Michigan School for the Blind, Lansing Michigan

History of Michigan School for the Blind

The Michigan School for the Blind was a dedicated attempt by the State of Michigan to effectively educate the blind population in a segregated educational setting to better accommodate their need for training and instruction. The philosophy of a specific educational setting for the blind reflects the broad pattern statewide and nationally in the late nineteenth to late twentieth century before the change in education practices of the late twentieth century, when the blind population was incorporated into mainstream educational systems. The early twentieth-century architecture reflects the popular revival style of educational institutions of that period and the design of buildings sited around a quad reflects the typical design of educational campuses popular at that time. The second major period of construction and growth of the campus is exemplified by the popular clean-lined Modern Movement school designs of the 1960s with adaptable and light-filled interiors.

Early Education of Visually-Impaired Students

The first modern attempt at educating blind students was at school founded in Paris in 1785 by Valentin Haiiy, who is considered to be a pioneer in the field. Haiiy established what is now known as the L'Institution National des Jeunes Aveugles (the National Institution for the Young Blind) in Paris in 1784. Two years later, he published a treatise, Essai sur L'Education des Aveugles (Essay on the Education of the Blind), in which he laid out his methods of instruction for visually impaired learners. By 1790, Haiiy's ideas spread to England, where a school was founded in Liverpool, then in 1804 to Vienna, Austria, and in 1806 to Berlin, Germany.

In the United States the first school for the blind opened in 1829 when John D. Fisher, who had visited Haiiy in Paris, established the New England Asylum for the Blind (now the Perkins School for the Blind) in Boston; a school authorized and partially funded by the Massachusetts legislature. New York and Philadelphia soon followed with schools created there in 1832 and 1833. Other states subsequently organized their own schools, with twenty created between 1837 and 1867. The educational goal of these schools was to help blind persons to function in society.

An emphasis was placed on developing ways for the blind to read and to train them for tactile occupations, such as broom making.

Braille, a system of reading and writing invented by Louis Braille (1809-1852) for use by the blind, was completed by him in 1824 when he was fifteen years old. Blinded by a childhood accident, Braille was first a student, then a teacher at the Paris school, which did not teach his method until after his death. The United States schools used two prominent systems, the Boston Line Letter and the New York Point System, which dominated American schools for the blind until the twentieth century. The Boston system was developed circa 1835 at the New England Asylum for the Blind (now the Perkins School for the Blind) by its first director, Samuel Gridley Howe. William Bell Wait developed the New York system, circa 1868, at the New York Institute for the Blind.

The first American school to use Braille was the Missouri School for the Blind in Saint Louis in 1860. Braille came into widespread use in 1892 when Frank H. Hall, associated with the Illinois School for the Blind, demonstrated his Braille typewriter at a convention of the American Association of Instructors for the Blind. By 1879, the federal government was funding the American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, Kentucky.

Early Education of Blind Students in Michigan

Michigan was the sixteenth state to establish a school for the deaf, dumb - i.e. those unable to speak - and blind when Public Act 217 of 1848 authorized the Michigan Asylum for Educating the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind. This was at the instigation of then-Governor Epaphroditus Ransom, who had a deaf niece. The board appointed to oversee the construction of the school was the same board overseeing the construction of the Michigan Asylum for the Insane. Three Michigan communities, Romeo, Flint, and Kalamazoo, offered land, money, and building supplies for the two institutions. The board chose Flint for the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, and Kalamazoo for the Asylum for the Insane.

Funding for the school was slow to develop. The legislature set aside state lands to be sold with the money going to fund the school, but the land sales did not generate enough revenue. In 1850 the board asked the legislature to follow the example of New York in allocating a proportionate amount of funding from the common school fund. In 1851, the board visited schools in the eastern United States, including the Perkins Institute in Boston, to determine best practices for educating those who would attend the Flint asylum. From these trips, the board determined that a combined school for the deaf and blind did not provide the ideal educational environment but, due to funding difficulties, it concluded only to recommend that separate classrooms be constructed.

By the time the Flint school opened in 1854, a new board had been appointed to specifically manage that institution separately from the Asylum for the Insane. The first principal was the Reverend Barnabas M. Fay, who had been associated with the Indiana Institution for the Blind, and earlier with the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb in New York. The school initially had twelve students, one of whom was blind. The students were taught to read and write, and learned the same subjects as their counterparts in the public school.

Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876) - physician, abolitionist, and advocate for the education of the blind founded the Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind (now the Perkins School for the Blind) in 1829. This was the first school for the blind in the United States. During the 1830s and 1840s, Howe developed the school from a state to a regional institution. He traveled with blind pupils around the country, demonstrating the students' skills in reading, writing, and musical performance. These tours influenced the establishment of public facilities for the education of the blind in other states.

Two tenets of Howe's work made his school the model for subsequent institutions. First was the belief that an educated blind person was not extraordinary and that a basic education should be available to all regardless of disability. Second was the demonstration of this belief by his personal instruction of Laura Bridgman, a young deaf, blind, and mute child, who came to the school in 1837. Howe taught her to read and write - the first person with deaf blindness who was so taught. Another successful example of Howe's teaching methods was a well-known graduate of the Perkins School, Anne Sullivan, who would become the teacher and life-companion of Helen Keller.

The curriculum at the Perkins School was focused on intellectual, physical, and music education with the intent to provide every blind student with a well-rounded education. Edward E. Allen, director of the school, stated in the 1907 Annual Report that "Hopefulness is a state of mind dependent on physical vitality. Unless the institution imparts such vitality it imparts nothing - its work is useless."

Educational Development at the Michigan School for the Blind

The Michigan School for the Blind in large part followed the methods of the Perkins School. Its students were taught mathematics, literature, history, and the sciences using the Braille system, as well as geography using tactile maps and globes, following the curriculum of the public schools. Music, both instrumental and vocal, and physical activity were an important part of the educational program.

As in other state schools for the blind, students were also taught productive occupations such as broom and brush making, piano tuning and repair, and printing for the males and domestic arts and sewing for the females. Students also learned practical skills at the farm and dairy operated by the school, which also provided food for the institution.

Attendance at the school grew steadily, with an opening enrollment of thirty-three students in 1880 to over one hundred in 1896. The school was advertised in newspapers throughout Michigan, and by 1897, the youngest age of admittance was seven. In 1902, Clarence F. Holmes became superintendent of the school. Believing that education for the blind should be compulsory, he first expanded the course offerings and began to separate the students into grades. Along with the school's board of control, he requested that the legislature require that school superintendents from around the state conduct a census of blind children in their districts and to require that those children attend the School for the Blind. At that time blind and deaf children were exempt from being required to attend public school. In 1907, the legislature amended Michigan's Compulsory Education Act by (Public Act 116 of 1907) to require that district superintendents provide a list of names of blind and deaf children between the ages of seven and nineteen, and that those children be required to attend the respective state schools for the blind and the deaf unless certain exceptions were met. Children meeting the exceptions were: 1) being educated privately or in a parochial school; 2) physically or mentally incompetent; 3) over seventeen and employed; 4) employed at the Michigan Employment Institution for the Blind in Saginaw. Each biennial report listed the names of the children attending the school, as well as the names of children in each county that were blind, but not attending the state school. The mandatory requirement for blind children to attend the school further increased enrollment. By 1916, there were 151 students at the school, and by the 1950s the student population was at its largest at 300.

