Spent a nice Saturday afternoon at this magnificent high school in a city that used to boom with GM activity. Similar story to many other cities, large and small, in this part of the country. Drastically shrinking population means no need for large, old, expensive-to-maintain schools anymore. Consolidate into a newer building, and what happens to the old architectural masterpiece, happens. This high school was built in 1922 and the last class graduated in 2009.
The school still had lots of records, both academic and athletic, strewn about various offices. Including some academic records going back to the 1970's. For some reason I could look at those all day. Here we go...
Large metalworking shop in the basement of the school:
Science class still visible on this white board in a classroom:
State championship banners from almost 100 years ago, during the heyday of this area, hang in the gym:
The school had its own radio station, up a really cool spiral staircase from the library onto the 4th floor, with the huge antenna still on the roof. Here is the recording booth:
The school must have had a Navy JROTC program based on several things I found. Also the library, though obviously trashed, was a great example of "they don't make them like this anymore..."
And finally, the cornerstone: