Bored Panda works better on our iPhone app
Continue in app Continue in browser

Add post form topAdd Post
Tooltip close

The Bored Panda iOS app is live! Fight boredom with iPhones and iPads here.

Then-and-Now Photos of Abandoned Detroit School
User submission
3.3K
102.7K

Then-and-Now Photos of Abandoned Detroit School

ADVERTISEMENT

To “raise awareness of the social and economic challenges the city of Detroit,” the folks at Detroiturbex decided to tell the story about an abandoned building of Lewis Cass Technical High School with the help of superimposed then-and-now photos. First, they photographed every room at the old school building, which was abandoned after a 2007 fire. Then they put the pictures of the buzzing life from the school days of the past on top of them.

These sad photo series are a mirror of today’s Detroit. The city has suffered tremendous population increases and then rapid declines. Today, Detroit is designed for 2 million people. However, less than 1/3 or ~ 700 thousand have remained in the city, leaving plenty of abandoned places. The infrastructure, built at the time of the population boom, is now run-down and an easy target for arsonists.

Update: “the school wasn’t abandoned because of a fire in 2007. A brand new, state of the art, school was completed right next door in 2005-2006, and that’s why the building was deserted. There was a fire in the abandoned school in 2007, but the building was torn down last year to make way for new athletic facilities.” (thank you, Samantha, for the info!)

Website: detroiturbex.com

RELATED:

    School dance

    A 1988 basketball game

    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT

    One of several biology labs

    Second floor hallway

    The library, from a picture in an early 90’s yearbook

    The arts mural on floor 3, 1988

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Last day of school

    First floor of the old auditorium

    Dance hall in the new wing

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Pep band makes their way through a crowd

    Volleyball match

    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT

    103Kviews

    Share on Facebook
    Ieva Elvyra

    Ieva Elvyra

    Author, Community member

    Read more »

    This lazy panda forgot to write something about itself.

    Read less »
    Ieva Elvyra

    Ieva Elvyra

    Author, Community member

    This lazy panda forgot to write something about itself.

    What do you think ?
    Add photo comments
    POST
    Herman Krieger
    Community Member
    7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I had planned to attend Cass Technical High High School in 1940 after finishing Hutchins Intermediate School. However, we moved to Highland Park at that time, and so I had to attend Highland Park High instead. Who knows how much that changed my life.

    Herman Krieger
    Community Member
    7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Detroit, as I knew it- www.efn.org/~hkrieger/detroit.htm Herman Krieger

    Load More Comments
    Herman Krieger
    Community Member
    7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I had planned to attend Cass Technical High High School in 1940 after finishing Hutchins Intermediate School. However, we moved to Highland Park at that time, and so I had to attend Highland Park High instead. Who knows how much that changed my life.

    Herman Krieger
    Community Member
    7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Detroit, as I knew it- www.efn.org/~hkrieger/detroit.htm Herman Krieger

    Load More Comments
    Related on Bored Panda
    Related on Bored Panda
    Trending on Bored Panda
    Also on Bored Panda