic-architecture-took- over-the-american-college-campus/279287, accessed July 10, 2020.
McClanahan, Rue, My First Five Husbands… And the Ones Who Got Away. New York: Broadway Books, imprint of The Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, division of Random House, Inc., 2007.
Michigan Historic Sites Online (Alpena County). Michigan State Housing Development Authority, https://archive.is/20121224160132/http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/hso/advancematch. asp?&cname=&ctype=county&cnty=Alpena&srl=ON, accessed January 10, 2020.
“Northeast Michigan Council of Governments.” Discover Northeast Michigan website, www.discovernortheastmichigan.org/nemcog.asp, accessed January 27, 2020.
“Our Story.” St. John Lutheran Church (Houghton Lake). www.stjohnhl.com/story, accessed September 26, 2019.
Peterson, Elaine H, Architectural Historian, Evelyn Tidlow, Project Manager. “Architects and Builders of the Local Historic District,” Expanded Center Avenue Local Historic District Bay City, Bay County Michigan. On behalf of the City of Bay City and the Center Avenue Local Historic District Study Committee, prepared by Commonwealth Cultural Resources Group, Inc, September 2011.
Rosentreter, Roger L. “Roosevelt’s Tree Army: Michigan’s Civilian Conservation Corps.” Michigan History Center. www.michigan.gov/mhc/0,9075,7-361-85147 87219 87222-472998-,00.html, accessed December 2, 2019.
“Series XVII. Miscellaneous Agencies, No. 21. Michigan,” Inventory of Federal Archives in the States. Detroit, Michigan: prepared by The Survey of Federal Archives Division of Community Service Projects, Works Projects Administration, The Michigan Historical Records Survey, 1942
Sections 9-end page 22
“State Police Post (former) – Alpena MI.” Living New Deal website, www.livingnewdeal.org/projects/old-msp-post-alpena-mi/, accessed September 26, 2019.
Stephan, Otto. The Concrete Century: Inspiring Concrete Innovation for One Hundred Years. Alpena, Michigan: Besser Company, 2004.
Taylor, Nick. American-Made: The enduring Legacy of the WPA, When FDR Put the Nation to Work. New York: Bantam Dell, 2008.
White, Ella M. A Century in the Alpena Schools. Alpena, Michigan: published by popular subscription sponsored by the Alpena News, 1959.
Newspapers
“Avery Is Razed.” Alpena News. December 11, 1978.
“APS has exited several buildings, but most are still in use.” Alpena News. November 4, 2019.
“Back Goes the Clock as Alumni of Oldest Alpena Schools Talk Things Over.” Alpena News. July 20, 1926. (Chronological list of pre-1900 schools in Alpena, along with building costs)
“Equips Youth for Careers of Future: Notre Dame Graduates Class of Nearly Hundred.” South Bend Tribune. June 13, 1911.
“Goddeyne preparing plans for new courthouse.” Tawas Herald. April 25, 1952.
“Hubbard Memorial Hospital Plans Expansion Program.” Times Herald (Port Huron). June 21, 1946.
“New Caseville Church Holds Mass Sunday.” Times Herald (Port Huron). March 16, 1956.
“New seminary is planned for diocese.” Sebewaing Blade. May 9, 1957.
“On Stage!” Detroit Free Press. August 10, 1952. (Detailing first season of Jatoma Players summer stock theater)
“Progress 2019: A brief historical overview of local industries.” Alpena News. December 31, 2019.
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“Proposed New South Side Grade School.” Alpena News. November 11, 1935 (byline J. C. Goddeyne, Architect).
“St. Josephs Church Observes 25th Anniversary on Sunday.” Sebewaing Blade and Unionville Crescent. June 24, 1965.
“Tear Down Cass School Structure Built 61 Years Ago.” Alpena News. September 23, 1945.
“Unionville to Have Catholic Church: Contract for New Edifice to be Let Soon.” Sebewaing Blade. November 17, 1939.
