Orchard Lake Schools Historic District
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Orchard Lake Schools Historic District
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The Academic Building of the Michigan Military Academy was built in 1890. It now holds many of the classrooms for St. Mary's Preparatory.
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| Location | Indian Trail, Orchard Lake, Michigan |
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| Coordinates | 42°35′38″N 83°21′28″W / 42.59389°N 83.35778°WCoordinates: 42°35′38″N 83°21′28″W / 42.59389°N 83.35778°W |
| Area | 15 acres (6.1 ha) |
| Built | 1858 |
| Architectural style | Gothic, Tudor Revival, Queen Anne |
| NRHP Reference # | 82002859 |
| Added to NRHP | March 19, 1982 |
The Michigan Military Academy, also known as the M.M.A., was an all-boys military prep school in Orchard Lake Village, Oakland County, Michigan. It was founded in 1877 by Captain J. Sumner Rogers, and closed in 1908 due to bankruptcy. Some journalists have referred to the school as the Second West Point. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as the Orchard Lake Schools Historic District.
In 1858, Joseph Tarr Copeland (b. May 6, 1813), a U.S. Army general who would later serve in the American Civil War, purchased several acres of land and began to build his retirement home on the shores of Orchard Lake. Most of the 90 acres (364,000 m²) he owned were used for agricultural purposes, and he was slowly selling tracts of land for profit. The area was popular with tourists, so in 1871 Gen. Copeland converted his residence, a large, castle-like home on the shores of Orchard Lake, into the Orchard Lake Hotel. Business was good for a few years but development in the area forced many vacationers to seek seclusion farther north and the Panic of 1873 forced Copeland to find profit elsewhere. In 1877 Gen. Copeland sought to sell his home and the land around it. Captain J. Sumner Rogers (b. 1844), who was a professor of Military Science and Tactics at Detroit High School, had wanted to establish a creditable military prep school in the Detroit area for some time. Seeing the opportunity at hand, Rogers bought the land with the help of some wealthy Detroiters, and later that year he established the Michigan Military Academy. He modeled the academy after West Point and its success was immediate.
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