History of the Ludington Magnet Middle School

The original building of what is now Ludington Middle School was built in 1924 under the name Mettetal Elementary School. It served the community of O' Hare Park as an elementary school until it received a massive expansion in 1954-1955 when it was selected as part of a previous 1949 millage vote as the City of Detroit reached its peak population of almost 2 million residents. Detroit Public Schools used the millage, which provided $50,000,000 to the Detroit Board of Education, to update and expand its facilities to support a projected enrollment increase of 40,000 students between 1955 and 1963. During this building campaign, the Detroit Board of Education erected 119 new school buildings and additions to existing buildings, including a large addition to Mettetal in 1954-1955. This expansion officially marked the transition of the elementary school into a middle school. It would include the additions of a 22-classroom layout, a gymnasium, a kitchen, an auditorium, and various offices. This expansion also made the new middle school a total of 45,000 sq ft. Around 1970, the school was renamed Ivan Ludington Middle School. During its time as a middle school, the original kindergarten room was transformed into the school's music classroom. The school also became a magnet school, students would need a to be on a waitlist and fill out a appilcation to go to Ludington it became one of the best schools in Detroit, and from alumni was called “the Cass Tech of Middle Schools”, Students that went to Ludington were often from parents that put effort into making sure there kids got a good education. Among other activities some of programs and clubs at Ludington included Robotics, Chess, Dance, Glee Club, Honor Society, Basketball, Volleyball, and Soccer. The school served grades 5 through 8. Into the 2000s, Ludington continued being a very academically successful school. It also was very diverse due to its magnet status as a school, however likely due to declining enrollment in Detroit Public Schools the application process was dropped from Ludington around 2001, though the school continued seeing great academic scores. In June 2012, the school was closed when it was chosen by DPS to merge with the Langston Academy, to provide a better education experience for local students located about 2 miles from the site of the now old Ludington Middle School. Since being closed, the merged school has taken on the name of Ludington and remains in operation to this day. As for the old Ludington, it remains in far better shape than many schools like it.