Schools' history in peril
Architectural gems in Detroit slated to close
Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News
Stained glass decorates Detroit's Guyton Elementary, built in 1923.
DETROIT -- Built when no expense was spared on city schools, the preschool room at Guyton Elementary on Detroit's east side has wood floors and a Pewabic-tiled fireplace.
Above the fireplace's wooden mantel is a hand-painted mural of children picnicking in a field. Down the hallway, decorative plaster lines the auditorium and a stained glass depiction of the school's first principal shines from the window. Outside, concrete gargoyles hover from the second floor.
Detroit children have been learning at Guyton since 1923. But the school, and about 23 others from the same opulent era, could be closed as a part of the Detroit district's unprecedented plan to shutter dozens of schools. The school board could vote on a final closure list as soon as Monday.
Besides concerns about how the closures will affect thousands of students and revitalization plans in pockets of the city, Detroiters and preservationists worry many of the historic schools will be pillaged by thieves once they are vacant. Or that they may even be demolished.
"They are beautiful architecturally, just amazing, very sophisticated," said Rita Walsh, a senior preservation planner based in the Boston area who has studied Michigan's school architecture.
"I am really concerned. To see so many being closed is distressing."
Locally, Preservation Wayne, an organization that works to save historic sites, is monitoring the closures closely. So is the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Midwest office.
Royce Yeater, Midwest director of the National Trust, hopes to meet with school officials to offer help. The group and local preservationists have worked with schools in Cleveland for several years to promote rehabilitation, rather than demolition, as that district goes through a massive building program.
"Nobody is suggesting we should keep schools open just because they are old," Yeater said. "But there are a lot of issues at stake."
School officials said they are sensitive to the concerns of preservationists. But they have the tough task of downsizing the district to keep it afloat. The closings will save an estimated $27 million a year.
Detroit has lost more than 53,000 students in the past decade and at least 40 of the district's 232 active school buildings are less than 50 percent occupied.
"We have to make sure the district is solvent," said Mark Schrupp, the deputy chief of facilities. "Keeping buildings open that have a tremendous amount of empty space isn't feasible."
The district plans to lease vacant buildings once they are closed, but has also said selling or demolishing some are possibilities.
But it hasn't had much luck in the past finding tenants or buyers.
An estimated 35 school buildings are vacant in the city and almost all have been burglarized, primarily by copper thieves.
Experts say there are options to help promote preservation.
The City Council could give a school a historic designation that can restrict development, prevent demolition and give developers a tax credit of up to 25 percent on rehabilitation costs. By law, school districts don't have to abide by the designation. But if the district sold a building to a private developer, the buyer would.
As of Wednesday, there were no petitions pending from residents or council members to grant a historic designation to any of the schools slated to close, city officials said, although advocates of several of the schools are interested in pursuing the designation.
Detroit should consider historic designations for some of the schools, said Roy Strickland, director of the master of urban design program at the University of Michigan.
"These are buildings worth preserving, even if they aren't used as schools," he said. "They are repositories of history."
Nationally, during the period roughly between the 1900s and 1930s, there was a large investment in public school buildings, Strickland said. Builders often used the best materials and it was common to see schools with fireplaces, high ceilings, stained glass, tile-lined hallways and murals.
"In that period, many school buildings were to represent the aspirations of their town," Strickland said.
"Schools were really the center of the community."
Principal Donna Thornton of Cleveland Middle School would love to see her 1927-era school, and its classic touches, saved.
The huge, two-story building still has wood-trimmed hallways and decorative plaster surrounds the auditorium stage.
Built in 1927, Cleveland Middle School features classic details inside and out. If the school closes, it may face demolition or intrusion by thieves.
The wood-paneled library is a highlight, with its own cement fireplace. The wood mantel has a framed, handwritten proclamation from 1926 honoring Elizabeth Cleveland, a Detroit teacher for whom the school was named.
"It's not the typical, modern school," Thornton said. "Those schools seem more prison-like than educational."
Student Leah Nettles, 13, said the library is one of her favorite places to hang out.
"It feels comfortable here," Nettles said, as she typed a report on one of the library's computers.
Cleveland Middle School's wood-paneled library, where Devontae Long, left, 14, Principal Donna Thornton and Gregory Walton, 12, work, is a highlight.
...And the shrinking city saga continues...
I'd like to get some photos of these beautiful old schools, perhaps in the spring before they become abandoned, destroyed, dangerous heaps of junk.
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