History of Turner Elementary School

Turner 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 Turner 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 and Berry Elementary, Turner was a replacement school for the original Turner School built in 1914. The new Turner was built in 1968 and was opened in 1969, one of the last additions to the Building Program, when Turner (1968) opened the Turner (1914) was closed and demolished in 1970. Turner is a smaller school featuring a interesting design choice of pyramid shaped hip roof in each classroom, along with a Multipurpose room being used in place of a dedicated Cafeteria, Gymnasium, or Auditorium. In 2001 Turner was renamed to the Robeson Early Learning Center when it became a annex to the Robeson school located nearby. The original Robeson school was burned down in a fire after being abandoned in 2010 and was demolished in 2012, Turner was also closed in 2012 and has been abandoned since.