The Michigan Employment Institution for the Blind was established under Public Act 169 of 1903, and was opened in Saginaw in 1904 for the training and employment of adult blind men and women between the ages of eighteen and sixty, thus meeting the need of blind citizens once they had completed their secondary education, or if they had become blind in adulthood. The institution offered a residential apprentice program in various trades and occupations such as broom making, piano repair and tuning, carpet, rug and linen weaving, and chair caning. Reading and writing in various forms of raised or dot letters was taught, as well as typewriting. Vocal and instrumental music were also taught. Those who completed the apprenticeship program could choose to remain at the institution and work for wages or leave to ply a trade. Products manufactured at the institute were sold to the public and the income used to support the programs, in addition to an annual appropriation from the state. The institution also maintained a free circulating library for blind readers in Michigan.

Under the leadership of Clarence Holmes, Michigan School for the Blind musical program was expanded and high school age students were offered classes that mirrored those of the public schools, including Latin and Greek, and that prepared them for further education. At the time of Holmes retirement in 1934, nineteen students continued to reside at the school while attending Michigan State College. A commercial track offered classes in typing, business arithmetic, commercial English, and bookkeeping in addition to the regular classes to prepare students for commercial employment.

As did the Perkins School and other state schools for the blind, the Michigan School for the Blind taught students printing and operated a Braille publishing business. A December 7^th, 1913, Detroit Free Press article noted that the school operated a large circulating library, published The Beacon, a monthly periodical in Braille, and maintained a three-thousand-volume Braille library at the school. Students at the school also published Braille textbooks for the Oklahoma, California, New York City, and Seattle schools for the blind on a press designed for the purpose by Holmes.

Before World War II, the manual training department placed graduates in the furniture factories of Grand Rapids; and in the Detroit automobile factories. Other students worked for small businesses repairing furniture, weaving or repairing rugs, printing, or tuning pianos.

All students were instructed in music and were taught to read Braille music. They were offered individual lessons on the piano, organ, and violin, as well as vocal music. Graduates of the school became music teachers, joined orchestras, or went to college for further training. The school choir and individual musicians gave performances around the state. Jack Chard (1917-1979), first enrolled in the Michigan School for the Blind at five years old. He graduated from the school in 1934. Chard graduated from Michigan State College (MSC) with a bachelor's degree in music in 1939. Over the next several years, Chard worked as a Braille transcriber with the Works Progress Administration, and as an instructor at the school. In 1949, he received a master's degree in music education from Michigan State College. He became the director of the music department at the Michigan School for the Blind in 1954, and began entering the band in the Michigan School Band and Orchestra competitions in 1955. This competition was open to all high school bands. The Michigan School for the Blind band earned fourteen number-one and three number-two ratings over the next seventeen years, and received numerous awards for their performances. In 1959, Chard trained his band to march and it became one of only three such bands in the country, and in 1966, the band traveled throughout the state to perform. He was chosen as the 1971 Teacher of the Year by the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association. Chard served as the music director for the school for thirty-four years before his retirement in 1978.

Team sports were a natural outgrowth of the school's early physical education programs. In 1930, it was the first school for the blind in the country to have an interscholastic athletic program. The schools' football and basketball teams played in regular class D competition. Ball teams were eventually discontinued in favor of wrestling and track, which allowed more student participation. In 1932, Floyd Austin, a school graduate, was a starter on the Michigan State wrestling team. By 1957, the school had three additional graduates who started on the Michigan State team. During the 1960s, the wrestling team was successful in competing against both blind and sighted opponents, winning Class B state championships in 1961 and 1963, and won additional championships in the North Central Association of Schools of the Blind, an athletic conference made up of Midwestern teams. The school's wrestling coach, Fran Hetherington, was named Coach of the Year by the Michigan Interscholastic Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association in 1963, and was inducted into the Michigan Wrestling Association Hall of Fame in 1978 for his achievements at the School for the Blind.

Active physical exercise was encouraged and students were offered instruction in swimming, gymnastics, bowling, and roller skating as non-competitive sports.

In 1974 Mark Warchol, a 15-year-old sophomore at the school, set a national record in the 600-yard restricted run. The team won the title among twelve other schools for the blind throughout the Midwest.

Architecture & the Development of the Michigan School for the Blind Campus

Recognizing that blind students faced different needs than those that were deaf or dumb, the Michigan state legislature created a separate school for the blind in 1879. Much as the original board did when the School for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind was created, the board appointed by the legislature to oversee the School for the Blind visited schools for the blind in other states to study best practices. One school visited was the Wisconsin School for the Blind in Janesville, Wisconsin, which began as a private school in 1854. After a fire in 1874, the school had been rebuilt and thus provided a modern building for the Michigan board to examine. In 1880, the board reviewed proposals from several communities throughout the state and chose to accept an offer from the International Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) to lease its large building and property in the City of Lansing. Initially, this was to be a temporary location for the school, as the board did not want another institution in Lansing. However, when the Odd Fellows offered the property for sale, the state purchased it in 1881.

The Michigan Female College (1857-1869) Era

The school building on the Odd Fellows property was originally built in 1857 for the Michigan Female College, which was founded by Abigail C. and Delia Rogers. The sisters were daughters of educators and, after unsuccessfully lobbying the University of Michigan to accept women students, secured private gifts to create the college in Lansing. However, the college never secured state funding and closed when Abigail Rogers died in 1869. The property, comprised of forty-five acres, was donated to the I.O.O.F.

The International Order of the Odd Fellows (1869-1881) Era

Despite the I.O.O.F. reconstruction of the college building, located on the site of the existing administration building, to house a charitable and benevolent institute for the relief of its members and their children, the organization was never financially able to successfully operate the large home and thus offered the property to the State of Michigan for the School for the Blind.

The Early Years (1881-1912) of the Michigan School for the Blind

Once the state owned the property, the main building was remodeled and expanded, and supporting buildings and an engine house were constructed. In 1883, two wings were added to the main building, and a chapel, superintendent's house, and a barn were constructed. None of these buildings are extant.

