A Fallen Cardinal
In 2010, Detroit Public Schools closed 42 schools due to the mounting issue of population decline. One of the more notable schools to close in this period was Cooley High School. At the time of closure, the school, which formerly housed 3,400 students, had less than 1,000 enrolled students. The drastic decline in population is more noticeable than ever these days by simply taking a quick drive in the neighborhoods surrounding Cooley. After the local government came through and demoed all the trap houses, the surrounding neighborhoods were left with large empty fields bearing the scars of driveways.
Considering this is literally one of the most well documented abandoned places in Detroit I will keep my historic summary a bit more condensed than usual. Since I don't pay for Detroit Free Press anymore much of the info here has been borrowed from Detroiturbex's post about Cooley.
After the annexation of Greenfield and Strathmoor into the city of Detroit, the land was quickly developed into subdivisions to accommodate Detroit's massive population boom of the 1920s. To accommodate this rise in population, construction began on the school in the mid-1920s. The building was designed by Donaldson and Meier, the same group that designed the David Stott and Penobscot buildings downtown.
The first unit of the Mediterranean Revival school was completed in 1928 at a cost of about $13,758,498 in today's money. The hand-crafted terracotta details stand as a reminder of a bygone era where structures like this were constructed with care and pride instead of thrown together sterile depression boxes.
Speaking of thrown together sterile depression boxes....
In 1930, an extremely impressive 1,000-seat auditorium was added to the school, and in 1931, a large gymnasium with a running track and swimming pool in the basement were added. The school's sports teams was the "Cooley Cardinals" a name I'm sure struck fear into the hearts of many. Shortly after, the student population reached around 3,400 students.
In the 1960s, Cooley High School became a battleground for rising racial tensions fueled by district-mandated integration. In roughly 7 years, Cooley's student body had gone from less than 1% black to an almost perfect 50/50 split. This sudden influx in mixed races resulted in many students refusing to associate with students of the other race, and in many cases, led to interracial violence from both sides.
Some former students of the school argue that the interracial divide was greatly exaggerated; the legitimacy of both sides of the argument is really "he said, she said" at this point. One thing is for certain though, the whitey tighties were not a fan, and by 1980, the student body of Cooley was now 94% black and 6% white.
Stepping back to the 70s for a moment, Cooley came under the control of Principal Walter Jenkins, who led major reforms throughout the school. In 1972, a new modern wing was constructed, which later became known as "Cooley North". Throughout the 70s, violence drastically declined, and test grades soared. By the early 80s, the school was considered to be one of Detroit's best.
As was already mentioned above, this school fell victim to Detroit's population collapse, which started in the late 1980s and was worsened by the 2008 recession. In 2010, despite several recent renovations, the school was permanently closed. In the early years of its abandonment, the school was kept in excellent condition; electricity was kept on in the building, and re-use plans were already in the works.
However, things would soon take a turn for the worst. Among the onslaught of problems brought on by the mounting recession was the spike in scrap metal prices. Within only a few years of abandonment, power had been cut to the building, and scrappers began to tear into the copper inside. Small fires, likely caused by cutting torches and vandals, also became concerningly common.
In 2017, some idiots managed to burn the entire auditorium down. The flammable materials present in the auditorium and the hindered response time from the Detroit Fire Department due to the building being sealed resulted in severe damage to the auditorium and major smoke damage on the upper floors. Arson attacks against abandoned buildings are a very common issue in Detroit and are one of the reasons I don't explore there much these days. You are lucky to find a building abandoned for more than 2 years that doesn't have at least 1 charred room.
Controls for the stage curtains.
After the fire, it was open season for scrappers, vandals, and urbexers. The large and ornate auditorium drew in curious photographers from all over the state and even the nation; I think you will literally get a photo of it as the first result when you look up "Abandoned Detroit School". In an attempt to curb the number of visitors and scrappers entering the site, at some point in the mid-2010s, the Detroit School District boarded up the windows (or lack thereof) and installed these weird clear plastic panels that they love to put on everything now.
A science lab in the old wing of the school, check out those asbestos pipes!
During Covid, the school saw another boom in visitors for some strange reason, this time mostly from urbexers and vandals, as literally anything worth its weight had already been stolen by some tweaker back in 2017.
