Today’s photos come courtesy of regular reader Colin, who had a chance to vist John Campbell School prior to the interior demolition.
The Lobby of the School.
The Main Offices.
More of the front offices. All of this area is being kept in the original state and preserved.
A view of the stage in the Music Room.
A view of the Music Room ceiling.
One of the original classrooms.
The original wood cabinets inside one of the closets.
Looking over the glass block windows in the Gym.
A stage in the Gym.
The girls change room.
The girls showers. Colin was told that this area hadn’t been used in 40 or 50 years. Why I’m not sure? Maybe someone out there knows something about it.
A view of the basement ductwork.
The row of boilers.
What was originally the coal room.
A ladder leading up from the coal room.
The door on the old coal furnace.
One final view of the basement.
Thanks Colin for sending the photos along…
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I really like that gigantic fireplace and the huge skylight in that room (5th picture), couldn't you have Christmas fire in that room!
I'd suggest the girl's showers haven't been in use for 50 years because they are downright creepy.
Yeah, damn those fire codes, who needs them anyway right? Everyone knows they're just a scam to tear down all structures that the city administration doesn't like!
wow, i had no idea that's what the interior looked like!!! beautiful!!!!
i really hope all that wood work could go to a good home. there's a place in detroit called the Architectural Salvage Warehouse. it's in the triangle of 14th ave, W grand river, and W warren. i wonder if they'd be interested in removing this stuff?
they have some really cool stuff in their wearhouse.
may be somewhere you might want to look for restoration items in your house as well andrew!‎
Hey guys-
From what I was told, the whole front lobby/office area will be salvaged and restored. The woodwork around the celing area will be restored as well. The gym/stage and outside of it will be saved too. I coudn't believe how nice the woodwork was in school! The one picture of the shelving unit and counter that was inside the little room (prob a storage room for the science dept..I can't remember since I graduated in 89') would probably be worth a fortune today. The chalkboards were the original slate ones; all of the doors were original and very beautiful; and the list goes on.
I'm glad that they have gone through it and decided to save some significant areas and preserve them. The school really hadn't changed much since I went there from 81-89 but I have a better appreciation for historical landmarks now. I wanted to go in there to check out things and places I never did when I went there (basement etc) and the only regret I have is that I didn't get to explore one certain area. If anyone can help me out on this- feel free- across from the principal's office there was another offince with a trap door in the floor. We lifted it and looked below to find what looked like a cement tunnel or something. We didn't have a ladder so we couldn't investigate :(
Thanks for posting this Andrew!
i had heard rumours long ago that there were tunnels connecting quite a few high schools/grade schools in the area.
i'm not sure how much truth there is to that though.
thanks for these pics colin!
The place looks immaculate for a school. Why do they need to demolish anything to the exterior walls? Couldn't they just cut holes in there, blow in insulation and patch it up? If it's for wiring, couldn't they run conduit pipes or armoured cable along the outside of the wall? I just don't understand why things need to be removed.
This school brings back so many memories for me because when I was young my uncle was a custodian at this school. My cousins, brother and I spent many summer days with the entire school to ourselves, running the hallways, playing in the gym, day long games of hide and seek. I'm happy to read that it will be restored.
Great pics. Reminds me a bit of Victoria PS (or is that Queen Victoria now?). The basement pics remind me of Kennedy's basement which I had the luxury of exploring unopposed from time to time. A lot of stuff was kept in storage down there and it had its own former coal room that became a shooting range for the cadets at one time. As for the trapdoor and tunnel, if it's like Kennedy's, it probably was for access to either boiler pipes, air vents and/or electrical that couldn't be accessed from other parts of the basement.
I've heard of the tunnels too, but my 2nd cousin who was Director of the Board of Ed some time back, said that sadly it wasn't true. He also debunked (pun intended) a rumor at KCI that there was a nuclear bomb shelter underneath the field in front of the school. Has anyone else heard the legend of KCI's field being the target for any Soviet ICBMs headed our way? Supposedly it was/is considered to be close to the geographic center of the city and made for an easy target...
i agree david, it's stupid but i guess we should be happy with what's been accomplished.
i would think it might have something to do with classroom sizes. the more students you can fit, the more money you can make. those walls are probly solid thru and thru, i don't know if putting in isulation would even be possible without a total demolition of the walls anyways which would just bring us back to where we are now.
these problems always seem to be about the almighty dollar, don't they.