The First Expansion (1912-1924) of the Michigan School for the Blind

The growth in enrollment required more facilities. In 1912, Lansing architect Edwin A. Bowd was retained to design a new school building (the existing high school building). According to the Board of Control report in The Fifteenth Biennial Report of the Board of Control of the Michigan School for the Blind from July 1^st, 1908, to June 30^th, 1910, the new school was the first separate building specifically constructed for blind education in the United States. The three-story Neoclassical Revival building, located to the southeast of the main building, displayed a typical public school floor plan of the time with classrooms opening off a central hallway and stairs at each end of the building. The design apparently made no special accommodations for blind students, but instead represented current broad trends in education and architectural design of the era.

In 1914, Bowd designed a new superintendent's house, located toward the east (front) of the property, to replace the previous superintendent's house, which had been converted to a dormitory.

The original main building from the I.O.O.F. era contained a combination of administrative offices, classrooms, and student housing. By the early twentieth century it was viewed as unsafe from a fire standpoint. In response, Bowd was again called upon to design a fireproof building that would serve the same uses and nearly match the footprint of the original building. The existing main administration building was constructed in three phases, with the north and central portions of the original building demolished first. The central section of the new building was constructed in 1916, the north wing in 1918, and the south wing in 1924. The building housed school offices, a dormitory, and larger rooms for instruction and gathering, such as the gymnasium at the north end and centrally-located common areas on the upper floors.

In 1917, the Michigan School for the Blind was transferred to the State Department of Social Welfare, and by 1925, there were 180 students at the school. In 1937, the school was transferred to the State Board of Education.

Post-World War II (1946-1970)

The post-1937 period of the Michigan School for the Blind brought as many changes to the physical fabric of the campus as the state budget would allow. In 1943 the State Board of Education prepared Postwar Public Works Program for the Michigan School for the Blind, which was sent to the governor of Michigan, Murray Van Wagoner. The letter stated:

The Michigan School for the Blind is a contradiction in architecture. Portions of it are modern and in good condition. Some of the buildings are remnants of occupancy by the State Oddfellow's Home, and even before that of the Misses Rodger's Female Seminary (sic). As would be expected, these older buildings are no longer suitable in which to educate handicapped children. This program envisions the replacement of these older units.

These requests were not due to an expected increase in enrollment, but a recognition of the need for the improvement in the physical state of the school, as the report goes on further to state:

Thus began a series of budget requests to improve the facilities of the school; to modernize, add safety features, and fire-proof the buildings, and add additional structures to the campus. In 1950, the food and laundry service building was the first constructed under this campaign. It replaced laundry and kitchen facilities that had been housed in a remaining wing of the Oddfellow's building. Lee Black and Kenneth C. Black designed the Vocational Building (later known as Lion's Hall now demolished), the second building to be constructed in 1952. The Health Center requested was constructed in 1956 (demolished), replacing a building dating from 1901.

The main administration and high school buildings were altered in 1954 by Lee Black and Kenneth C. Black, a Lansing, Michigan architectural firm to alter interior space and meet safety codes. In the main administration building rear stair towers were added, and the central interior stair was enclosed to meet safety requirements, and in the high school the north entry was closed off and other interior alterations made.

An increase in the number of blind children and eventually the student population at the school in the mid-twentieth century was due to retrolental fibroplasia, blindness caused by the use of too much supplemental oxygen in the incubators of premature babies, which was first recognized in 1941. It is estimated that between 1942 and 1956, approximately ten to twelve thousand babies worldwide were affected by the disease. In the preface to his book Retrolental Fibroplasia: A Modern Parable, Dr. William A. Silverman refers to the disease as "the most dramatic epidemic of infantile blindness in recorded history." By 1951 a clear link between incidence and affluence became clear; many cases were seen in developed countries with organized and well-funded health care. Two British scientists suggested that it was oxygen toxicity that caused the disease. Babies born prematurely in such affluent areas were treated in incubators, which had artificially high levels of oxygen.

Some of the children afflicted with retrolental fibroplasia also had learning disabilities and psychological problems, or other physical and mental handicaps in addition to blindness. In order to better educate these children, a plan was developed to have smaller living, learning, and dining quarters to segregate the types of disabilities. The new buildings were to have a single story to better accommodate children with mobility challenges.

Once Robert H. Thompson became the superintendent at the school in 1957, he continually requested additional funds for building improvement programs. During his tenure, which lasted until 1974, fourteen buildings were constructed on the campus. This campaign partially carried out past requests for replacement facilities, and reflected several new programs initiated by the school. The 1959-1960 Program Needs and Program Changes, Michigan School for the Blind, outlined the increase in enrollment, new programs, and the resulting building needs. These included educating emotionally disturbed and educationally challenged children. The report requested a physical development and sensory training building, the Braille library that had been requested since 1944, a girls' cottage and a boys' cottage, three new classrooms, and a new home practice house to replace the 1898 neighborhood housed that had been acquired circa 1941.

The upgrades and additional buildings requested by Thompson were realized with various groundbreaking dates from 1961 to 1971. Of the fourteen buildings constructed over this decade of expansion, only three still stand: The Physical Development building (1962), the Braille library (1964), and the elementary school (1966), the latter two buildings were designed by the Lansing, Michigan, firm of Manson-Jackson, and Kane.

Decline and Closure (1970-1995)

With the passage of the Federal Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) in 1975 (changed to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act-IDEA in 1990), the approach to the education of blind children, as well as to children with other challenges, began to change. The Acts ensure special education services to children from birth through age twenty-one and entitle children with disabilities a "free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment."

Research emerged indicating that students with disabilities were better served through integration into regular school classrooms. Mainstreaming is said to be less expensive than residential schools. Social sentiment toward mainstreaming was shifting as well. As a result of these changes, enrollment declined, and the Michigan School for the Blind was once again combined with the Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint in 1995.

Subsequent History

From 1995 until 2006, the campus was owned by the State of Michigan and leased as a military-style home and training complex for delinquent juveniles. The facility was operated by the Department of Corrections, and some of the cottages were renamed at this time. The exteriors of the surviving buildings do not appear to have been altered during this time. The property was sold by the State of Michigan in 2006 to the Lansing Public Housing Authority, whose plans for redevelopment stalled in the recession of 2008.

Michigan School for the Blind Notable Alumni

Since its founding, the Michigan School for the Blind has educated hundreds of students. Two of the most extraordinary are noted below.

Roberta A. Griffith (1870-1941)

Born in 1870 in Philadelphia, Roberta A. Griffith moved to Bay City as a young child with her family where she was educated at home until the age of twelve, when she entered the Michigan School for the Blind. Griffith spent her last year of high school at the Ohio School for the Blind before winning a scholarship to attend the new Women's College of Western Reserve University in Cleveland. In 1891, she became what many believe to be the first blind person in the country to graduate from a school for sighted persons. Further, she graduated with honors while working as a writer and music teacher to supplement her scholarship income, completing the four-year program in three years.

