Location: 43.33279, -82.87459, on the north side of Marlette Road just west of Melvin Road.
Laurel School has had it's school identification sign above the front door removed, so it's year of construction is no longer easily known. It's a brick schoolhouse and it looks like it originally had 3 windows on each side, with a furnace located in the back of the building. It looks like a vestibule was added onto the front of the building, adding a fourth window to each side. The front face has a single centered door and a small window that's been bricked-over. Simple concrete window sills and lentils are employed, but a double row of bricks forms an arch above the door and the missing school identification sign. No bell-tower remains, and the chimney is leaning toward the inside of the building enough that it might soon collapse. A large sliding door has been added to one side, suggesting that the schoolhouse is now used for storage of some large, probably farm, equipment.
The Laurel Church stands right next door to the school. The community of Laurel, Michigan, was centered on these two buildings in the long-ago past. It's post office was located inside Lester J. Billings' store, which opened in 1891 and closed in 1905. Robert Drysdale owned the grocery store. The community had no bank. All that remains of the old community is this church and the one-room schoolhouse next door.
