Cass Tech demo starts Wednesday

**buildingsofdetroit** · March-22-11, 04:32 PM

http://www.freep.com/article/2011032...text|FRONTPAGE

**English** · March-22-11, 05:07 PM

Just six years ago today, my colleagues and I had just ended a busy workday in those very halls. My tenth graders were in the midst of my social research project unit. Six years ago this minute, drama and dance teams were practicing, the band was playing, and spring sports were starting spring conditioning.

Twenty-seven years ago today, the new addition was still under construction. My uncle was three months away from graduation, and would have walked the halls, his mind thousands of miles away from Cass Tech, dreaming of college in Palo Alto, California, swearing that he'd never call Detroit home again. My aunt's sixteenth birthday, Sweet 16 party, Miss Teen Michigan, and cotillion debutante ball were on her mind... although I was never that kind of girl, when I was small, I was in awe of her and remember the time well.

Thirty-four years ago today, my cousin and his sweetheart were likely off in a Cass Tech corner somewhere, spooning and smooching. LOL! [[When I was little, I remember they couldn't keep their hands off each other!) They just welcomed their first grandchild in late 2010, are retired, and about to move out West.

And eighty years ago today, my 15 year old grandfather clutched his books as he hurried out of that ornate doorway, rushing off to his job. Clear-eyed and ambitious, affable and friendly, he was determined to prove a CT counselor wrong... he would be an engineer someday.

This building, the physical place that holds so many memories for generations of my family is gone. It disintegrated so fast until it is unbelievable. In another city, this place would never have been taken for granted. Maybe it wouldn't still be a school 20 or 30 years from now, but in another place, I would have been able to take my grandchildren there to walk the halls that their great-great grandfather did. But this edifice didn't even last 100 years.

Only six years ago this very second, I was just arriving home after having walked those halls. Farewell, old Cass Tech building. Thanks for the memories.

**Kathleen** · March-22-11, 05:39 PM

Beautiful memories, English!! And well said. Thanks for sharing.

**English** · March-22-11, 05:52 PM

You're welcome, Kathleen! Thank you for all that you and others in the preservation community do to keep our most beautiful and beloved places around the city standing for future generations.

**stromberg2** · March-22-11, 07:51 PM

Very nice, English. Lots of great memories, for sure!

Stromberg2

**HomerStreet** · March-22-11, 08:42 PM

Originally Posted by English

Just six years ago today, my colleagues and I had just ended a busy workday in those very halls. My tenth graders were in the midst of my social research project unit. Six years ago this minute, drama and dance teams were practicing, the band was playing, and spring sports were starting spring conditioning.

This building, the physical place that holds so many memories for generations of my family is gone. It disintegrated so fast until it is unbelievable. In another city, this place would never have been taken for granted. Maybe it wouldn't still be a school 20 or 30 years from now, but in another place, I would have been able to take my grandchildren there to walk the halls that their great-great grandfather did. But this edifice didn't even last 100 years.

Only six years ago this very second, I would be just arriving home after having walked those halls. Farewell, old Cass Tech building. Thanks for the memories.

What a nice tribute, so sweet, but I feel a tear welling up. I shall wear black tomorrow, in mourning for a wonderful building.

**English** · March-22-11, 08:52 PM

Between this, the Census numbers, and some bad news about the place I was going to move to in the city, it's been a pretty awful day.

**Zaiko** · March-22-11, 11:03 PM

There's still a chance.

Watch video of Cass Tech grad Miss USA 1990.

http://www.casstechhistoric.org/

**K-slice** · March-22-11, 11:14 PM

"Cass Tech has 60,000 alumni. We want 10,000 alumni to donate $1,000 each."
If they're betting on that happening then the old CT is out of luck...

**Brian1979** · March-23-11, 01:09 AM

Are they planning to put a garden on this site?

**rid0617** · March-23-11, 07:14 AM

I still have my old black and white of my father standing in front of Cass, June 1950, a proud new graduate

**JohnnyFreddy** · March-23-11, 07:46 AM

Originally Posted by English

You're welcome, Kathleen! Thank you for all that you and others in the preservation community do to keep our most beautiful and beloved places around the city standing for future generations.

Get ourselves ready for loving tributes to the Masonic Temple as well in our near future.
The City Of Detroit, Mayor Bing, and the City Council, don't even know HOW to spell
'PRESERVATION'....it's not even in their vocabulary.
The DPS [[regarding Cass Tech.) are probably THE MOST irresponsible stewards of property
there has ever been, in the history of mankind.....allowing ALL their closed schools to be
'Destroyed By Neglect'. Every piece of material used by teachers in their everyday efforts
to teach the next generation....forcedly left behind, with the threat of termination, to rot, as if
their input didn't matter one bit. Beautiful, sturdy buildings, built to last several lifetimes, 'DBN'
...just like the old Cass Technical High School. Let the scrappers in, turn a blind eye....
"Maybe they'll name a new structure after me."
...That's Detroits way, yo.