In 1900, Griffith settled in Grand Rapids to care for her mother. Despite her blindness, she carried on an independent life working as a writer and real estate agent. Her energy was endless - she was an untiring advocate for services and education for those with vision disabilities. She spearheaded the organization, and then served as president, of a statewide employment bureau for blind people. In 1913, she founded the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Grand Rapids, serving as its executive secretary until her death in 1941. That same year she convinced the state legislature to require the use of nitrate of silver as an antiseptic in the eyes of infants, thereby saving the sight of many newborns. She was an early and vocal advocate for the integration of blind students in regular public school classes.

Griffith was a founder and active member of the American Foundation for the Blind, where she worked with Helen Keller and others to standardize a Braille print system in the United States, where there were three competing systems. Because none existed, she created a six-volume Braille dictionary.

For her enormous contributions to community service and education, Griffith was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.

Stevland Hardaway Morris (Stevie Wonder)

Stevland Haraway Morris, better known as internationally-acclaimed singer, songwriter, musician, producer, etc., Stevie Wonder, entered the Michigan School for the Blind at age twelve in 1963. Wonder was born in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1950, but later moved to Detroit with his mother, where he became associated with Berry Gordy, Jr. and the Motown record company. Though Wonder suffered from retrolental fibropasia and has been blind since infancy, he was nonetheless, a child prodigy.

The Detroit Public School system could not accommodate Wonder's performing and recording schedule with Motown, but the Michigan School for the Blind worked with the recording company to allow him to receive his education. He stayed at the school for about two weeks every month, and had a private teacher while he was touring. The teacher was hired by Motown, but was Wonder's official liaison to the school. Although he did not attend full-time and was out of phase with the other students, he participated in the school choir and was on the wrestling team, attended classes including Braille and industrial arts, and took advantage of the social activities such as skating, boating, and swimming. He graduated from the school in 1969.

Since the early 1960s, Wonder has won numerous awards and honors. Notably, he has been awarded twenty-five Grammy Awards in a variety of categories, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1996), an Academy Award (1984), the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize (2009), and was made a Commander in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters (2010). Wonder has also been inducted in several halls of fame, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1989), the Apollo Legends Hall of Fame (2011), the Michigan Walk of Fame (2006), and the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1983). In addition to his musical recognition, Wonder has been named a United Nations Messenger of Peace (2009) and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama (2014).

Michigan School for the Blind Architects

The three early twentieth-century buildings on the campus were designed by prominent Lansing architect, Edwyn A. Bowd (1865-1940). Two of the mid-twentieth-century buildings were designed by the Lansing firm of Manson-Jackson, and Kane. Lee Black & Kenneth C. Black, also of Lansing, Michigan, developed the post-World War II replacement and renovation program.

Architect Edwyn A. Bowd

Edwyn Bowd was perhaps the most prolific designer of public and institutional buildings in Michigan outside of the Detroit metropolitan region in the early twentieth century. Born in Cheltenham, England, Bowd moved to Detroit in 1882 after graduating from Orset College in Dover. He began his career designing churches with fellow Englishman, Gordon W. Lloyd, an early and important Detroit architect, but moved to Saginaw for a brief period before moving to Lansing in 1888. In Lansing he worked with William Appleyard, who designed some of the early buildings at the Michigan School for the Blind. After a year, Bowd started his own firm.

Bowd designed many churches, institutional, corporate, and municipal structures throughout southern Michigan during his fifty-year career, and was especially popular in Lansing. His style had evolved from Richardsonian Romanesque to Neoclassical by the early twentieth century. He employed a similar use of red brick on light-colored, dressed stone ashlar foundations in both styles of design.

The Lansing post office and the First Baptist Church, both completed in 1894 in the Romanesque style, were two of Bowd's first major commissions in Lansing. Following them in 1896 Bowd designed the Lansing City Hall (demolished 1959), a monumental, stone Richardsonian Romanesque building that has to be considered one of his most important projects. In 1900 his design for the Pilgrim Congregational Church was completed.

By the early twentieth century, Bowd was receiving important commissions from throughout southern Michigan, including the Ingham, Montcalm, and Wexford county courthouses and the Hillsdale City Hall - all large Neoclassical buildings constructed in the 1900 to 1910 period - as well as the Ionia Armory and Ionia County Farm. Bowd's later work includes the Masonic Temple (1924) in Lansing. Bowd's work at the School for the Blind was part of an extensive amount of work his firm did for the State of Michigan, beginning with the Industrial School for Boys administration building in Lansing and State of Michigan Building at the 1904 Saint Louis Exposition. His institutional work for the state, which includes numerous buildings at the Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University) in East Lansing, buildings at the Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint, as well as his work at the School for the Blind, constitutes some of his most important work. In 1929 the firm of Bowd-Munson was incorporated with Orlie J. Munson as partner. Munson had first worked for Bowd as a draftsman from 1908 to 1912. The team's designs evolved into the Art Deco and Moderne styles, and include the J. W. Knapp Company Building and the Lansing Board of Water and Light Ottawa Steam Plant. Bowd was active in the firm until his sudden death in 1940. Munson then changed the name of the firm to O. J. Munson, Architect, and later to O. J. Munson, Associates.

Manson-Jackson, and Kane

Manson-Jackson, and Kane were given the major commission of the Michigan School for the Blind during its second and last period of major growth and construction in the 1960s. In addition to the library and the elementary school, the firm also designed the now-demolished dormitory and utility buildings at the west end of the campus and the auditorium that was located at the east end.

The buildings represent the theories and practices of clean modernism and were a significant departure from the early twentieth-century styles of the campus. The Modern Movement of the mid-twentieth century called for a minimal aesthetic with the structure expressed where possible without ornament, the ornament essentially being the strength of design and proportion. The firm often employed what is sometimes known as the "House Plan" type of school design with classrooms and hallways radiating around a central core of a media center or other multi-functional space. The exteriors share the common elements of brick walls with flat roofs; all are modernist in style with variations of plan. This is a stark change from the early twentieth-century symmetrical central hallway and wing approach exhibited in both the high school and administration buildings on the campus.

The firm of Manson, Jackson & Kane, Inc. began as a sole practice founded in 1941 by Elmer J. Manson. In 1948, Manson was joined by William W. Carver, who previously worked in Montana. The firm was renamed Manson Carver Associates. The Manson and Carver partnership ended in 1959, and Manson was then joined by two new partners: Edward Jackson, who had joined the firm in 1950, William J. H. Kane, and Dixon S. Wilson, who had initially joined the firm in 1954, but left in 1960 to establish his own firm. By 1965, Manson-Jackson, and Kane had designed more than one hundred educational, commercial, and residential buildings in mid-Michigan, primarily in the Lansing metropolitan region.

