Clark Girls School, 1865

505 North Division Street

Clark Girls School, 1865

The most famous and most permanent of the private schools in 19th-century Ann Arbor was the Misses Clark's Seminary for Young Ladies. This simple brick building, now converted to apartments, was the sixth and final location of that school.

Mary Clark came to Washtenaw County in the 1830s with her family and established the school in Ann Arbor in 1839 with her sisters Chloe and Roby. All three were graduates of the famous finishing school of Mrs. Emma Willard of Troy, New York, and brought the Willard philosophy of education into the wilderness. According to the 1881 History of Washtenaw County, "many prominent women owe their high culture to the facilities enjoyed in [the Clark"> seminary."

So famous was this school in the 1840s and 50s that one-third of its pupils came from outside Ann Arbor, some from as far away as New York. The education philosophy was heavy in moral tone and stressed observations of nature as Mary Clark was an avid botanist. Boarders were not allowed to receive callers except on Friday or Saturday evenings with the principal present. Shopping was allowed only on Wednesday or Saturday afternoons as the Misses Clark did not want to "promote an undue love of society, but an acquaintance of the courtesies of life."

When Mary Clark died in 1875, the school closed, never to be re-opened. Chloe died shortly thereafter in 1880 and an era of old-fashioned gentility died with them.

By 1900 the building had been converted into apartments. Called the Oakwood Apartments in the 1910s, it was further subdivided in the 1920s into eight units and renamed the McLean Apartments by its owner and resident Donald McLean. McLean family members still own and reside in it today.