**ghettopalmetto** · March-23-11, 08:11 AM

No worries. I'm sure the Detroit Public Schools will sell the property to the Macedonian Parking Empire for a song, and all will be right with the world.

**beanietek** · March-23-11, 08:37 AM

English

Very sweet memories of a wonderful school we all hold dear to our hearts. It will be beyond sad to see that lovely old fortess being torn down.

**Packman41** · March-23-11, 09:27 AM

Any chance of getting to walk the corridors/classrooms of Cass one last time? It has been about 45 years since the last time I did that.

**English** · March-23-11, 10:32 AM

Packman41: one of my students, now a Wayne State upperclassman, went several months ago and took pictures. It was pretty dangerous then with debris, so I wouldn't recommend it, especially once the demo starts.

There is just so much about this that stinks. No one was really given a chance to say good-bye, and there was no reception for the alumni. The building closed during a superintendent transition -- Burnley left, and Calloway came. The feeling among some is "if the alumni really cared, why didn't they organize?" but that's not fair. They did... it's just that some people really, really wanted this building torn down. They want downtown Detroit to look like Big Beaver Road.

Every American needs to travel to "the Old World," if only to understand how cultures that are older than a couple of centuries preserve their identity and legacy. It's nothing over there to go into a perfectly modern cafe with wi-fi access, but the structure was built 500 years ago. They reuse and reinvent instead of throwing away.

Caring about our cultural legacy is not ornamental, it's fundamental. Our love of the newer, bigger, and better in the United States has gotten to be demented. Many formidable scholars and authors have written about the American attitude towards history.

**Detroitnerd** · March-23-11, 10:50 AM

Apparently, on Wednesday, there will be a funeral for the building, with a brief service before the wrecking crew gets down to it. Or so said a Facebook message last night.

**rjlj** · March-23-11, 10:51 AM

Such a shame, the school should still in use as a school but why is that other cities have their $hit together and Detroit does not. In Harlem NYC, they can convert an old school into condo's. Why doesn't Detroit have that kind of vision?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...rk_real_estate

And as of today, over 60% are sold.

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2011/0..._sold_ps90.php

**Detroitnerd** · March-23-11, 10:51 AM

"We have listened for years to countless proposals for the now-closed Cass
Technical High building," Jennifer Mrozowski, a spokeswoman for DPS said. "No one has offered a viable plan for that school building, which is dangerous and hazardous."

Oh, yeah. I know. It's so dangerous because that was the plan: To let it deteriorate and become dangerous so it had to be demolished. I am so tired of this story.

**agirlintheD** · March-23-11, 10:58 AM

English, you're spot on. Detroit seems to be one of the only places where preserving "history" means nothing. For whatever reason, tearing down seems the logical [[??) answer. It seems that what's important to those "in power" differs greatly from those who really matter...those who actually had a stake in Detroit, who are [[were) here for the right reasons....it's very sad, very sad indeed.

**Detroitnerd** · March-23-11, 11:02 AM

With all these demo companies licking their lips for easy money, no wonder there's no plan. We don't have the same skillset as other cities, where they have refurbishers, repurposers, architects familiar with reuse, etc.

**DetroitZack** · March-23-11, 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by JohnnyFreddy

Get ourselves ready for loving tributes to the Masonic Temple as well in our near future.

ummmm really?

**Planner3357** · March-23-11, 12:50 PM

Even though it's a historically cool building I'm glad to see it go as it was obvious nothing was going to be done with it. If someone really wanted to save it they should have done it 6 years ago when it closed.

Too little too late, IMO.

At least now people will be able to see the new school which although modern and lacking character, is far from an eye-sore an looks appealing.....hey and maybe even more sweet dirt lots!

**Detroitnerd** · March-23-11, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by DetroitZack

ummmm really?

Come on. We have a multimillion-dollar demolition industry to run. It ain't going to run on pixie dust.

**iheartthed** · March-23-11, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by rjlj

Such a shame, the school should still in use as a school but why is that other cities have their $hit together and Detroit does not. In Harlem NYC, they can convert an old school into condo's. Why doesn't Detroit have that kind of vision?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...rk_real_estate

And as of today, over 60% are sold.

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2011/0..._sold_ps90.php

And that school in Harlem has been abandoned for longer than pretty much all of Detroit's currently abandoned buildings downtown.