Article from live.com site:
“Grand Rapids
Historic Ottawa Station School to find new life through historical society
Updated Apr 03, 2019; Posted Jul 23, 2011
OLIVE TOWNSHIP – For more than 90 years, children in this rural Ottawa County community attended classes in a white, wood frame one-room schoolhouse at the north end of 116th Avenue at Stanton Street.
Bt the Ottawa Station School was far more than just a place for children to be educated. It served as a gathering place for community events, such as church services and social activities.
Now, the former schoolhouse will be used again for public events as part of the Olive Township Historical Society. The family of Wanda and Kenneth Hepler, which had owned the structure for more than 50 years, donated it to the historical society, which organized four years ago.
“I know it’s going to be a wonderful place where people are going to come and enjoy the history of this area, and the schoolhouse itself,” said Wanda Hepler, 88, whose mother and grandmother attended the school.
Her great-grandfather, Karl Augustus Names, was a German immigrant who was one of the area’s first settlers in 1857.
The schoolhouse still retains some of its original furnishings, including a blackboard, several desks and bookshelves.
Kit Karsten, historical society president, said he’s amazed with the condition of the schoolhouse, which was renovated by Kenneth Hepler as a residence.
“There’s nothing to do here,” Karsten said. “It’s a great building.”
Built in 1867 and moved in 1875, the Ottawa Station School was a central part of a small lumber community that peaked in the late 19th century.
The town of Ottawa Station was located along a rail line that ran between New Buffalo and Muskegon, and included general stores, blacksmith shop, post office and hotel, said Hepler, who wrote a book on the schoolhouse’s history.
The town later faded into oblivion because the lumber industry died out, due to clear-cutting of the forest land.
The school still remained, continuing to educate students from kindergarten through eighth grade. The school closed down due to consolidation in 1959 and Ottawa Station joined other nearby rural schools in becoming part of the Zeeland district.
Hepler’s mother, Vida Stone Sines, purchased the property and converted the schoolhouse into a residence, living there until her death in 1991. Sines compiled much of the history that became part of Hepler’s book.
It’s uncertain how the building will be used, but it potentially can host the historical society’s annual holiday open house tour.
“We haven’t gotten that far into what can be done here,” Karsten said.
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Ottawa Station School
11611 Stanton Street
West Olive, Michigan 49460