Architects Lee Black & Kenneth C. Black

The firm Lee Black & Kenneth C. Black developed the post-World War II replacement and redevelopment plan, and updated and renovated the main administration building in 1954 to meet safety standards by enclosing the central interior stair and adding a stair tower to the rear of each wing. They altered the north entrance to the High School, as well as some internal spaces to address safety and new technology. In 1952, the firm designed the now-demolished Vocational building.

Lee Black (1877-1940) received his architectural training through correspondence courses and apprenticeship in architectural offices in Michigan and Ohio. He established his own firm in 1908, and began his architectural practice in Lansing, Michigan, in 1914, which initially focused on residential and church projects. Lee Black was joined by his son Kenneth (1901-1991), in the early 1930s. The younger Black graduated from the College of Architecture at the University of Michigan, where he had studied with Eliel Saarinen and Emil Lorch. The father-son firm designed the WPA-era Lansing Board of Water & Light Dye Conditioning Plant (1938-1939), as well as a number of houses in East Lansing. After World War II, their work turned largely to public and commercial projects in the Modern Movement style. Examples of the firm's work in Lansing include the headquarters of the Auto Owners Insurance Company (1951), the International style Lansing City Hall and County Building (1956-1958), and the Lansing Central Public Library (1964). On the University of Michigan campus the firm designed the School of Business Administration Building and the rehabilitation of the University Hospital.

When his father retired in 1958, Kenneth C. Black reorganized the firm as Kenneth C. Black Associates, Inc. In 1973 the firm merged with the Warren Holmes Company, forming the Warren Holmes-Kenneth Black Company. The firm later merged with other local offices and is known today as MAYOTTE group Architects.

Michigan School for the Blind Property Description

The Michigan School for the Blind Campus is located in Lansing, Michigan, west of downtown, on several parcels of land that total some forty-five acres. There are six buildings that remain from the time the school was closed in 1995. These include the early twentieth century Neoclassical Revival Main Administration (1916, 1918, and 1924) and High School (1912) buildings, the Colonial Revival superintendent's residence (1914), and the Modern Movement library, elementary school, and gymnasium buildings (1960s). There are also two historic pump house buildings on the site (1920s). The campus includes a "quad" green space, various plantings, and mature trees, with concrete walkways connecting the buildings, and the decaying remains of a running track. The Administration and High School buildings are vacant and in poor condition, yet retain a great deal of historic integrity. The library, elementary school, and gymnasium retain a high degree of historic fabric and continue in use. The library houses the Neighborhood Empowerment Center, a nonprofit collective; the elementary school and gymnasium are used by the Mid-Michigan Leadership Academy, a charter elementary school. The Superintendent's house is well-maintained and is currently vacant and for sale.

Setting

The former Michigan School for the Blind Campus is located in the Comstock Park Neighborhood in northwest Lansing, Michigan. The campus comprises an area of some forty-five acres that are bounded by West Willow Street on the north, North Pine Street on the east, West Maple Street on the South, to State Street, to a service road to the south (abutting the City of Lansing's Comstock Park), and Princeton Avenue on the west. The surrounding neighborhood is predominantly residential in nature, though civic, institutional, and commercial buildings are also present along Willow Street. The campus is connected to the neighborhood by sidewalks. Comstock Park, an eight-acre municipal park, is located adjacent to the campus on its southwest side.

Many of the school buildings that were constructed throughout its use as a school have now been demolished, including dormitories, dorm-cottages, dining hall, maintenance and storage buildings once located on the western side of the campus, and an auditorium on the northern edge. The demolished buildings on the western end of the campus were one- and two-story residences and classrooms that were constructed into a slight hillside and arranged in a large U-shape, with all buildings facing toward a large open, green space containing athletic fields, a track, and concrete walkways. Little remains of the athletic fields or walkways. The track still exists, but is in poor condition.

A service ring road that bounds the property at Willow and Maple Streets runs behind the buildings and provides access to small parking areas at each building. Today the elementary school and the gymnasium remain in that ring and the parking lots of both buildings are accessed from the road.

The eastern section, which contains the historic campus, is primarily flat, with a mixture of mature and younger deciduous and evergreen trees, concrete sidewalks, and large grassed areas. The buildings surround a rectangular green that is bisected with a walkway on the Grand River Avenue axis leading from Pine Street to the front entrance of the Administration Building at the west side of the green. The Superintendent's house is located at the northeast corner of the green and is oriented toward the central walkway. The library encloses the southeast corner of the green. A second rectangular lawn with trees is located at the north side of the Superintendent's house, in what is the northeast corner of the campus.

The vista formed by the central open green, the arrangement of buildings around it, and their visual setting looking west from the intersection of Grand River Avenue and North Pine Street into the campus remains as intended in the early twentieth century by the architect, Edwyn A. Bowd. Walkways line the edge and run through the center of the green accessing all of the buildings, which face inward toward the walkways. The current location and size of the walkways are not original, but likely date from the 1960s landscaping plan designed by Manson-Jackson, and Kane, or later. The existing central walkway, which leads off a small U-shaped drive from Pine Street, has been altered since that plan. The concrete walkways have grooved edges to assist visually handicapped persons in determining the edge. The green is a flat grassy lawn with large mature deciduous and evergreen trees planted randomly and interspersed with newer trees. Each building facing the green has foundation plantings, low evergreen hedges, and smaller trees. Some of the larger maple, walnut, and gingko trees in the green may date from the turn of the twentieth century or soon after. However, the ornamental plantings and younger trees date from the 1960s and later.

Development of the Site

In looking for a place to educate blind students in 1880, the State of Michigan board reviewed proposals from several communities throughout the state and chose to accept an offer from the International Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) to lease and eventually buy its massive 1857 Victorian building and property in the City of Lansing, which had been operated as the Institute for Old and Disabled Members.

Once the state owned the property for use for the Michigan School for the Blind, the main building was remodeled and expanded, and supporting buildings and an engine house were constructed. In 1883 two wings were added to the main building, and a chapel, superintendent's house, and a barn were constructed on the campus.

Growth in enrollment required an increasing number of facilities, and, in 1912, Lansing architect Edwin A. Bowd was retained to design a new school building (the existing high school building). The three-story Neoclassical Revival building, located to the southeast of the main building, displayed a typical public school floor plan of the time with classrooms opening off a central hallway and stairs at each end of the building. The design apparently made no special accommodations for blind students, but instead represented current broad trends in education and architectural design of the era.

In 1914, Bowd designed a new superintendent's house, located at the northeast (front) of the property, to replace the previous superintendent's house, which had been converted to a dormitory.

