Detroit Wants to Demolish What's Left of Historic Southwestern High School

Less than three years after its final students were dismissed, Southwestern High School faces the wrecking ball. The City of Detroit is seeking public comment on a plan to demolish the campus, which originally opened as Nordstrom High School in 1916. The school was expanded in the 1920s and again in the 1960s, but would later fall into decline as the city's population slipped. Detroit Free Press photographer Manny Crisostomo actually won a Pulitzer Prize in 1989 after spending 40 weeks photo-documenting the lives of Southwestern's students.
It's a sad end for one of Detroit's most storied high schools, which was ravaged by scrappers almost immediately after its controversial closure in 2012. WXYZ reports that the city has a "potential buyer" for the Southwestern, but how that relates to the demolition proposal is unclear. For now, it's one of the city's eerier ruins. Check out any of the pre-2012 images on Google Streetview to see how much the building has changed since shutting down.

· Matty Moroun's Plans To Buy A High School Are Dead [Curbed]
· Bankrupt and Shrinking, Detroit Selling 79 Abandoned Schools [Curbed]
· Southwestern High School [DetroitUrbex]