Carpenter Elementary serves two areas of northeast Pittsfield Township, an area long popular for its affordable homes and semi-rural setting. Carpenter grads go on to Scarlett Middle School and Huron High.
The small frame and ranch houses in the original Carpenter School neighborhood were built around World War II. Several generations live on these quiet, flat streets, laid out in a grid between Packard and Washtenaw. Stretches of condos, townhouses, and single-family homes spread along the south side of Packard and in the Arbor Woods subdivision. An older neighborhood of connected shady streets lies west of Golfside.
Children along Christina and adjoining streets north of Morgan are bused to Carpenter. So are those in an area between Crane and Golfside along and south of Textile, in the far southeast corner of the school district. South of Ellsworth and west of US-23, where the Carpenter area stretches south of Michigan Ave., subdivisions alternate with individual homes among acres of surviving farmland; the new Estates at Pittsfield Glen, with entrances on Platt and Textile, has a model open and is selling now, as is the second phase of the Arbor Farms development off Platt. Wellesley Gardens, on Michigan Ave. just west of US-23, has 426 condos, lofts, and townhouses; the Arbor Knoll apartments are next door. To the west, on Stone School south of Ellsworth, are the 200 “upper and lower ranches” of the Woodside Meadows condominium.
Bike lanes: Packard has an east-west bike lane running from Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti, but otherwise bike infrastructure is rare in this area.
Walking: Carpenter Elementary’s walk score is 47 (walkscore.com). The southwestern parts of the neighborhood are within walking distance of shopping at Carpenter and Packard.