The Victorian main building from the I.O.O.F. era contained a combination of administrative offices, classrooms, and student housing. By the early twentieth century it was viewed as unsafe from a fire standpoint. In response, Bowd was again called upon to design a fireproof building that would serve the same uses and nearly match the footprint of the original building. The main administration building was constructed in three phases, with the north and central portions of the original building demolished first. The central section of the new building was constructed in 1916, the north wing in 1918, and the south wing in 1924. The building housed school offices, a dormitory, and larger rooms for instruction and gathering, such as the gymnasium at the north end and centrally-located common areas on the upper floors.

The massive Neoclassical Revival Main Administration building dominates the green and faces east toward Pine Street. The building sets on a raised basement with a concrete foundation and has a shallow E-shaped front facade and an overall broadly U-shaped footprint. The main (east) facade (1916) is nineteen bays wide, and is broken into three sections: the central original building, and identical north (1918) and south wings (1924). The original structure has a central entrance and is five bays wide with front and rear walls that extend out slightly beyond the wall planes of the wings on both sides. Originally constructed with side gables, the roof peak is slightly higher than the wings. There is a gable-front projecting central section fronted by a four-column, Tuscan portico that dominates the building. Attached to both sides of the original building are identical L-shaped wings, each comprised of a four-bay-wide, side-gable section with a slightly projecting gable-front three-bay-wide end capped by a pediment that runs east-west, creating the U-shaped footprint. The walls of all three sections are constructed of reddish-brown brick laid in running bond.

The central, five-bay-wide, original portion of the building is fronted by a three-bay central pedimented raised portico. The ends of the building are marked by projecting brick parapet walls each containing two chimneys, and are capped with limestone coping. Decorative limestone ball finials are located at each corner. The portico has four, three-story limestone Tuscan columns that rise midway up a granite staircase that extends across the width of the portico and leads to the front entry. The stairs rise twelve steps from grade, and narrow slightly as they pass through the columns. Resting on the columns is a pediment with a brick frieze containing three limestone panels, each with a raised festoon decoration centered over the spaces between the columns below. A denticulated cornice surrounds the brick tympanum, which has a central round window flanked by four ornamental stone voussoirs placed at the cardinal points around the window.

The projecting wall behind the portico displays four brick antae, with stone capitals, in line with the columns. The central entrance contains a set of aluminum and glass double doors with transoms. A six-over-one, double-hung wood window is located on each side of the set of doors. The openings in all three bays are topped by round-arch stone panels with raised garland designs. Each bay of the second and third floors contains a single, double-hung, eight-over-one wood window. The second-floor windows each have a splayed brick head with a stone keystone and rest on a projecting stone still supported by three brackets that extend across the bay from anta to anta. The third-floor windows have projecting stone sills supported by brackets and rise to the underside of a wood architrave that surrounds the building. Matching stone panels with festoons are located in the brick frieze area above the windows.

The east facades of the north and south wings are identical, each containing a four-bay-wide section topped by a three-bay-wide pedimented pavilion. Each bay of the wings, as well as the north and south bays of the original building, contains an eight-over-one, double-hung wood window at the first, second, and third floors, and a wide four-over-four, double-hung window in the raised basement that is boarded over. The first-floor windows have limestone sills and are set in shallow, arched-head recesses with stone springers, keystones, and diamond blocks in the center. The second-floor windows rest on a stone sill course that runs around the entire building, and have stone keystones in the centers of the lintels. The third-floor windows have projecting stone sills supported by stone brackets at the ends; the tops of the windows meet the wood architrave that surrounds the building. Stone panels with festoons are located above the bays in the brick frieze area, and a wood denticulated cornice comprises the soffit and fascia for the asphalt-covered roof.

The pedimented pavilions at the north and south ends of the wings project slightly. The pediment design mimics that of the central portico, with a round window surrounded by ornamental voussoirs in the center of the brick tympanum and a denticulated cornice. The stone frieze panels, windows, and trim match the rest of the building facade. The windows, voussoirs, and brick tympanum are repeated on the west (rear) elevation of the pediment.

The north and south elevations are nearly identical to each other, and the detailing of the windows and walls mimic the front facade. At the west end of each elevation is a one-bay wide brick stair tower that was added in 1954. There are no windows on the sides, and the flat roof terminates at the wood architrave of the earlier portion of the building; however, the stair tower continues the architrave and stone water table from the earlier sections of the building. Each stair tower (1954) at the rear contains a double-hung window at each floor and an exit door at the ground floor.

The rear (west) elevation has simpler detailing than the other elevations, and the U-shaped floor plan more pronounced, with the seven-bay-wide, original center section of the building and the attached north and south wings comprised of the four-bay-wide sections and the three-bay-wide pavilions extending five bays to the rear. Because the grade slopes to the back of the building, the rear central door at grade enters the building halfway between the basement and first floor. A simple wood, one-story, nearly flat-roof porch, added in 1954, projects from the entrance.

The original central section of the building projects slightly and has a limestone foundation with windows above the entrance door that align with the main stair at the interior. Each level has a set of three double-hung windows, with the central window being the widest. The third-floor windows are significantly taller than the other floors and have transoms.

The remaining windows in the rear elevation continue the eight-over-one pattern found throughout the rest of the building, except a few locations where the windows are eight-over-two. In the brick frieze there is an occasional window of the same size and location as the stone panels in the rest of the building.

The interior of the building is in poor condition - vandals, vacancy, and weather have taken their toll - but it retains a high degree of original historic fabric. The layout contains a large lobby at the front of the building on all three floors. Offices are located off the north and south sides of the lobby space, which, on the first floor, still has its marble floor and wainscot. A double switch-back stairway at the west side of the lobby leads to the upper floors and to the basement level. Originally open to the third floor, this stair was enclosed in 1954 to meet safety code requirements. Corridors that run the entire U-shape of the building are double-loaded with small rooms at each side. The basement level contains classrooms and mechanical rooms, as well as a gymnasium at the northwest corner of the U-shape. The gymnasium has glazed-brick walls, a failing suspended ceiling, and a failing tile floor. A balcony, accessible from the first floor, is located at the east end of the gymnasium and is now boarded over. Halls generally have terrazzo floors with plaster walls and acoustical tile ceilings. Most room finishes have been altered and include carpeted or tile floors, plaster walls, and acoustical tile ceilings, all in a deteriorated condition. There is no large kitchen or cafeteria in the building as those uses were housed in other buildings on campus, although there is a small kitchen adjacent to the common room on each floor.

This three-story, rectangular, Neoclassical Revival school building is finished with brick walls in running bond pattern on a tall, smooth limestone foundation. A stringcourse runs beneath the third-floor windows around the building. The low hip roof has deep overhanging eaves with a metal cornice and fascia in a design representing exposed rafter ends. Two large brick chimneys project from the west side of the roof. The color of the individual bricks is not uniform and ranges from a light grayish-buff to a dark red brown, giving an overall orange or orange-brown appearance depending on the light.

