Remember when?
Students gather on the grounds of the Central School at 300 W. B St. in Iron Mountain in 1910. The two-story school had eight classrooms. The building was moved to the corner of Kimberly Avenue and West Hughitt Street in 1911, and was razed in 1937. (Menominee Range Historical Museum photo)
In this mid-1890s photograph of the east side of Stephenson Avenue, the Brown Street School can be seen behind the Sandstone building, which is the single-story white building. A horse pulling a wagon has stopped for a drink at the watering trough carved from granite in the shape of a tree trunk. (Menominee Range Historical Museum photo)
Faculty of the Central School and Brown Street Schools taken in 1884-1885 by J.J. Eskil of Florence, Wis. In the front row are Jane Van Auken and Allie Wicks; middle row, Sadie Gray, A.J. Van Anda, Agnes Hawley and Clara Congdon; back row, Margaret Teller, Chatty Wheeler, Ella Penglase and Minnie Flaherty. (Menominee Range Historical Museum photo)
This photograph, taken in the late 1890s, faces southwest overlooking a portion of Iron Mountain’s west side with Crystal Lake visible in the upper left. The Central School, the two-story white building with the large belfry, in the back center of the photograph, faced Prospect Avenue on the east end of the block where Iron Mountain High School was built in 1911-1912. (Menominee Range Historical Museum photo)
Students gather on the grounds of the Central School at 300 W. B St. in Iron Mountain in 1910. The two-story school had eight classrooms. The building was moved to the corner of Kimberly Avenue and West Hughitt Street in 1911, and was razed in 1937. (Menominee Range Historical Museum photo)
In this mid-1890s photograph of the east side of Stephenson Avenue, the Brown Street School can be seen behind the Sandstone building, which is the single-story white building. A horse pulling a wagon has stopped for a drink at the watering trough carved from granite in the shape of a tree trunk. (Menominee Range Historical Museum photo)
Faculty of the Central School and Brown Street Schools taken in 1884-1885 by J.J. Eskil of Florence, Wis. In the front row are Jane Van Auken and Allie Wicks; middle row, Sadie Gray, A.J. Van Anda, Agnes Hawley and Clara Congdon; back row, Margaret Teller, Chatty Wheeler, Ella Penglase and Minnie Flaherty. (Menominee Range Historical Museum photo)
This photograph, taken in the late 1890s, faces southwest overlooking a portion of Iron Mountain’s west side with Crystal Lake visible in the upper left. The Central School, the two-story white building with the large belfry, in the back center of the photograph, faced Prospect Avenue on the east end of the block where Iron Mountain High School was built in 1911-1912. (Menominee Range Historical Museum photo)
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This week's "Remember when?" -- provided by the Menominee Range Historical Museum of Iron Mountain -- takes readers back to the early days of education in Iron Mountain.
The first school in the Iron Mountain area opened in 1881 at the corner of Brown and Iron Mountain streets, where classes were held until 1893 as the mining community continued to grow.
To accommodate the area's expanding population, Central School was built in 1884 at 300 W. B St., on the site where Iron Mountain High School stands today. Constructed at a cost of $15,000, the two-story brick school featured a prominent belfry and eight classrooms, serving students in all grade levels.
Central School also became home to Iron Mountain's first high school students. The community celebrated its first graduating class in 1889, and the building continued to serve as the city's high school until the N.P. Hulst School opened in 1892.
As enrollment continued to increase, school officials determined that a larger facility was needed. In 1911, the Central School building was moved two blocks north to the corner of Kimberly Avenue and West Hughitt Street, allowing for the construction of a new school on the original site.
Central School remained in use until 1937, when classes ended and the building was demolished to make way for the new Iron Mountain Junior High School. The replacement school opened the next year, in 1938.
Later known as Central Middle School, the three-story brick building served generations of Iron Mountain students as a junior high before eventually housing kindergarten through eighth-grade classes.
An addition was later constructed across from the original building and connected by an enclosed skywalk, expanding the classroom space, gym and cafeteria.
In 2014, as students began to be relocated to North Elementary School and Iron Mountain High School, district officials began discussing plans to sell or demolish the Central Middle School building, bringing another chapter of the community's educational history to a close.
The school was also used by the Iron Mountain-Kingsford Community Schools.
In 2019, the nonprofit Imagination Factory Children’s Museum was established in the former school. The museum first opened its doors to the public in 2021, occupying the former upstairs classrooms in the school's addition.
After an extensive renovation of the historic three-story building, the Imagination Factory expanded into its new home, welcoming visitors to the restored facility when it officially opened its first floor children's museum to the public in May.
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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.