PHOTOS: What 5 Years can do to a building [Cass Tech]

**Traxus** · March-02-10, 12:08 AM

You know the place, maybe not. An old high school that has seen the plight of scrappers, weather vandals and photographers.

Empty promises...
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yield vacant minds.
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Where potential energy...
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...is converted into violent energy...
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...that is taught to run in circles...
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...on an uneven playing field...
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...where names are irrelevant and individuals fall victim to the totality...
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...of our rust laden machine...
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...perhaps, to bear children who further fuel our vicious cycle.

**Hamtragedy** · March-02-10, 12:38 AM

Yeah, but we got a great new non-descript building one block north with a 98 yard long football field that 100 years worth of Alumni would be proud of.

Albert Kahn who?

**Traxus** · March-02-10, 12:44 AM

On top of that, I heard from a current employee the new building is falling apart at the seams? Hearsay perhaps.

Also, I found this informative, but monumentally less interesting photo of a chalkboard, practically a tombstone...

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**Detroitnerd** · March-02-10, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by Traxus

On top of that, I heard from a current employee the new building is falling apart at the seams? Hearsay perhaps.

For real? I thought the new school was supposed to be 100 times more efficient and better than the old building.

**EastsideAl** · March-02-10, 10:52 AM

Really sad fate for a school that has been such a proud part of our history in this city [[and my personal history, and my mother, aunt, sister, and several of my cousins also went there).

Sometimes I don't understand this city at all. If they had no uses in mind for the building, why not tear it down after the new school was built and before it got to this condition? Or if they were saving it for a possible future re-use, why not seal it or at least police it and protect it from the elements? And why the hell just leave everything just sitting there as it was on the last day of school as an inevitable lure for scrappers and "urban explorers", and not even send some cleaning crews through to clean the place out?

It just seems insane to let such a historical structure in such a central and visible part of the city turn into a blown-out hulk in front of everyone's eyes, including the students at the building next door. It's just embarrassing for everyone involved, and to the general public serves to largely negate the achievement of getting the new school built and up and running.

**mikeg19** · March-02-10, 11:23 AM

I don't understand why they left everything there in place. Was it really cheaper to leave good products there and buy all new stuff? Either way, I hope this building isn't up for demo.

**showstoppa** · March-02-10, 12:40 AM

good heavens, please tell me this isn't the place I think it is !

**Traxus** · March-02-10, 12:52 AM

Originally Posted by showstoppa

good heavens, please tell me this isn't the place I think it is !

Showstoppa, you guessed right, and forgive me if I'm unrealistic, but I'm tentative to reveal this place to anyone who doesn't recognize it...

Although if it's slated for demolition [[I guess Robert Bob has the funds already?) I suppose its fate is already sealed and we could open it for discussion?

LodgeDodger · March-02-10, 07:38 AM

Depressing.

**East Detroit** · March-02-10, 07:49 AM

We drove by in a Honda and didn't understand what's happened to Detroit.

Saw a chalkboard inside that had "I will not pull Christine's pony tail" written 20 times.

**iheartthed** · March-02-10, 07:57 AM

Well, in their defense, the swimming pool pictured hadn't been used for decades even before the building was shuttered.

**313WX** · March-02-10, 02:25 PM

Originally Posted by East Detroit

We drove by in a Honda and didn't understand what's happened to Detroit.

**eastland** · March-02-10, 06:28 PM

an out-of-date textbook is better than no textbook at all.

neighbor · March-02-10, 08:42 AM

5 years didn't do that alone.

**iheartthed** · March-02-10, 08:50 AM

Originally Posted by neighbor

5 years didn't do that alone.

Well, 5 years, a few dozen squatters, 100 or so scrappers, and a few ruin porn photographers.

**mauser** · March-07-10, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

a few ruin porn photographers.

...said the ruin porn forumer.

**detroitbred** · March-02-10, 11:44 AM

To me the fact that furniture and materials that could not have been used in Detroit Public Schools somewhere, were not at least donated to someone who could put them to good use. There is so much need out there, and someone would have been thrilled to get those school supplies, etc. It is a damn shame on so many levels.

**Gsgeorge** · March-02-10, 11:55 AM

What could be done to save this place, or at least one of its impressive neogothic facades?

**RickBeall** · March-02-10, 12:15 PM

Great, sad pictures.

**agirlintheD** · March-02-10, 01:46 PM

sweet-juniper.com has an entire section on abandoned schools [[abandoned homes, zoos, etc.) and what was just left behind, what the scrappers have done, the sheer waste, the sadness of what DPS has become....sad, so sad.

**Goose** · March-02-10, 01:53 PM

that glassware, beakers, testtubes, pyrex stuff ain't cheap, but its probably out of date......

**Danny** · March-02-10, 01:56 PM

Adieu Old Gem!

**JBMcB** · March-02-10, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by Goose

that glassware, beakers, testtubes, pyrex stuff ain't cheap, but its probably out of date......

Lab grade glassware doesn't go out of date, you use it until it breaks or the gradations wear off. It probably cost more to hire DPS workers to move everything than to just buy all new stuff and have it shipped to the new school.

I'll have to show my uncle this, he graduated from C.T. in the late 70's and got his Ph.D. in chemistry from Cornell.

**12468_laing** · March-02-10, 02:21 PM

As part of the Denby swim team, I swam in that pool in 1973 or 1974. That is the only way I recognized these pictures. Truly a shame, but what can be done?

**EastsideAl** · March-02-10, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by 12468_laing

As part of the Denby swim team, I swam in that pool in 1973 or 1974. That is the only way I recognized these pictures. Truly a shame, but what can be done?

My mother and my sister both won city championships swimming out of that pool. My father competed on that funky hanging track as a member of the Denby track team. I'm not really an emotional guy, but this whole scene makes me so sad that I really can't bear to look at the pictures, or really look at the place itself when I pass by.