The north facade has nine bays; three bays in the center of the facade project from the wall plane, the central bay of which once contained the main entrance (now bricked-in) facing the green. This entrance is delineated by a limestone surround with Tuscan pilasters rising from the limestone base supporting a flat arch.

The regularly spaced groups of tall, narrow one-over-one windows have wood sashes (now boarded over). The limestone base stops at the sill level of the first-floor windows. The windows are grouped into three sets of three in the central three bays, and three sets of two in the flanking bays. This pattern continues at the second and third-floor windows, with the second-floor windows having splayed brick heads with keystones. The third-floor windows rest on the string course. The tops of the windows intersect with the wide metal fascia containing the decorative exposed rafters supporting the deep eaves of the roof.

The east and west elevations each contain three bays, with a two-story central entrance that, simply outlined in brick above the limestone basement, contains a set of glass and aluminum entrance doors (1954) that enter halfway between the first floor and the basement. The doors are flanked by windows, and the entire opening has been boarded over. Above the entrance a group of three double-hung windows is placed halfway between the first and second floors in the stair hall. A group of three double-hung windows are located on either side of the entrance at the basement, first, second, and third floor level.

The south elevation is less articulated and is clearly meant to be secondary. It is comprised of seven bays; the central five bays project slightly from the wall plane unlike the north elevation where only three bays project from the wall plane. Its fenestration is less regular, although it does repeat the pattern of groups of two tall, narrow double-hung windows at the basement, first, second, and third floors. All windows are boarded over. The keystones, trim, and soffit/fascia treatments match those on the rest of the building.

The interior of the building overall retains a high degree of integrity including the general historic floor plan, despite being altered in the 1950s. It is in deteriorated condition due to vacancy, vandalism, and exposure. The basic historic floor plan consists of a wide central hallway running the length of the building with classrooms on both sides and stairs at each end of the building. Room configurations and finishes have been altered over the years of use. Currently, there are carpeted floors, plastered walls, and acoustical tile ceilings in a deteriorated condition.

At the south of the building is an unused parking lot located between the circular parking lot of the Neighborhood Empowerment Center (former library) to the east, and the Mid-Michigan Leadership Academy (former elementary school) to the west.

The Superintendent's house is a red brick, two-story Colonial Revival house with a hipped roof and a tall brick chimney at the north side. It is situated at the east end of the campus. The main entry faces the central walkway leading from Pine Street to the Administration Building. The front or south facade has a central door flanked by sidelights and pilasters. Five concrete steps with a metal rail lead to a shallow porch where two Tuscan columns support a simple wood entablature. An eight-over-one, double-hung window is placed symmetrically at each side of the door on the first floor.

On the second floor, three sets of paired, four-over-one, double-hung windows are spaced equally across the facade. A large shed-roof, wood-sided dormer with a non-original picture window is centrally positioned in the front roof slope. The east elevation facing Pine Street has a one-story, flat roof porch with four Tuscan columns and a typically constructed wood railing with turned spindles extending across the entire elevation. The fenestration is not symmetrical and the first floor has a group of three double-hung windows on one side and a double-leaf French door on the other. At the second floor, a pair of four-over-one, double-hung windows are located above the first-floor windows and a shorter, wide window opening with non-original windows is located above the French doors. The north and west elevations have similar fenestration and detailing to the south and east sides, except that there is a small, two-story ell with a porch at the north side. The porch detailing matches the east porch. The west facade includes a wood handicap-accessible ramp with rails added in recent decades.

On the interior, the house shows minimal change and retains a high degree of historic fabric. The original wood floors, plaster walls and ceilings, trim, windows and doors, and a grand curving stair remain. On the first floor, there is a living room/parlor, dining room, and kitchen. The second floor has three large bedrooms and three toilet rooms. The third-floor attic is finished and the basement is unfinished. Alterations made when the house was used for offices in recent decades include some modern sliding doors and new light fixtures.

A one-story, flat-roof, rectangular, red brick, two-car detached garage, with a wood-sided shed roof addition, sets just to the north of the house. It is accessed from a driveway leading west from North Pine Street, noted by the presence of a square brick column. The house and garage are surrounded by low hedges and foundation plantings, as well as several trees. There is a modern asphalt parking area to the west of the house, as well as walkways leading to the green and to other campus buildings.

Post-World War II (1946-1970)

The post-1937 period of the Michigan School for the Blind brought as many changes to the physical fabric of the campus as the state budget would allow. In 1943, the State Board of Education prepared the Postwar Public Works Program for the Michigan School for the Blind, which was sent to the governor of Michigan, Murray Van Wagoner. The letter stated:

These requests were not due to an expected increase in enrollment, but a recognition of the need for the improvement in the physical state of the school, as the report goes on further to state:

Thus began a series of budget requests to improve the facilities of the school; to modernize, add safety features, and fire-proof the buildings and add additional structures to the campus. In 1950, the food and laundry service building was the first constructed under this campaign. It replaced laundry and kitchen facilities that had been housed in a remaining wing of the Odd Fellow's building. Lee Black and Kenneth C. Black designed the Vocational Building (later known as Lion's Hall, now demolished), the second building to be constructed in 1952.

The main administration building and the high school were altered in 1954 by Lee Black and Kenneth C. Black, a Lansing, Michigan architectural firm. Rear stair towers were added, and the central interior stair was enclosed to meet safety requirements of the main administration building and the north entrance was closed and altered on the high school as well as other modifications.

The upgrades and additional buildings requested by Thompson were realized with various groundbreaking dates from 1961 to 1971. Of the fourteen buildings constructed over this decade of expansion, only three still stand: The Physical Development building (1962), the Braille library (1964), and the elementary school (1966), the latter two buildings were designed by the Lansing, Michigan, firm of Manson-Jackson, and Kane.

This rectangular 17,000-square-foot, flat-roof, Modern Movement building with limestone-trimmed red brick walls and modern aluminum windows is located at the southeast corner of the campus. The north half of the building is two stories and the south half is one story. The west entrance, fronted by a broad porch with limestone piers and lintel, faces the green. Large square aluminum and glass windows are visible through the portico openings at the two-story section; at the one-story section two large openings, one filled by a full-glazed aluminum door and large fixed pane of glass with transoms, and the second by two large fixed panes of glass with fixed transoms. The north elevation carries this theme with the stone surrounding the aluminum window openings. The south elevation has two casement windows and a door. The one-story section of the east elevation along North Pine Street has double fixed-pane metal sash windows with a pair of full-glazed metal doors with full-length side lights at the entry; the two-story section has a row of five tall, four-pane, fixed-sash metal windows between brick piers

Designed by the Lansing, Michigan, firm Manson-Jackson, and Kane, (please note: sources show the use of both Manson-Jackson and Kane and Manson-Jackson & Kane for this firm) the building was constructed to house the extensive Braille library that was originally located on the top floor of the high school. It currently houses the Neighborhood Empowerment Center, a variety of local non-profit organizations.

