My City March 2023

MYHISTORY

Superintendent’s Cottage (Michigan School for the Deaf) Beaver Dr., Flint Built: 1890 At the urging of future Flint Mayor Edward H. Thomson with backing from another future Flint Mayor, James C. Willson, Michigan Governor Epaphroditus Ransom

established the Michigan Asylum for Educating the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind in Flint in 1848. In 1887, the school became known as the Michigan School for the Deaf and in 1937 the state Board of Education assumed responsibility for the school’s operation. In the 1880s, school administrators deemed it nec essary to build a home for the school superintendent on school grounds

and construction on the cottage be gan. Built nearly entirely by students, the house also features professional carpentry and furniture crafted by students in school shops under the direction of teachers Edwin Barton and James Foss. Superintendent Francis Clarke moved in two years after completion in 1892 and the cot tage has been the residence of every school superintendent thereafter.

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