History of Berry Elementary School

Berry Elementary School was one of 29 schools built under a 1959 millage. Titled by Detroit Public Schools as the “1960s Building Program”. The first of these schools would be Jamieson built in 1960 (Demolished 2024), along some other notable schools including Kettering High School (Demolished 2024), Campbell Elementary, Harris Elementary, and Biddle Elementary among others. The 1960s saw the last strong push by the District to address enrollment numbers dropping due to white flight. The ultimate goal of these 29 schools was driven by civil rights efforts and the elections of the first Black school board members, leading to the construction of new schools in Black neighborhoods and the hiring of more Black teachers and administrators. This era also saw changes in school architecture, with a move towards modern designs, and efforts towards integration that faced significant resistance. The 1960s schools including Berry saw modern amenities such as a fully electrical heated and air conditioned buildings. Modern layouts and design with centrally located common areas, and modern glass window designs. Like Campbell Elementary, Berry was a replacement school for the John A. Berry School that opened in 1893. Berry (1893) would be replaced by the new Berry in 1961. Later in 1964 the old Berry School would be demolished, in the early years of Berry (1961) a special study for students was that of Nature. Into the 1990s and 2000s the neighborhood around Berry became more and more vacant, and the school was closed in 2007. By 2013 the school had been scrapped inside and out, with nearly every window missing leaving the building wide open to vandals and what was left for scrappers to steal. Since being abandoned it has been sold to a private owner. However nothing has happened to the school, many walls inside the school are missing. It is unclear if this is scrapping, or work done by the private ownership. It is likely Berry will be demolished one day for something new as most of the area around Berry is Manufacturing and Businesses.