Location: 42.02870, -84.16138, at 8507 M-50, near Onsted, MI.
Springville School (Cambridge District No 1) was built in 1882 as a red-brick schoolhouse on a fieldstone foundation. It was used recently as a craft shop, but with newspapers in the windows today, in 2017. No bell tower remains, though one shows in this undated photograph. The schoolhouse was originally a rectangular structure on a fieldstone foundation with 3 large arched windows on each side, however the back half of one side has been covered by a long wood-frame addition making the total building L-shaped and covering one-and-a-half of the windows. The brickwork arches over the side windows are a single non-projecting row of bricks cut in half, pointing toward a spot near the center of the window. The front brickwork is more imaginative. Above the two windows are 3 half-circles of progressively projecting nearly-black bricks laid on-edge, on-edge, then on-edge turned 90 degrees. The same pattern is used in a larger half-circle above the front door, except it has a keystone at the top with the school identification sign, "District No 1, 1882". Enclosing the entire front face of the building is a larger nearly-black brick arch of 4 half-circles of projecting bricks. When that arch reaches the top of the windows and door, it turns into red brick which progresses as a straight column to the foundation. Bricks painted white form the "Springville" sign just inside the outer arch, and surrounding the doorway, making for some impactful decoration of this schoolhouse.
