Exploring Detroit's Largest Abandoned High School

in the 1920s Detroit was growing at an unbelievable rate the automobile was still relatively new but was quickly turning the chart into an industrial powerhouse with the industry rapidly developing new homes office buildings roads and schools were being built to handle this population explosion however since the city's peak in the 1950s the city saw a decline of population leaving many buildings abandoned join us as we discover Detroit's past and see what remains [Music] thanks to Nord VPN for sponsoring today's video start protecting yourself on the web at Nord VPN dot-com slash proper people and use the code proper people at checkout to get 75% off a three-year plan with an extra month for free [Music] the Fisher Building completed in 1928 is a perfect example of a well preserved architectural masterpiece of the time the building was constructed by the Fisher family and funded by the proceeds from the sale of the Fisher Body Company to General Motors this fantastic 30 story Art Deco building housed offices and retail space and sparked a new development of a brand new business district just north of downtown building even includes one of the Troy's oldest live theatre venues there's all these like tenants up there there's thrift industry Commerce navigation justice peace knowledge and agriculture [Music] it's kind of sad because you know another building like this is never going to be built again in the course of human history we just need to keep alive but we still have [Music] they got there was a sec says we'll go sector at a car [Music] this building is truly a work of art displaying hand-painted murals symbolizing the pillars of Detroit's economy and the power of the United States there were additional plans to more than double the size of the complex that were cancelled due to the Great Depression however we're just lucky to be able to still experience this building as is many buildings weren't as lucky as the Fisher Building and couldn't be preserved Cooley high school also opened in 1928 originally with the design capacity of 1500 students it became apparent before it was even finished being built that enrollment would be more an additional units were planned the school quickly grew to one of the largest in the city with over 3,400 students in 1983 but by 1989 that number had fallen to only 2,500 and by 1997 it was only 1400 by 2010 the student population dropped below 1,000 it didn't make any financial sense to continue operating a building of this age as it became increasingly empty it was announced in 2010 that the school closed along with 41 others we're going to take you inside one of Detroit's once greatest public schools take a classroom said to are open if you pull on that yeah I mean it just goes into this room from their deck of tournaments for this episode we're joined by freaked ography his YouTube channel and Instagram links are in the description below is this a courtyard back here yeah oh yeah the windows oh no there's still plenty glass back here even though it's a courtyard how do we not end up seeing that here you can't get back here the choreo circus look there's the modern building over there pretty sure you walk past that big wooden she's got a smokestack here did this school have its own power plant for a high school this place closed in 2010 and they still have blackboards some decent floor tiling floors in my high school or just plain white marble walls but it's nicer than just nothing like this look at the bathroom in here marble everything this is the auditorium it's suffered a fire recently it looks like the seats are the only thing that burned though and the rest of it is still [Music] it's still amazing for a high school and everything was there before too late the class on the light [Music] it's like even if this theater was just a loan in that part of a high school I would still be a place we try to see it's like fully detailed all the way around even this back entryway we just came in through at the center of the school is this beautiful one thousand seat auditorium this auditorium built to the standards of a theatre of the time was unusual to find in a public school even when it was new this school was considered an architectural showpiece of the education system in Detroit [Music] [Applause] in September 2017 a large fire engulfed the auditorium in flames quickly burning all of the seats and causing extreme damage thankfully the firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading to other parts of the building [Music] do you think one of them did it steel wall Jesus it must have burned quick though like it must have been just the chairs and then it fizzled out because there's not smoke damage in here very minimal smoke damage but I mean the flames must have been getting pretty high because you can see the lights up there melted and charred I wonder if that was like the rest of the school are just some random design they put there I mean I'm impressed already even though I did see some pictures of this it's exceeding expectations I didn't realize it was quite this detailed in here it's pretty charred in here it's weird how it's charred in here but nowhere else that is strange simply cleaned it maybe this type of material just doesn't hold the smoke and might be just what happened careful up there looks pretty sketchy check it out there's a stairwell all the way up there to that one looks like a deathtrap though Wow those stairs are not good I wonder if this all came down in the fire yeah look how twisted it is wait I thought fire can't melt steel beams those look pretty melted to me don't get tangled in this maze here [Applause] floors bad right there [Applause] this chair survived the fire here's a fire door that looks like it stayed open during the fire fire did not spread past the auditorium go down beneath the stage it's probably runner there we're gonna go up here this feels solid still that door sealed oh this is a dressing room still smells really smoky in there the floors collapsed in here just not a dress hair there's someone on scraps and pipes fire alarm more classrooms up here oh there is fire damage up here so it did spread to out here or at least the smoke all build out into here yeah this was just smoke damage because you can see the bottoms of the walls doors falling off the frame this whole floors smoke damage you can see where the fire was along this doorframe it was billowing out of here it's weird how the actual auditorium though has the least smoke damage must be something with the material yeah like look behind you it's brick back here that's charred yeah it's the material the material the smoke just doesn't stick to it yeah you can see where the fire got behind the material and all the plaster fell off