History

Our mission has always been leading children to Jesus. In 1891, Dr. John  Kellogg sent a group of Christian medical students to University of Michigan. These students studied and ministered. On Sabbaths, they worshiped among themselves. On Sundays, they led a children’s school attended by community children. When the medical students returned each fall, forty to sixty children returned to the children’s school. One of those children became a charter member of the Ann Arbor Seventh-Day Adventist Church (AASDA) along with about 21members in 1895.

AASDA continued serving its church and community children, and the need for a church school became necessary. In 1950, a church school opened with 21 students in the home of its first teacher, Dorothea Williams. Since the church school’s establishment, two school buildings were built on AASDA‘s property due to its growth. Today, the church school is Ann Arbor Adventist Elementary School (AAAES). For over 130 years, AASDA has served its church and community children, following Jesus‘ command, “Let the little children come to  Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:14).

Reflections on the History of AAAES, by Gretchen Moon

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; ” (Isaiah 51:1, NIV)

Since Isaiah recommends looking to our spiritual ancestors, we will do so within context of our Ann Arbor SDA congregation and its school.  Since the beginning, children were central to the Ann Arbor Church family. Before there was an Adventist presence in Ann Arbor, there was a group of about 12 SDA medical students sent by John Harvey Kellogg to attend the University of Michigan school. The year was 1891.

While this group of students studied medicine, they also made time to minister to the community. On Sabbaths, they worshipped within their own group. But on Sundays, they gathered the children of the community and conducted a Sunday school.  The Sunday school was held in a building near Pontiac Trail and Broadway Street, not far from the University of Michigan hospital. From that era, there are stories of cattle being herded down Pontiac Trail on their way to a meat processing plant, also in that area.

The children gathered and learned to sing, to pray, and to listen to Bible stories.  They were largely unchurched, and came from the poor section of town.  The Sunday school was very successful, with 40-60 returning to it each fall when the medical students returned for another year of study.

One child from that Sunday school became a charter member of Ann Arbor SDA Church when it was officially organized in 1895.  The group of about 20 charter members soon bought a small red brick church building on the corner of Liberty and Division streets.

In 1907, just seven years later, they sold the little red brick church and built a lovely wood-frame church building on Church Street.  Fast forward now, into the first half of the 1900s. The challenges of World War I, the stresses of the Great Depression, and the upheaval of World War II chafed the faithful group, which was now a larger congregation. They were outgrowing their beloved Church Street building. It had been fashioned by their hands. It was where they had emptied their pockets and filled their hearts.

Now they needed a more adequate building, but there were other priorities. By now, there were a lot of children among them. As they considered the options, they decided they must first provide a Seventh-day Adventist education for the children.  That mean building a school first, and later a church.  They began a building fund. They sacrificed, with one family even mortgaging their farm in order to make a significant contribution.  Meanwhile the church group organized the first school year. School opened in the home of Dorothea Williams, the first teacher, with 21 students, in 1950.

After that first year, it was decided to use rental properties until an adequate school could be built. Three are identified:  
Valentine School (Ypsilanti-Saline Road near State Street)
Robinson School (Ypsilanti-Saline Road near Carpenter Street)
A portable (on Platt Road near Packard Street)

Eventually property was purchased on the yet underdeveloped, unpaved Packard Road, at our present location. It was lovingly referred to as being “way out in the country.”

The property was part of the large farm, where the Cobblestone Farm House still stands across the street from the church. The fields behind the house were later developed by the city into Buhr Park. Our own campus property where the school stands is said to have been the farm’s peach orchard.  In 1953, a neat little cement block building was constructed. This became the Ann Arbor SDA school for nearly 30 years. It later became Little Lamb nursery and currently is being remade into a community ministry building.

Reflecting the world-wide surge in enrollment in Seventh-day Adventist schools following World War II, the school grew steadily until the little block building could no longer contain enrollment. For a short time, a portable unit was added at its side to hold the overflow.  Anticipating further growth, plans were made to build a larger, adequate school.  Plans were drawn by a church member, architect Thomas Yaste. It was designed for 50-60 students. The funding and construction was a formidable undertaking. Yet, the Lord blessed the project funds, labor and a lot of volunteer work; church members, students, and pastor all working side by side.

The new building opened for the 1979-1980 school year. It still needed a lot of clean-up and finish work. Eventually that got done too, by the attention of many loving, caring hands.

After a decade of operation, Ann Arbor Junior Academy closed, due to decline in enrollment. Those were empty, years devoid of the brightness and hope in the future that children bring into the church family. It was closed for five years.  However, by much prayer and diligent effort, the school reopened in 1997, under the name Ann Arbor Adventist Elementary School, for grades 1-8.  The past generations looked forward, towards God’s kingdom, just as we do today.

They took to heart Jesus’ words “Let the little children come to me…for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”  Caring for the children is equated with the coming Kingdom. We look backward at our spiritual ancestors and see courage, faith, and determination to pass spiritual values to the next generation.

We thank and praise God for the “quarry” from which we came, as we go forward with church and its school.