Driving down Michigan back roads always brings new sights, new adventures. Like old one-room schoolhouses that still stand, all by themselves, in various locations in the vast Michigan countryside. Well, here's another one that I recently found out about

It's believed to be one of the oldest one-room schoolhouses in Michigan, still standing all by itself in Lenawee County.

It's called the Wooden Schoolhouse – not because it's made of wood, but because it was constructed by the Reverend Robert Wooden in 1850. The school is located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Stephenson Road and Hawkins Highway, northwest of Onsted and not far from the Irish Hills area.

Made out of fieldstone, the school held classes for 105 years: 1850 to 1955. Afterward it sat empty for over 20 years and was deteriorating rapidly. Officials in Cambridge County set their sights on demolishing the old school, until residents and former school children banded together and formed the Wooden Old Stone School Association in 1983. The group then proceeded to fix up the old one-roomer and by 1989 it was in good shape.

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Not only that, but the old school was given its own Historical Marker. It reads, in part, “In 1850 the Reverend Robert Wooden built this school, located in Cambridge School District No. 6. It is an example of early fieldstone construction, commonly found in the southern part of the Lower Peninsula.” Most of the rest you already read in the script above.

The old Wooden schoolhouse is said to be the oldest one-room school still standing in Lenawee County, and one of the oldest in the entire state. Fans of the schoolhouse and local residents feel that it is THE oldest in the state...however, the old cobblestone one-room school in Ionia County was built three years earlier, in 1847.

Check out the school's Facebook page HERE to find out about current events and when you can possibly take a peek inside! Very cool.

The Wooden One-Room Schoolhouse

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The Old Kilmanagh General Store

Abandoned Calumet Radar Base

Abandoned Stone Building in Bay Shore

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