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Report - - The Schools of Detroit, Part Two - April 2019 | European and International Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - The Schools of Detroit, Part Two - April 2019

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mookster

grumpy sod
Regular User
As I eluded to in the first selection of school explores I accomplished in Detroit, my favourite schools of all somewhat suitably ended up being a few right towards the end of the trip, so it was nice to finish on a high.

The next day and a half saw us explore a further eight schools, some of course better than the others but it was a day full of surprises nonetheless.

Chandler Elementary School

The day started pretty much how we'd finished previously. Chandler is another pretty fucked one however you could see that under all the rubbish and graffiti it would at one point have been a real nice one to explore as there was plenty of stuff left inside upon closure - now strewn about the place of course. It also featured murals depicting black American historical figures in some of the corridors.

Chandler is an old school, built in 1905 and named after former mayor Zachariah Chandler. It reached it's peak enrolment at nearly 2400 students in 1914, and additional wings were added in 1922 and 1961. Enrolment had plummeted to just 362 students by 2002, and the school was closed in 2004.

Needless to say we didn't spent long here!

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Hosmer Elementary School

Hosmer Elementary was built in 1921 and named after noted judge George Hosmer. It was extended in 1924 which enabled it to cater for 540 more students.

Like Chandler, it too closed in 2004 and is situated in a seriously blighted neighbourhood with many completely cleared blocks. Another fairly quick one although it is holding up slightly better than Chandler.

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Colin Powell Academy

Originally opened as the St. John Berchmans Elementary School in 1924, over the next three years the church parish which ran the school struggled with crippling debt so members of the Servite order were asked to take over the running of the school in 1927. By 1942 the debt was under control and enrolment at the school was increasing and in 1949 a High School wing was constructed, and the school became known as Servite High School. During the 1970s and 1980s the enrolment began to decline and in 1986 the school closed. A decade later in 1996, state funded charter school the Colin Powell Academy took ownership of the building, a venture which lasted until 2010 when the charter for the school was revoked and it closed permanently.

This school is a strange one as in stark contrast to pretty much every other school there isn't a single board on any of the windows. It's almost as if they just never bothered and left the building to the elements.

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Winsome Elementary School

The first of my real favourite schools. Somehow this school has been completely overlooked by pretty much everyone, the fact that it resides in a really rather bad area of an already dangerous city perhaps puts people off. But me? I loved it here. Totally un-tagged, and with largely natural decay save the windows being removed, and then boarded over, I could have stayed much longer than we did in the end which was a shame as I didn't get a chance to shoot the upstairs level.

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Crockett Technical High School

Another school that really doesn't seem to get the attention it should. I had seen photos from the auditorium here floating around Instagram for a while but never realised it was this place, so walking in on the auditorium I had seen in photos was a great unexpected surprise.

Crockett Technical High, originally John Burroughs Intermediate School, was completed in 1927 to a similar E shaped design as Cooley. The classrooms occupied the wings and the central core housed the auditorium, swimming pool and two gymnasiums (one for boys one for girls). During the 1970s the surrounding neighbourhoods began to shrink with the closures of the large automobile factories nearby and in 2003 Burroughs was closed. It reopened in 2005 as Crockett Technical High School which had moved from another location, however this only lasted until 2012 when the school was closed and all students transferred to another school nearby.

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Continued below....​
 

mookster

grumpy sod
Regular User
Goodside Elementary School

Another of my personal favourites, at a push I'd say this is one of the most untouched and unmolested schools in all of Detroit. There are only two tags in the whole building by the Pennsylvania-based arsewipe cancerous leech known as Vizoe and other than that the school is just falling apart beautifully. Architecturally it's an almost exact copy of Hosmer, however the two couldn't have had more diverging fates.

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Parkland Middle School

My other absolute favourite school from the trip. This school is a bit of an enigma, with certain schools there is a whole load of info out there but for this one there really isn't, and boy have I looked. It was built in the 1920s like a lot of the schools, and closed in 2005 for the same reasons as so many other schools.

The auditorium is a work of art in here, it's in such a perfectly decayed state.

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Holcomb Elementary School

The last school I explored and the final explore we did in Detroit before beginning the nine-and-a-half hour journey back eastwards.

Samuel D. Holcomb school was founded in 1925, and extended in 1929 as enrolment continued to climb past 1000 students. In 1946 the school was once again expanded with the addition of the auditorium plus five more classrooms and a school shop. Holcomb closed in 2010 due to declining enrolment, down to just 250 students at the start of that year.

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It's crazy to think that the fourteen schools I explored account for only a tiny fraction of the closed schools that litter Detroit, it's almost overwhelming.

I hope you enjoyed this read, thanks as always.​
 

Bugsuperstar

Irresponsible & Reckless
Regular User
Those auditoriums are enough for me to want to visit every one of these places. Brilliant report again mate.
 

HughieD

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Lapping these Stateside reports up Mook. This one's an epic one - loving the wall paintings and the performance halls. Fab stuff.
 

mookster

grumpy sod
Regular User
Cheers all...

Love this mooks.

I'll get to Detroit someday...if not for the umbex, the drink, food and craic will do !!

The food in Detroit is the best I have had anywhere except NYC. It's food culture is almost as big as it's car culture!
 

host

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Full marks top of the class. I doubt your school report will say needs to try harder.
 
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