At some point during this time, the Detroit School District put up a funny sign exclusively on one single door. It reads: "WARNING NO TRESPASSING. These premises are covered by Police. Trespassers will be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law! DPSCD Police Squad will respond!". I have no idea why they only put this sign on a single well-sealed door; I guess to possibly use it as an excuse when trying to make an example out of someone.
While taking some exterior shots after I left the building, I actually did notice two squad cars kept driving around the block, eyeing me to see what I was up to. There were some city workers there cleaning off graffiti with a power washer, so I'm not sure if they had phoned in that they heard noises from inside or what. Admittedly, I wasn't the most stealthy inside, as I was carrying around my tripod and running on a few hours of sleep. I still have a nasty bruise on my toe from accidentally kicking a tipped-over locker.
Wish my high school had a pool this nice!
Despite the constant work to keep the exterior of the building in top shape, the workers seemed to be oblivious to the one massive missing board that people had been using to get inside for probably at least 2 years. You can sure tell that it's a common entrance, as the classroom it leads into is completely coated in graffiti.
The library is my favorite part of this school. The wooden spiral staircase in the middle leading to the mezzanine above is something I don't think I've seen in any other abandoned school. I was quite upset to find out that it had recently suffered a fire, leaving parts of it smoke damaged. Not to mention, my photos came out poor as well! I imagine it's only a matter of time before some idiot sets the rest of the library on fire.
I'm genuinely curious if any other school in America has a library similar to this one. If you know of one, feel free to let me know in the comments below, if those even work anymore... The original tile had been covered with grey carpet, which honestly made for a pretty interesting and oddly comforting combo... IF IT WASN'T BURNT!
Cooley North was connected by a two-story walkway, as well as in part of the north end of the old wing. The windows on the top floor had been busted out, allowing me to grab a quick breath of fresh air and snack on a granola bar I packed because I skipped breakfast to hit the road early today.
Cooley North seems to be where all the fun classes were, as I mostly found science labs, trades, and music classes. Unfortunately, I was starting to get tired and wanted to beat the rush-hour traffic on I-75 home, so I didn't spend a lot of time in this area.
The marble and tile hallways of the original wing were now replaced by bleak drop ceilings and plain white walls. These halls were so generic that I actually found myself getting lost on a few occasions because everything literally looked the same. I also managed to knock the battery out of my camera light, which resulted in a fun minute-long search in the dark for it.
The more modern labs reminded me a lot of when I used to compete in Science Olympiad (Aka schools with the most funding win by default because half the kids' parents are actual engineers and do the projects for them). When we would go to competitions, I would always end up in a lab that I swear looks identical to these, with some random shit on the walls and those same wooden cabinets with black countertops that I think every single school lab in the entire United States of America has.
In 2021, the nonprofit Life Remodeled, who in the past successfully renovated the former Durfee Elementary & Middle School into a "Community Innovation Center," announced plans to turn the former Cooley High School into a "Community Hub".
Despite strong support from alumni and neighbors of the building, the Detroit School Board rejected the proposal and refused the sale of the building without a vote after three years of negotiation back and forth. The officially cited reason for the denial was that the developers had not laid out plans clearly enough. Perhaps members of the board were sent into a panic attack after not seeing parking lot or luxury apartments project listed on the site proposal.
Unfortunately, the School Board seems steadfast in their decision, and Life Remodeled is currently seeking another site to renovate for their new proposed project. The school board's adamant refusal makes me wonder if there is some sort of behind closed doors deal with another developer that promises parking lots or luxury apartments; however, at this time, there is no proof to indicate this, and no future plans have been announced.
Despite all that has happened to the building, it still remains in good condition overall structurally. Most of the damage appears to only affect the interior, and the roof is still in excellent condition. With the pesky protected status the building has from the National Register of Historic Places, big luxury apartment might have a difficult time finding an excuse to demolish this place. Perhaps they might just be forced to renovate it. I will give Detroit credit; they are at least making some attempt to save some of the more "famous" abandoned places; however, a concerning amount are all becoming apartments. From one oversaturated market that will lead to eventual collapse to the next I guess.
The surprisingly small cafeteria.
Only time will tell what the future has in store for this architectural marvel. Hopefully, it is eventually reused for something meaningful, and whoever renovates it saves that library. You can guarantee I will be there at the ribbon drop to see that library if it's ever fixed.
I've been on a bit of a Detroit kick this summer so expect to see more posts from here in the coming months, hope you enjoyed this post as always.
Mutagen Out.
