By Paul Garrod
Staff Writer
news4garrod@gmail.com
PAW PAW – A Centennial Celebration of 600 E. Michigan Ave., here, the site of the former Paw Paw High School, middle school and Community Education building, was held Sunday afternoon, Oct. 20, now the home of Freshwater Community Church.
Jason Bull, who was on staff at Freshwater Community Church until 2018, served as event host. “I like history, but I’m certainly no historian. I’ve learned a lot from hearing stories over the past 14 years, but mostly from pursuing the archival information I located at the Van Buren County Museum,” said Bull to those gathered in the Community Room, once the site of several classrooms, now opened into one large room.
Bull praised the efforts of museum President Sandra Merchant and her museum team. “We’re in discussions about donating some of the blueprints and other artifacts to the museum,” said Bull.
Bull said Paw Paw’s educational roots can be traced back to 1835. According to a newspaper article published on Sept. 22, 1961, Miss Roxanna Agard taught classes to 10 students in Rodney Hinckly’s blacksmith shop. The blacksmith shop stood on the east bank of the Paw Paw River (now Maple Lake) and students went to school and were seated on wood slab seats. This school was described as primitive, small and shabby.
Bull said the school was moved for one year to a log shanty on the “west side of Main Street bridge.” He was unsure of that exact location. He said that the site served 15 to 20 students that year.
The first schoolhouse in Paw Paw was constructed on Gremps Street and was first occupied in 1836. Bull said the schoolhouse served double duty and was also a courthouse on occasion and on Sundays it became a church.
Just over 30 years later, another newspaper article mentioned by Bull was the “flat iron-shaped” property that was purchased Feb. 1, 1867, from Peter Gremps, a founder of Paw Paw, to construct the “Old Red Brick” schoolhouse. By the end of the year, the Board of Education approved $25,000 to build the “Old Red Brick” schoolhouse. The final cost was reported to be $40,000, which according to Bull, triggered a lawsuit between the Board of Education and the contractor, A. R. Wiley, the father of townsman, E.A. Wiley.
The “Old Red Brick” schoolhouse operated for 53 years until 1923. During that time, there were 19 different superintendents, A total of 768 students graduated from the school, an average of approximately 15 students per year. The largest class was in 1921 with 48.
The 1924 building was constructed at a cost of $225,000.
A headline in the 1924 edition of The True Northerner stated: Famous Artist Visits Paw Paw
“F. L. Van Ness of Memphis, Tenn., is visiting his sister, Mrs. Matie Brewer, and other friends here this week. Mr. Van Ness is painting a picture of the “Old Red Brick” in oil to be hung in the new schoolhouse as a gift from the high school alumni association. The picture, when completed and trained, will be about 6 by 9 feet and will be suitably marked and it is expected that it will be hung on the east wall of the staircase leading to the second floor. Mr. Van Ness is an artist of national reputation and this picture, while the cost of the materials will be paid for by the alumni association, is in reality a gift of Mr. Van Ness to his old hometown.”
A decade later, the school received a significant cultural gift when Carl Hoermann, a fairly well known artist at the time, painted murals for the school.
Hoerman was born in 1885 in Babenhausen, Germany. He came to the emigrated to the United States in 1904, where he settled in Chicago. He studied architecture and opened an office in 1909.
In 1920, Hoerman, an artist (painter), opened a studio and gallery in Saugatuck. In that resort town, he was known as a painter of the Lake Michigan shoreline and sand dunes.
Bull said Hoerman was part of the Central Withholding Agreement (CWA) program through the federal government. The CWA was an agreement between a foreign artist, the IRS and a third party “withholding agent” to reduce the taxes an artist owed when commissioned for a work or participating in tour.
Bull said an investigation was conducted to remove the murals and preserve them, donating them to the Village of Paw Paw and the Hoerman Gallery in Saugatuck, however, initial estimates were around $75,000. Bull said he has had talks with Merchant to see if there are grant options available.
As Freshwater Community Church, which purchased the building in 2015 and embraces the present, Bull said the total cost of the renovation project for half of the building was $2.2 million. Bull said the most significant part of the project was The Commons. “(We) needed a gathering space for church and public events just like this,” said Bull.
Bull told those gathered that the church is applying for a Michigan Historic Landmark designation, which takes approximately one year. “But at first glance it may very will qualify,” said Bull.
Freshwater Community Church Lead Pastor, Troy Gentz, said, “We thank you for taking care of it until we got it. We are so blessed to be stewards of the building.”
He added, “It’s the best building in all of the town.”
The church plans to place a time capsule either on the grounds or inside the building. A collection of items that will be placed inside the time capsule was on display.
