(TROY,
MI) – The Troy Museum
& Historic Village is hosting a Poppleton School
Reunion on Saturday, September 13 at 11
am. This annual reunion held at the
old school house is open to everyone who attended Poppleton
before it closed in 1976.
Built in
1877 near the northwest corner of Big Beaver and Crooks Roads, Poppleton School was named for William Poppleton
who owned 1,200 acres of land in Troy. Children approximately eight to fourteen
years old attended classes in the one-room school.
“One
teacher taught all ages reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, penmanship,
history and geography,” Museum Director Loraine Campbell said. “Boys sat on one side of the school, and
girls sat on the other side. The students often shared books like the
McGuffey's Reader.”
Campbell
said visitors enjoy sitting in the desks, looking at the reproduction
schoolbooks, and imagine attending school over 125 years ago. Former students enjoy sharing fond memories
of their student experiences. The Museum
takes advantage of the event to be sure student names are captured in its
official records.
Campbell
notes it was necessary to dismantle Poppleton School
to relocate it in the Village in 1980.
“It was too
heavy, over 83 tons, to take across the I-75 overpass and too tall to fit
underneath it,” she said.
The Museum is located at 60 W. Wattles Rd. (NW corner of
Wattles and Livernois). For more
information, call 248.524.3570.
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