The Abandoned Southwestern High School In Detroit: Power and Lights Still On and The Historic Pool

Описание: I couldn't wait to walk the Southwestern Prospector halls. This is the high school of ESPN analyst and former NBA player Jalen Rose and also former NBA player Voshon Lenard. Legendary basketball coach Perry Watson also coached here. With such a rich history and long story behind its closing, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to explore what was left of Southwestern.

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Enrollment at Southwestern High School peaked in 1937 at 2,719 students after taking in students from nearby Western High School two years earlier, which burned down and had to be rebuilt. By the mid-1940s, enrollment was averaging around 1,900 students, many of whom were of Hungarian descent. Southwestern also boasted the largest number of student-run clubs of any Detroit high school, with 25 groups dedicated to music, theater, horticulture, and volunteer work.

In 1967, work was started on a major addition that would completely reconfigure the school. In the center was a new gymnasium, with modern locker rooms and a larger swimming pool. The existing gymnasium was converted into a library and classrooms. The new edition also had a larger cafeteria, performing arts rooms, and vocational classrooms. A modern two-story walkway connected the old Nordstrum wing to the main building.

Work was completed in 1969, just as Southwestern was becoming. Under coach Perry Watson, the school's basketball team went 302-34 over 13 seasons and produced future NBA stars, Jalen Rose and Voshon Lenard. But by the 1980s, the neighborhood around Southwestern was in steady decline, as the nearby Cadillac plant closed and thousands of workers were laid off.

In 1994, voters approved a $1.5 billion dollar bond to fund improvements and renovations to the city's deteriorating school infrastructure. The school district spent $6.5 million on upgrades in Southwestern, including new athletic fields, refurbishing the auditorium, and a new medical clinic. The swimming pool was replaced in 1995, but the new pool failed health inspections and was never used. It was rebuilt again in 2002 at a cost of $1.25M but was too small to be used for competitive events.

These improvements came at a time when Southwestern's enrollment had long since peaked. From 1,609 students in 1988, the school was averaging about 800 a year by 2000. Still, the school district continued to pour money into facilities, including a new football field, track, baseball field, and tennis courts built behind the school in 2004. In 2006, alum Jalen Rose donated a new floor for the gymnasium, dedicated to former coach Perry Watson.

As the number of students district-wide continued to fall, schools around the city were closed and consolidated. Chadsey High School, a longtime rival of Southwestern, closed in 2009 and was merged into the school, sparking concern among parents and students of gang violence.

In February of 2012, Detroit Public Schools announced that Southwestern High would be closing at the end of the academic year, along with 15 other schools. Throughout the spring parents and students rallied to save the school, which was finally starting to show improvement in test scores. In April, students at Southwestern and Western High Schools walked out of class to protest the closure, fearing that the merging of the two rival schools would lead to violence. But with just 583 students and a capacity of 1,600, keeping Southwestern open was no longer financially viable. The school closed for good in July.

On March 3rd, a fire broke out in the cafeteria, severely damaging several rooms and causing smoke damage throughout the newer wing. Through the spring the lights in the building started to go out as metal thieves ripped out the wiring until there were no lights on at all. By summer the school was damaged beyond repair, with most of the wiring and pipe ripped out of the building. DPS and city police were called out to the school on an almost daily basis for people stripping the building.

Despite the severe damage done to the school, in the spring of 2015 it was purchased by India-based auto supplier Sakthi Automotive, who plan to turn it into a training center for their nearby factories.