The Donovan School
1909-1939
Students from Mrs. Semrau's Class focused on the history of the Donovan School. They thought like historians throughout this project. Their thinking culminated in the creation of a historical marker for public display. 8th-grade students from Ms. Bednar's African American Studies class helped them to create a podcast. Listen to their podcast here!
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Donovan School
The Kellogg Eye Center parking structure around where Donovan School used to be
Have you ever heard of some of the schools in Lower Town? Union School was around in 1855 but it was not part of Ann Arbor until 1861. Union School was changed to Fifth Ward in 1861. In 1909, Donovan School replaced Fifth Ward School, which was one of the oldest schools in Ann Arbor.
Donovan School was named after Patrick Donovan, a grocer who had a store in Lower Town. There was a bucket of water and a ladle that kids shared to drink water. In the crawlspace of the school, water would get stuck and turn mossy and yucky. Across the river, there were slaughterhouses and flies would get into Donovan School. Katherine Harrington was a principal at Donovan and later became principal at Northside. Where Donovan School was is now a parking structure for Kellogg Eye Center.
The Lower Town neighborhood was integrated. There were homes in the Northside neighborhood that were part of the Underground Railroad that helped slaves. The slaves would run to the next safe house in the dark. Beckley Park is named after Guy Beckley who helped with the Underground Railroad.
Students learning at Donovan School
Lower Town
Historical marker by 2023-2024 first-grade students at A2 STEAM @ Northside School