Snell School, Winsor Township, Huron County, Michigan

Location: withheld since this is now a private residence.

Snell School was built in 1933 to replace a school that was built in 1880 but burned down in 1932. It was closed in 1955 and is now a private residence (it was back in 1981, too). It was once a two-room schoolhouse with three windows in each schoolroom in the front and a sliding curtain in the middle to join the two rooms into one if needed. The current owner says there were very large windows on each side of the building providing light to the two classrooms. They were 8-10 feet tall and 25-30 feet wide! The back wall of the schoolhouse held the chalk boards. The main schoolroom floor had ceilings that were 12-feet tall. The building had a basement which was 9 feet tall; a basement is very unusual for schoolhouses of that era. The basement is split in half: one side houses the furnaces and old coal room, and the other side had a gym with two basketball hoops. There are also two huge cisterns in the basement for collection of rain water, but the current owner just uses them for storage. The building has a hipped roof with what was once a bell tower at the peak. The current owner tells me "The ladder to get into the bell house is still there; during the holidays I use the bell house to hold lights and props". What a nice man he seems to be! He adds, "I put the windows in the bell house when we bought the schoolhouse since there was just a hatch up there and tons of bird nests". I don't blame him! This schoolhouse looks very similar to Barron Lake School, Beech Road School and Kilmanagh School to me.

    
Snell School, 1880-1933 is now a private residence. It was once a two-room schoolhouse.
    
Snell School, 1880-1933, now a private residence, at the northeast corner of Bay Port Rd and Weale Rd, in Winsor Township, Huron County, Michigan

The current (2021) owner of Snell School has graciously sent me these photographs to share with you. They were taken before he bought the property in 2014. The beam in the 2nd shot was the dividing point between the two schoolrooms. The divider is unfortunately gone. The prior owners left one desk which the current owner's son uses today from time to time.

    

    

    

    

Thank you for sending these photos!


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