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 Michigan’s First Capital / Capitol Union School - Detroit, Mi. Posted by:  Rattrak
N 42° 19.958 W 083° 02.955
17T E 331169 N 4688742
This is a 2 sided marker, Michigan’s First Capital and Capitol Union School in the newly rebuilt Capital Park, downtown Detroit.
Waymark Code: WMEXD3
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 07/17/2012
Views: 11
Historical Date: 05/05/1828
Description:
Michigan's First Capital
At noon on September 22, 1823, citizens and dignitaries joined a Masonic procession to place the cornerstone for the capital of the Michigan Territory on this site. The red brick building, designed by Obed Walt, had “a lofty Portico, consisting of six columns of the Ionic order” and a 140 ~ foot tower. The Legislative Council opened its first session in the completed building on May 5, 1828. Here Michigan’s leaders fought for statehood and drafted their first constitution. Though Michigan did not formally achieve statehood until January 26, 1937, it inaugurated Stevens T. Mason as its first state governor on November 3, 1935, and the building became Michigan’s first state capital.
Capital Union School
Michigan made Lansing its capital city in 1847. The next year the Detroit School Board turned the building on this site that had served as Michigan’s first capital into classrooms. The high School, which the city started with twenty-three male students in 1858, moved to the second floor of what was by then called Capital Union School in 1863. In 1870, the board added four rooms onto the back of the building. Part of the addition briefly housed the public library. In 1875, the front of the old capital disappeared behind a three-story addition and a mansard roof. The board already had plans to build Central High School on Cass Avenue when before dawn on January 27, 1893, fire consumed Capital Union School.
Parking nearby?: yes
D/T ratings: 
Registered Site #: #74
Historical Name: Not listed
website: Not listed
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