Location: 43.04347, -83.36181, at 3496 Davison Rd, Lapeer, MI.
Clover School (Elba District No 3) built 1884, is now used for AA meetings. This rectangular red-brick schoolhouse on a concrete foundation is in great shape and is well-maintained. There is no remaining belltower or school bell, but the original plaque above the front door reads "District No 3 Elba, 1884".
There are 3 large windows on both sides (one converted into a door) and 2 large windows in the front, one on either side of the massive arched front door which includes a half-circle transom window and a small window on either side of the door. The arch above the front door is decorated with two rows of projecting bricks laid edge on, except for the bottom brick on each side of the arch which is laid normally (this is easiest to see by clicking the 4th photo below). Inside that arch of projecting bricks is an identical 2-row arch of non-projecting bricks.
Another interesting feature of the brickwork in this school is the "arches" above the windows. Normally, these would be similar to the arch above the front door that we've already observed, except they would be flatter. An easy example to see is the projecting arches above the windows of Brick School in Kalamazoo County. Click the first photo on that page and notice the projecting brick arches above the windows. Detray School is a similar example except the bricks forming the arch are not projecting. Examples of this type of brick arch above windows is plentiful throughout my pages of Michigan Schoolhouses. However, the "arches" above the windows of Clover School (perhaps easiest to see by expanding the 2nd photo below) aren't arches at all. They're actually trapezoid shapes, formed with bricks radiating from a point in the middle of the window. Now there are other schools that have their above-window arches made of radiating bricks, like Marlette District No 2 School and Nottawa Stone School (Nottawa District No 3), but those are arch-shaped on both the bottom and the top of the arch. I have only encountered this type of trapezoid-shaped arch in one other Michigan schoolhouse, Ackley School.
