X Marks Riverview School

The old one room schoolhouses were part of the community in many ways. They educated the next generations and were frequently a gathering place for community functions. The Riverview School on the west side of Lowell also had another role, that of standing guard over a historical site.

The brick schoolhouse was built in 1874 and was located on today’s M-21, Fulton Street, just east of Cumberland Avenue.

As was common in the one room schoolhouse days, schools would gather and compete in different ways. In 1928 the District No. 2 Boys Glee Club won a competition, and their prize was an indoor baseball and bat! Riverview participated with other Lowell area schools in track meets at Recreation Park. In 1941 it was reported that Riverview School won the relay trophy for the third successive year.

The school had a Junior Audubon Society. This bird club sponsored community gatherings. One program in 1947 contained musical entertainment, a bird quiz, and the showing of a movie by a representative from the Kent County Humane Society. The children involved were Joyce Perin, Anna Friedll, William Serne, John Oliver Mathews, Jannis Jessup, Etheldra Perin, William Richter, and Caroline Hobart. Refreshments were served by parents Mrs. Harry Mathews, Mrs. William Serne, and Mrs. Arthur Hobart.

Lowell District No 2. school wasn’t simply a school; it became the name for the community on the west of Lowell. In the early newspapers, communities would submit a weekly column telling of the happenings in the neighborhood. These were titled with the names of the area, such as “Vergennes Center” and “Morse Lake”. The west Lowell column was titled “Lowell District No. 2” and told of community news, not simply school news.

Two known teachers at Riverview were Marie Roth and Jeanne Biggs. Marie Roth taught at Riverview in 1916 and went on to train as a nurse. She married Carl Gross in 1920 but died three weeks later of meningitis. Marie left a scrapbook that includes photos of the Riverview school and student body from 1916. Jeanne Biggs taught at Riverview in 1950 when she put together a series of radio programs, fittingly, on the history of Lowell.
In addition to the responsibilities of a school, this little schoolhouse was described by Henry H. Tinkham in 1915 as a guard of the historic trading post of Madame Laframboise. He wrote that the school notifies travelers that they are "amid historic surroundings.” The cabin was located on the north bank of the Grand River on ground “almost within the shadow of the little square brick school on the Ada-Lowell Road.” Tinkham points out that when the schoolhouse was built, the remnants of the stone chimney of the trading post were still standing. He then used the opportunity to keep the memory of the Laframboise family alive. He reminded readers of Joseph and Magdelaine trading with the Odawa villages along the Grand River. In Kent County they had posts both in Grand Rapids with a cabin built by local chiefs and then just west of today’s Lowell. Tragically Joseph was killed in 1806, and Magdalena continued the business with her “extraordinary intelligence and ability”, as stated by Tinkham. Her children were sent to Montreal to be educated. Her daughter Josette married Captain Benjamin K. Pierce, at the time he was in charge of the Mackinac Island Fort. Benjamin’s brother Franklin would later become president of the United States. Madame’s son Joseph also went into the fur trade and also worked as an interpreter for the native people. Called Madame out of respect for her widowhood, this remarkable woman spent her later years on Mackinac Island and is buried there, beneath the alter of St. Anne’s church, in a museum dedicated to her memory.

The trading post is gone; the chimney is likely a pile of rocks so commonly found and now even the school is gone. On May 28, 1958, the community voted to annex the school to the Lowell School System. The building was then sold by bid in 1960. Thankfully the memories remain as many people over the years, such as Pinkham, have documented and preserved them.

For additional information on the fur trade and Madame Laframboise, please visit the displays at the Lowell Area Historical Museum and the Fur Trade Cabin replica at the Lowell Township North Riverfront Park.

Images:

Lowell District No. 2-Riverview School

Teacher and students, February 14, 1916

"January Thaw, 1916"

Riverview School students

Marie Roth
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Marie Roth, graduation