200 North Ann Arbor Street
Date of Construction: 1930

Saline Union School - ca. 1893
Photo Courtesy of Saline Area Historic Society

Photo by Lori Swick
March 2013

Architectural Description: The Historic Union School Building is a three-story, red brick building. There are several narrow bands of concrete, accenting all elevations. An addition on the north side of the building was completed in 1958. The majority of the windows are aligned in pairs with six panes of glass.

History: According to Samuel Beakes' Past and Present of Washtenaw County, Michigan, the first Union School was built on this same site in 1868 and cost $25,000 to construct. The first graduating class in 1872 consisted of two students: Beverly Davenport and William Meade. At the time, Union School was a tall Italianate structure, serving kindergarten through grade 12. By the 1920s, the school had become overcrowded and was therefore replaced in 1930 by the present building. Union School was designed and built by notable Ann Arbor architects Paul Kasurin and Lynn Fry. Saline High School was located at this location through 1959, when it was relocated to a newly constructed building on Maple Road. Following its use as a high school, the Union School building served for many years as an elementary school and the Saline Schools Administrative Office Building. The structure was purchased in 2010 by Quantum Signal, LLC, which specializes in advanced signal processing and math-based engineering.

Sources: Beakes, Samuel W.  Past and Present of Washtenaw County, Michigan. Chicago: S.J. Clark Publishing Co., 1906.

"Historic District Study Committee Report for the North Ann Arbor Street Local Historic District." 2004

Kosky & Glynn Associates. "Historical and Architectural Survey." Saline, Michigan. 1994.

Saline Area Historical Society photo available through the Saline District Library http://saline.lib.mi.us/

Suggested Reading: McAlester, Virginia & Lee. A Field Guide to American Houses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1984.

Prepared by Lori Swick
April 17, 2013