“When Alpena dressed America's women.” Alpena News. February 4, 2019.
“WPA Projects in Michigan, 1935-1943.” Detroit News. October 6, 2018.
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______Previous documentation on file (NPS):
__X_ preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67) has been requested ____ previously listed in the National Register ____ previously determined eligible by the National Register ____ designated a National Historic Landmark ____ recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey #______recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # ______recorded by Historic American Landscape Survey # ______
Primary location of additional data: __X__ State Historic Preservation Office ____ Other State agency ____ Federal agency ____ Local government ____ University ____ Other Name of repository: ______
Historic Resources Survey Number (if assigned): ______
______10. Geographical Data
Acreage of Property ___1.25______
Use either the UTM system or latitude/longitude coordinates
Latitude/Longitude Coordinates Datum if other than WGS84:______(enter coordinates to 6 decimal places) 1. Latitude: 45.062533 Longitude: -83.441921
2. Latitude: Longitude:
3. Latitude: Longitude:
4. Latitude: Longitude:
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Or UTM References Datum (indicated on USGS map):
NAD 1927 or NAD 1983
1. Zone: Easting: Northing:
2. Zone: Easting: Northing:
3. Zone: Easting: Northing:
4. Zone: Easting : Northing:
Verbal Boundary Description (Describe the boundaries of the property.)
Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7, and the alley lying between Lots 2 and 7 on the Southwesterly side and Lots 3 and 5 on the Northeasterly side, Block 117, of G.N. FLETCHER'S SECOND ADDITION TO THE CITY OF ALPENA, according to the plat thereof as recorded in Liber 1 of Plats, pages 17 and 18, Alpena County Records,
Boundary Justification (Explain why the boundaries were selected.)
This is the traditional boundary that has defined the school’s property since the building was built.
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11. Form Prepared By name/title: _ Grace A.M. Smith_and Sue Osgood ______organization: _ Designsmiths ______street & number: _200 East Division Street______city or town: _Rockford______state: _MI______zip code: _49341_____ e-mail: [email protected]______telephone: _(616) 866-4089______date: _March 25, 2020______
______
Additional Documentation
Submit the following items with the completed form:
• Maps: A USGS map or equivalent (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the property's location.
• Sketch map for historic districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources. Key all photographs to this map.
• Additional items: (Check with the SHPO, TPO, or FPO for any additional items.)
Photographs Submit clear and descriptive photographs. The size of each image must be 1600x1200 pixels (minimum), 3000x2000 preferred, at 300 ppi (pixels per inch) or larger. Key all photographs to the sketch map. Each photograph must be numbered and that number must correspond to the photograph number on the photo log. For simplicity, the name of the photographer, photo date, etc. may be listed once on the photograph log and doesn’t need to be labeled on every photograph.
Photo Log
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Name of Property: Bingham School
City or Vicinity: Alpena
County: Alpena State: Michigan
Photographer: Grace A.M. Smith
Date Photographed: August 27, 2019
Description of Photograph(s) and number, include description of view indicating direction of camera:
1 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0001) South elevation looking north 2 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0002) West and south elevations looking due north 3 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0003) West elevation looking east 4 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0004) North and west elevations looking due east 5 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0005) North elevations looking south 6 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0006) North and east elevations looking due south 7 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0007) South and east elevations looking due west 8 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0008) East entrance of the south elevation 9 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0009) West entrance of the north elevation 10 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0010) First floor corridor looking east 11 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0011) Second floor corridor looking west 12 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0012) Auditorium/Gymnasium looking east toward stage 13 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0013) Typical classroom, first floor 14 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0014) Kindergarten classroom, first floor 15 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0015) Typical classroom, second floor 16 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0016) Typical stairway
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17 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0017) Stairway detail 18 of 18 (MI_AlpenaCounty_BinghamSchool_0018) Interior transom in vestibules
Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C.460 et seq.). Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 100 hours per response including time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Office of Planning and Performance Management. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1849 C. Street, NW, Washington, DC.
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