1854 Wyandotte Village | Ford City | Glenwood & Mt. Carmel | South Wyandotte
15. Masonic Temple, Built 1912 & Site of Old Brown School (1855)
A fraternal group, the International Order of Odd Fellows built a one story temple on this site (south side of Chestnut between Biddle and 1st St) in 1912, later it was sold to the Masonic Order in 1944 (another fraternal group founded in 1866). Later Wyandotte’s Masons merged with Trenton and the building was sold.
This was the site of Wyandotte’s first school, named the First Ward School and known as the Old Brown School, built in 1855 almost immediately after the Eureka Iron and Works decided to locate here and the village was founded in 1854.
The Old Brown School also served as the first public building in Wyandotte from 1855 to 1910, used as a school, council meeting chambers, and the meeting room for active organizations of the town including many early Protestant churches. The wooden school building on this site was moved to Ford Ave and 3rd St where it was cut in half and converted for use as two separate houses [Ford Ave 2031 and Ford Ave 2081] that are still visible today in 2004.
The Old Brown School served the students of Wyandotte until 1887 when classes started in the newly constructed public school on the north side of Superior Blvd between 3rd and 4th Sts where the Garfield School is located today.
