Built when no expense was spared on city
schools, the preschool room at Guyton Elementary on Detroit's east side
has wood floors and a Pewabic-tiled fireplace.
Above the
fireplace's wooden mantel is a hand-painted mural of children
picnicking in a field. Down the hallway, decorative plaster lines the
auditorium and a stained glass depiction of the school's first
principal shines from the window. Outside, concrete gargoyles hover
from the second floor.
Detroit children have been learning at
Guyton since 1923. But the school, and about 23 others from the same
opulent era, could be closed as a part of the Detroit district's
unprecedented plan to shutter dozens of schools. The school board could
vote on a final closure list as soon as Monday.
Besides concerns
about how the closures will affect thousands of students and
revitalization plans in pockets of the city, Detroiters and
preservationists worry many of the historic schools will be pillaged by
thieves once they are vacant. Or that they may even be demolished.
"They
are beautiful architecturally, just amazing, very sophisticated," said
Rita Walsh, a senior preservation planner based in the Boston area who
has studied Michigan's school architecture.
"I am really concerned. To see so many being closed is distressing."
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