Video of Thomas Cooley High School – Detroit, MI

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Video of Thomas Cooley High School in Detroit, MI created when the auditorium was still intact.

Thomas Cooley High School was the largest of all schools in Detroit, MI accommodating up to 3,700 students during the school’s history.

We’re looking for photos and videos of Thomas Cooley High School before it was closed, to add to this page. If you have photos, videos or any details you like to add, please post them below in the Facebook comments or Contact Us

It’s an outrage that someone set fire and destroyed the beautifully restored auditorium. If anyone knows was responsible, you can  Contact Us and we will forward the info to the Detroit Police Dept.

The three-story, Mediterranean Revival-style High School opened on September 4, 1928. The school was named in honor of Thomas M. Cooley, a nineteenth-century jurist and former Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.

Cooley High School’s history dates to the late 1920s, a time when thousands of homes were built upon land acquired through Detroit’s westernmost annexation efforts in the former Greenfield Township, and village of Strathmoor. Cooley High was constructed to accommodate a rapidly growing populace on the city’s burgeoning northwest side.

The first five years of Cooley’s existence was marked by rapid growth. In 1928, the student population stood at 1570, by 1932 the figure had climbed to 3750. That same year, noted author and motion picture celebrity, Frank Buck visited Cooley High School; Buck thrilled a packed auditorium audience with travelogues of recent African excursions.

In the early years, Cooley students enjoyed a diverse offering of extracurricular activities; including such pursuits as fencing, table tennis, indoor track and field, swimming and diving, speed skating and ice hockey. Throughout much of the twentieth century, in a wide variety of sports, Cooley student-athletes regularly finished at or near the top in the quest for city league (DPSSAL) supremacy.

Thomas M. Cooley High School is located at the intersection of Hubbell Avenue and Chalfonte Street, on the northwest side of Detroit, Michigan.

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