The building was renovated in 2009 and is LEED certified. The rehabilitation retained the original building footprint, materials, and massing. Although the windows were replaced and the interior modernized at this time, the character-defining historic features of basic form and style remain.

At the interior is a large lobby area between the east and west entrances, with wide hallways leading to offices along a north and south corridor. An open feeling is created by the use of glass walls in some offices along the corridor, as well as by walls that do not rise to the full height of the building. The historic terrazzo flooring was retained.

A modern, oval parking lot is located southwest of the building. Walkways historically leading from this building to the rest of the campus are in place, although they may be replacements.

The Elementary School housed kindergarten through third grade, as well as the deaf-blind department, and a health center at the eastern end. Designed by Manson-Jackson, and Kane, this building exhibits the "house plan" style typical of schools of the 1960s, with classrooms along the outside walls of the one-story school building and community rooms (media center, cafeteria, gymnasium, etc.) located in the center portion. This one-story, flat-roofed, multi-bayed school building has an asymmetrical plan, with a copper mini-mansard roof detail at the south and west sides above wide overhanging eaves. The running bond brick exterior frames each bay at the north, south, and west, and at the east forms the base below windows, which have aluminum panel surrounds.

The interior of the school has double-loaded corridors; some classrooms/offices lining the corridor have partial glass walls providing an open feeling to the interior. The walls are painted concrete block, ceilings are dropped with suspended fluorescent lighting fixtures or ceiling panel lighting, and floors are synthetic tile. The interior and exterior remain relatively unchanged since construction.

The school is owned by Mid-Michigan Leadership Academy, a charter elementary school founded in 1996.

There is a playground north of the school that contains modern play equipment. A parking lot is located at the south. The school is connected to the campus by concrete pathways. The school owns the two buildings, parking lots, and playground area, as well as the open grounds around the buildings.

Gymnasium/Pool Building (1962)

Originally known as the Physical Development building, the gymnasium and pool was constructed to provide for the physical development of the students, as well as recreation programs for late afternoons, evenings, and weekends. School dances were also held here.

The building is constructed of brick, and is built into a slight hillside at the southwestern edge of the campus. It is surrounded by mature pine trees and a mixture of deciduous and evergreen shrubs. The building has a flat roof with a very shallow central gable, and a metal fascia. The one-story entry has vertical cast concrete pillars dividing six window bays, relating to the pillars of the loggia of the library building, and a pair of full-glazed aluminum doors with sidelights and transoms. A ramped concrete walk with tubular railings leads from the main sidewalk to the entry. The south elevation has recessed sections delineated by two-story brick piers within which are large clerestory windows under the fascia; there is an exit door at ground level at the southwest corner. The remaining facades of the building are solid brick. A parking lot is located to the east of the building.

The interior at the lower level houses a bowling alley (which is located under the pool) and is essentially a long rectangular-shaped room with painted lanes. There is also a large carpeted room once used for wrestling practices. There are tile-walled locker rooms, bathrooms, and storage areas. The main floor houses the tiled rectangular pool, which is no longer in use (the space is now used for storage), the gymnasium/cafeteria has linoleum floors, concrete block walls, wood bleachers that slide in and out on rollers, and large clerestory windows. There are acoustical suspended ceilings throughout the building.

The Mid-Michigan Leadership Academy, a charter school, owns and uses the building for its original purpose.

Pump Houses (c. 1920)

The two pump houses located on the campus were constructed by the City of Lansing, possibly without the consultation of the School for the Blind. Both pump houses are identical in design, of brick construction, with steeply pitched gabled roofs covered by asphalt shingles. The houses are set on a concrete foundation. Brick is laid in a common bond with a header course every five courses; a basket weave pattern runs from eave to eave above the metal door and above the narrow window in the gable peak at the east side. There is corbelled brick detail at the roof eaves at each corner of the building. There is a second metal door on the north side and a small, multi-pane window with a metal grille on the south side. One pump house is located near Princeton Avenue on the west end of the campus, and the other is very close to the elementary school at the south side.

Campus and Grounds, Michigan School for the Blind (1880s - 1966)

The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the early period of campus development. The main building, with a central section and wings at the north and south, was sited where the Main Administration Building now stands. The central section housed a kitchen and dining room in the basement of the central section, with offices and a parlor on the first floor, and a gymnasium on the fourth floor. The north and south wings housed hospital facilities, matron quarters, and student dormitories. A two-story superintendent's house was located northeast of the main building. North of the main building was a two-and-one-half-story brick factory for broom-making and the Braille press. Near the western boundary of the campus was a two-story brick steam laundry with an attached coal shed, north of which was a two-story wooden barn.

The campus has changed dramatically from its initial development. All nineteenth-century buildings once on the site were replaced by new construction. Buildings constructed in the late 1940s and 1950s have been demolished, and of the fourteen buildings constructed between 1961 and 1971, only three still stand. Some plantings and the quad area survive from the early twentieth-century design, but most features today are an amalgamation of twentieth-century and twenty-first-century additions and changes.

Campus grounds and features include the central green, concrete walkways with ribbing along both sides to provide navigation assistance for visually-impaired users, playing fields in the southwest section of the site, and a running track. Plantings include many varieties of both mature and newer trees, as well as hedges and shrubs, some of which could date to the late nineteenth century, but most were planted in the early to mid-twentieth century. The track and walkways are in various states of disrepair and age. The grounds retain the feel of a traditional school or college campus with a historic quad, with buildings located around and facing a central green space. With the exception of the grassy quad, which is the oldest feature of the grounds in existence today, the modern roads, walkways, ornamental plantings, and building footprints are the product of more than one hundred years of site development, with post-1960 modifications being likely the most prevalent visual aspects.

Built landscape additions from the 1960s include raised brick planters located on the circle drive and between the former library and the High School and two brick columns with concrete base and cap flank the entry from North Pine Street to the circle drive. Both the circular drive at the entry off Pine and the service drive also date from the early 1960s.

Current Development

Along West Willow Street, on the campus's northern boundary, a 106,500-square-foot, four-story apartment, dubbed Walnut Park, is currently under construction. The building is oriented on north-south axis, and faces Willow Street. It is situated adjacent, but perpendicular to the Administration Building. It is located where the former Maintenance Building and Auditorium once stood. The apartment building is a light-timber or balloon-framed structure, with vinyl and brick veneer siding, and vinyl windows and doors. Stone veneer banding wraps around the top and middle of the building. The brick veneer siding and stone veneer banding mimic the brick and stonework on the High School Building situated opposite the quad from this building. The building contains seventy-two multi-family units for low-income and market-rate renters. Each apartment unit includes a dedicated exterior deck or patio.