Greenfield Park Elementary is located at the corner of Brush and Parkhurst in Detroit. Last Saturday, May 24th, I went out with Andrew and Marc again to explore abandoned schools on the East side of Detroit. The pictures below are of our first stop.
The years haven’t been good at this school, from the outside the building looks to be in decent condition. Going around back, however, is another story. The back of the school is littered with garbage people have been dropping off for the last couple of years (not sure how bad it was before that). Getting inside was like stepping into another place entirely as you could look down long empty corridors with not much but holes and other marks made. I’m afraid this is another case where scrappers and vandals have hollowed the place out. For the most part, there isn’t much left to look at but decay. It’s amazing just how much damage and weathering this building has taken in just 8 years.
Still, the delay here was rather beautiful, especially where the paint was peeling away and revealing colors underneath. In the gymnasium, Graffiti artists such as Aires were recently tagging new work along with many more in the gymnasium. The school had three floors, the most interesting probably being the main floor and basement levels because of the variety of vandalism and tagging. Nearly everywhere I looked holes were punched in the walls or entire sections were removed to get to the copper wiring. It was hard to even imagine what the classrooms looked like before all of this happened.
The most interesting shots, in my opinion, were the gymnasium, auditorium, and room in the basement with an obscure blue staircase marked “4th grade.” Climbing from a 3rd-floor classroom allows for roof access, which gives an excellent view of the debris below. A blue sign still hangs in the front of the school which clearly states that the school was established in 1916. The school was open for a total of 90 years, closing its doors in 2006 due to a decrease in population and other maintenance issues.
After this school, we headed over to Fredrick Douglass and the Detroit Water & Sewerage Facility.
