History of St. Rita Catholic High School

The St. Rita School is an abandoned Catholic school on the northeast side of Detroit off State Fair Avenue . The building was completed and opened for the 1926 school year. In its first year, it operated with a student population of 325, in just two years, the number would increase to 467. In 1946, the school finished its second expansion with a new gymnasium/auditorium combo. The original church building had been replaced by a new, modern church by 1954. Over 1,000 students attended the school into the 1960s, which led the school to expand the layout one last time with the addition of the 1969 expansion built on the land once occupied by the original church building, which was demolished in the 1950s. With the final expansion, the parish saw a major hit to its overall finances due to the high cost of the expansion. In 1972, the parish decided to close the high school program at the school due to poor financial returns from the high school program, however the elementary program continued for a few more years until 1975. The programs were closed due to a significant population decline seen throughout the 1970s in Detroit. Detroit Public Schools began leasing the school in 1979 and named it the Helen Field Learning Center. Note that St. Rita as a parish did not close during this time and still operated at the church next to the building, retaining overall ownership of the school building. However, Detroit Public Schools was not able to shake the population decline, along with Marshall Elementary School just two blocks away. The student population at Field averaged just over 200 students and was among the first round of school closures within Detroit Public Schools in 2005. St. Rita Church was still operational at this point, and full ownership returned to the parish until 2008 when St. Rita closed altogether. In 2009, a new parish took over the church as a branch location but did not use the school for anything, leaving it to scrappers that same year . Today, the school remains in better shape than many other private schools in Detroit but is still in below average condition compared to schools around Detroit. The church later closed as well, with the last update on its Facebook page from May of 2024, and is marked as permanently closed on Google Maps.