Instead, it stood for six more years, gradually succumbing to the elements, metal scrappers, and vandalism. In its last few years, the fight to preserve the old building overshadowed the accomplishments of the new.
When the original building was demolished in , there was a feeling that Cass - the idea of the school - went with it. But Cass Technical High School still thrives today. In a troubled school district that loses more students to dropping out than to graduating, Cass Tech is rare bright spot, attracting and nurturing Detroit's brightest and best.
Students at Cass average higher scores on standardized tests than other schools in the district, and in some areas, the state. And while budget cuts have ended some programs including its famed orchestra, the school still offers a wide array of extra-circular activities, including art programs, dance, drama, clubs that cover forensics to foreign languages, sports, and a world-class marching band.
In and , the Cass Tech football team won back-to-back state championships, bringing national attention to the school. After raising money from the public and corporate sponsors, the marching band attended the presidential inauguration in Washington, DC and performed in the Presidential Inauguration Festival at the University of Maryland.
The school's exterior is covered in brick and limestone, its vestibules are lined with marble, and bas reliefs with industrial motifs flank the entrances. Light courts allowed for natural light to pour into the building. The halls' floors are terrazzo, but some of the classrooms and the gyms have hardwood floors.
The halls originally had barreled ceilings, though they were later covered with drop ceilings. The first floor was home to a gymnasium with an indoor track along a mezzanine, the teacher's lounge complete with fireplace and a three-thousand-seat auditorium that was said to be near acoustically perfect and was complete with a balcony. Even the Detroit Symphony Orchestra rehearsed and recorded there.
When the building first opened, the ground level also had pharmacy and physics laboratories; the second had a machine shop and chemistry and bacteriology labs; the third held the library; the fourth was home to cooking and mechanical drawing classrooms and millinery shop rooms; the fifth had sewing labs and other shops; the sixth was the home of the music and textile programs; and the seventh had a foundry, baking and kitchen classrooms and the school's original lunchroom, which could feed up to 1, students at a time.
From its humble beginnings with classes in pattern making, drafting and machine shop, Cass would grow to offer everything from art to bacteriology to chemical biology to metallurgy to nuclear physics. As technology changed, so did the school's curricula.
When airplanes seemed the limit, Cass added aeronautics. When man aimed to land on the moon, it started offering astronautics. Unlike other schools in the city, where enrollment was dictated by geography, Cass Tech's student body was determined by achievement.
Students citywide took an achievement test and only the best and brightest were admitted to Cass. Because it pulled students from all over the sprawling metropolis, some Cass students had to ride buses 90 minutes to get there, the News noted in March It became "an institution," the paper wrote, that was "virtually unparalleled in American secondary education" and was offering twenty-three technical curricula at the time.
It brought together people from all over the city. By , Cass was not only the biggest school in the city, but the largest in the state with more than 4, students. The memorial arch went with it. Augusta W. Ochs, the school's principal at the time, told the Free Press in May that "I did everything I could to preserve the school, even suggesting they run the freeway underneath us.
The building is still solid. Its last graduating class also would be its largest, students, and graduated on June 17, In the s, while the city school district was operating the accelerated school, there were said to be reservations about such a program in a system where thousands of students were falling behind grade levels.
By that time, more than forty-five hundred kids attended Cass, and calls were being made that it was too small and falling apart from neglect. The addition added another gymnasium with seats for fans and six basketball hoops, a lunchroom and a larger swimming pool.
However, the swimming pool was mistakenly built using the English, not the metric system, making the school's "Olympic-size pool" about 12 feet too short. But even with the addition, the original building was falling into disrepair. In , the city's building department deemed the balcony of the auditorium unsafe and had it closed.
The old Cass Tech's pool was closed after the addition was built and left to rot. Only one of its elevators was working in The roof leaked. The plumbing often acted up. In , concern over the condition of the school building surfaced. It was feared that the building would be allowed to deteriorate beyond repair and that the school and its curriculum would be eliminated. Modernization of the school began in and was completed in The addition was designed by Albert Kahn Associates.
The new wing included a gymnasium, various music rooms, a recital hall, and a practice room. The new wing provided an enclosed lunchroom on the second floor that held approximately students. Classes in the business wing were also renovated.
On Monday July 30 , the old school building was set on fire. At least six homeless men were believed to have been living in the vacant building. The fire is said to have started in the first floor classroom and risen up to the third floor before firefighters were able to put it out. In addition to two police officers, two firefighters were also injured while fighting the three-alarm fire. Controversy surrounded the move into the new building because of uncertainty about the future of the old building, which was considered to be a historic landmark.
Academic, public, athletic and performance spaces are all distinct pieces of the building. One design challenge was to accommodate the unique lab environment, catering to career pathways and retaining flexibility for future curriculum requirements.
A large amount of money was spent on construction of the football field behind the building, however, until the beginning of the school year, it could not be used because of construction errors.
The building won the top design award given out by Learning by Design, which honors and showcases school design and construction projects. Cass offers eleven advanced placement courses including language composition, history, chemistry, calculus, and physics.
Students are required to maintain a 2. Awards In Mr. Cheryl V.
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