Irving Elementary School

**Crystal** · September-30-10, 01:47 PM

My Mom was born in 1930. She says she attended Irving Elementary School in Detroit. She does not remember where she went to middle school, but she knows she graduated from Cass Tech HS.

Later this fall I plan to take a road trip to look for old yearbooks and other information.

Does anyone know where Irving Elementary was? I am hoping to find a photo of it.

Thanks very much!

**Hermod** · September-30-10, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by Crystal

My Mom was born in 1930. She says she attended Irving Elementary School in Detroit. She does not remember where she went to middle school, but she knows she graduated from Cass Tech HS.

Later this fall I plan to take a road trip to look for old yearbooks and other information.

Does anyone know where Irving Elementary was? I am hoping to find a photo of it.

Thanks very much!

Back then elementary schools rarely had yearbooks or class photos.

If her elementary school was not K-8, she probably went to an "intermediate" school for 7-8 or 7-9.

**detroitbookhound** · September-30-10, 01:52 PM

Irving K-6 94 Willis West.

**detroitbookhound** · September-30-10, 01:54 PM

Oh best place to find Cass yearbooks - eBay

**gazhekwe** · September-30-10, 02:23 PM

Classmates.com now has yearbooks to browse for people who pay to be gold members or whatever the subscription is called.

**Crystal** · September-30-10, 02:30 PM

Thank you for the information!

We visited the wonderful Genealogy Center in the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana a few years ago. There were many Detroit area yearbooks covering many decades, but I didn't look for Cass Tech at that time.

**EastsideAl** · September-30-10, 03:01 PM

Irving was at 94 W. Willis, as detroitbookhound said, which is between Woodward and Cass in the Cass Corridor [[now commonly called Midtown) area. It's no longer standing.

It was built in 1882, but I don't know when it was torn down. It was definitely still there in the 1950s when my parents lived on that street, but by the time I started hanging around that area in the late 1970s I believe it was gone. I know that the kids from that area went to school at Burton down on Cass and Peterboro by that time. There are some people who post on this board occasionally who grew up in that neighborhood and may know more about it.

Here is a picture of the school from the Wayne State U. Virtual Motor City site from what looks like some time in the 1950s:

**Crystal** · September-30-10, 03:33 PM

Thank you so much, this is great!

Mom has told stories about growing up in a basement apartment near Prentis and Second, so it makes sense that Irving Elementary was at 94 W. Willis, and that Mom indeed went to school there.

Mom says they got a break on their rent because her Mother kept the apartment furnaces stoked with coal.

I have a few photos of Mom and her brother in the '30s and '40s. The building in the background closely matches the Google street view for the large apartment building at 612 Prentis at Second.

**EastsideAl** · October-01-10, 10:42 AM

Here's something I found while looking up something else on U of M's site of pictures from the Burton Historical Collection, which may be of less importance to the original poster's query but that I nonetheless found rather interesting.

This is a much older photo of the Irving school. In fact, it appears to be a construction photo [[note the piles of lumber in front of the building). You can see here that the building originally had a nice bell tower that it seems to have lost at some point before the 1950s photo above.

[[You can see a much larger and clearer version of this photo here: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/imag...%5DDPA4028.TIF)

**Crystal** · October-01-10, 11:17 AM

Absolutely wonderful. I'm a pretty good researcher and finder of information, but sheesh you guys are the best. Thank you so much!

**gnome** · October-01-10, 11:41 AM

excellent work EastsideAl.

can't add much, but on Classmates.com it shows that Lamar Lemmons went to school there from 1963 - 66. Now I couldn't tell you which Lamar Lemmons that might be [[Sr. Jr. the III or IV), but they don't seem to be too difficult to find.

**reddog289** · October-02-10, 02:20 AM

There is a listing for it in the 67/68 DPS directory. 94 W. Willis. also has [[ See Burton) in the listing. Both K-6 schools with the same principal.

**Crystal** · October-02-10, 10:42 AM

Was/is 94 W. Willis on the north or south side of the street?

**EastsideAl** · October-02-10, 10:56 AM

North side. The school stood in what's now the big open space to the west of the Edison sub-station.

**irving13** · April-28-19, 04:29 PM

Crystal, I went to Irving in the 50/60's after Irving we went to Jefferson Junior High. Then I went to Chadsey. Irving was set on fire by a so called friend of mine and we had to go to Burton while it was being rebuilt. After it was rebuilt, about a couple of years it was torn down because a parent complained that it wasn't safe. I went to Jefferson in 1963, so I think it was torn down in the late 60's early 70's. Don't know if the library would have anything about the fire. I really liked that school. I even remember some of the teachers. Your mom can write the Detroit board of education and get her school records to find out where she went to junior high. Hope you have good luck.

**middetres** · April-29-19, 05:42 AM

I live right next to the empty lot where Irving stood. I believe it's owned by Wayne State. They've used it recently as a recycling staging area, but it's been cleared and empty the past couple years. The Children's Center used it for temporary parking last summer while their main lot was being repaved.

As for middle/intermediate school, Jefferson still stands at the Lodge and Selden. It's been used by a charter school over the past decade, but now is being transformed into an arts/business incubator. So your mom most likely went there.