Location: 42.65562, -85.51892
Moe School is the oldest one-room schoolhouse in Barry County. It was built in the 1850s and was located on the corner of Parmelee Road and Moe Road near Middleville Michigan. In later years, it was a meeting place for ladies groups. In the 1980s, it was sitting dormant and deteriorating. It was bought for $1.00 by Hazel McCall, who had been a teacher in the school when she was young, and who purchased it for the historical park of Historic Bowen's Mills in Middleville, Michigan. The schoolhouse was restored on its original site enough to enable it to be moved the 10 miles to the mills property, then moved onto its new stone foundation waiting there, where more restoration was done, including siding repair, a new bell tower, and interior restoration.
When I visited the schoolhouse in October of 2021, I couldn't find it at the GPS coordinates I had for it. There was just an old home at those coordinates which didn't really look much like a schoolhouse. But there were some people outdoors nearby at what was probably a wedding rehearsal, and I was able to ask where Moe School was located. A very kind man, perhaps the owner, Owen Sabin, walked over to me and answered my question by pointing to Moe School in the distance and granting me permission to step over his fence and walk over to the schoolhouse to take some photos. It's a rectangular wooden schoolhouse painted white with a single off-center door on the front face and 3 windows on either side of the building. It has a bell tower at the front of it's roof peak, with a school bell inside. It's protected by a green metal roof. There is an outhouse behind the schoolhouse. I thank the owner who allowed me onto his property to photograph this school.
