Historic Detroit

Every building in Detroit has a story — we're here to share it

Francis Parkman School - Photos

Parkman's original southwest unit, completed in 1940. The rest of the school was completed in 1948-1952. This image shows the school's streamlined moderne style of architecture, with unique rounded corners, horizontal bands of stone and brick details, and striking vertical slit windows at the entrances.

The three wings of the school wrap around a south-facing grassy courtyard with small trees. There is no direct access to the courtyard from inside the school, but the courtyard is open to the primary street frontage and flanked by the two main entrances.

The original school building consisted of a small box with four rooms on the ground floor, and four rooms on the second floor.

The second unit added a gymnasium/cafeteria, a library, a large home-ec classroom, two small classrooms, and a main office. This addition more than doubled the size of the original school.

The school nearly doubled in size again with the completion of the east classroom wing. This addition included the auditorium, five standard classrooms, four specialty classrooms, and a kindergarten. This final addition also created a courtyard in the front of the building.