this is such a great auditorium though just like better than a lot of actual purpose-built theaters that are out there fan in theaters I don't think there's anything left in the projection booth it looks empty oh it's burned in here no not a girl we're all lined up yeah I'm filming us all in a row here I'm gonna take a seat there's a backhoe a seat right there oh one surviving seat back the last one in the entire theater the basement under the stage looks pretty destroyed Oh over there there's chairs under here and Christmas decorations we got Christmas decorations and chairs Oh Civil Defence supplies ice in here too it's not super slippery but it could crack someone thick bottoms probably rusted out that's what all the ice waters from it's the civil defense of water right we have to sound super sarcastic too or else people will think we're serious Christmas tree this is under the stage now oh my god ice everywhere if I was just like soft ice and it's pretty deep that's where the stage is collapsing and these look like old props and backdrops old stage lights yeah it's a cool view though [Music] there's like steam right here look at this I think it's just that whole area the sunlight is hitting it and it's moist and cold so it's instantly evaporating or it's a ghost really what the heck it's a ghost materializing right in front of us can you see this can you see this ghost from up there yeah you see it right here I've never seen anything like this it's like getting more and more intense these arches are cool this is probably an administration area or something so I was going to say main entrance but back here it doesn't really look like it yeah this looks like administration office principal's office assistant principal at least we're separated they call it one side for up and one for down just looking in this hallway you would never expect this theater to be right here because it just looks like a normal high school in the hallway let's check out the library though [Music] you think the kids who went here realized how cool their school was compared to most kids high school's most ones like it for granted or didn't care these beams have unique he had painted patterns on them it's pretty neat really nice cornices I feel like there would have been things in these nooks here at one point maybe pieces of art oh you can see the original flooring under here they put carpet over it we're on the second floor we're probably gonna go on to the track or maybe not so here these are probably locker rooms there's some benches see it opens up into something bigger yeah wow this is cool the track is banked mm-hmm I wonder if they would have rode bikes or something or if they just used it for running I think it's unusual for a running track to be banked it is with this whole things in the second floor that means something's below us [Music] it is dark in here holy [ __ ] [Music] they had like a little dividing wall in the middle to scrappers probably hit the ceiling of this room look at all the stuff on the floor and the bottom of the pool it's hinged and then it's shallow in the middle and deep on the two sides it gets deep over here also so they can turn it into two smaller pools the numbering in the tile over there is pretty cool showers back here locker rooms the Cardinals what is this thing I don't know move a dryer maybe my hair would be blown through here I really don't know Parks and Rec did they use this school for as like a public park Boston after it wasn't a school anymore or maybe it was a school and open to the public at the same time just like on the weekends or something the public could come use the pool back out so that hallways again Anna stallion maybe like a baseball team and a swimming team and a basket listen I know it's weird the bowls the Cardinals and the stone is well here there's a battery motion sensor camera thing 2008 that's before the school closed so these were there before these were some of the last students 2010 yeah there's tubes for ventilation for this science classroom it's so recognizable with the black countertops and the wood cabinets of the science room well ger the detailed tiles and brickwork on this power plant working thing she goes up to the newer school this expansion was built in 1972 to help alleviate overcrowding issues of the time I'm expecting this to be not exciting but we'll check it out they literally rip the glass out to put these boards in if they pulled the glass out it's a put wood in Wow let's show is that they don't care about the place they just care about keeping people out because that ruins the seal to the weather oh yeah this half is much uglier yeah oh yeah there's some nice murals your marine biology class like us some of them are like fancy names you wouldn't really know like a kin of derm and then you just have bird you can see above the drop ceiling this building looks like a shed with metal rafters nowhere near as nice as the other building an astronomy class it's cool that they used the pole in the middle to draw the rocket on gives us some 3d effect it's an old Gio's package yeah look at this room they still have a teacher's name and the date yeah yeah it's talking about finals so this is definitely from right before close earth science so the roof oh then there's some JROTC stuff up here too oh it was a shooting range Oh your eye holy [ __ ] your protection requirement is in use you imagine guns in a school today holy cow that's insane in today's combat would never have a thing to think this existed in a public high school this was a public school right when a school would teach you to shoot guns it's unfathomable you can see the bullet holes back there where they ricochet off I bet you they stored the guns in here there have been a handful of proposed redevelopment plans for the complex including apartments and community services but with the water and fire damage and damage from scrappers and vandals it's unknown what the future will bring make sure you subscribe so you don't miss our next Detroit episode thanks to Nord VPN for sponsoring this video Nord VPN makes it a breeze to protect yourself online using 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Channel: The Proper People

Views: 2,083,529

Rating: 4.9242458 out of 5

Keywords: abandoned, urban, exploration, urbex, exploring, haunted, proper, people, theproperpeople, detroit, michigan, abandoned places, abandon, abandoned detroit, documentary, travel, adventure, cinematic, school, cooley high school, high school, abandoned places in the usa, off limits, forgotten, creepy, decay, scrappers, historic, america, usa, vpn, consumer vpn, vpn for iphone, vpn for travel, vpn best, fisher building, fisher body

Id: pZwpcGbGmco

Length: 29min 2sec (1742 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 26 2019