The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Green School, circa 1885-1900, in Vulcan in Dickinson County. (Photo courtesy of the Menominee Range Historical Museum)

This week’s “Remember When?” from the Menominee Range Historical Museum shows the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Green School in Vulcan, circa 1885-1900.

According to information compiled by local historian William Cummings and available on the Dickinson County Library’s Local History website, Edward Parmelee received the contract to construct the “Green School,” the two-story building with the belfry, at the beginning of August 1885. The “Green School” was completed by the end of October 1885.

Upon completion, the “Green School” was described as “the most convenient and handsomest of its size of any in the county” in the Oct. 31, 1885, edition of Norway’s newspaper, The Current. The building continued to serve as a grade school until it was replaced by part of the brick elementary school built in 1927 and attached to the old high school.

Standing at the northeast corner of Main and Market streets, the single-story Methodist Episcopal Church at the left, formally organized in 1885, was the original frame Vulcan school built in 1879 by the Penn Iron Mining Company, which donated the building to the congregation when the “Green School” opened. The building was demolished in 1963.

The small building to the right served as the fire house and hose tower, used to dry canvas fire hoses. The band stand is visible to the right of the school building in the background.

This photograph appears on page 66 in “Vulcan, Michigan, Centennial Book 1872-1972,” according to the Local History information.

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“Remember when?” appears every Wednesday in The Daily News. Those with suggestions or historical photographs they would like to submit can email Terri Castelaz at tcastelaz@ironmountaindailynews.com.