In the 1920s, with Detroit's population booming and more folks moving into the area north of Grand Boulevard and west of Grand River Avenue, the Board of Education set out to alleviate overcrowding at the district's Pattengill School.
A portable building with two classrooms - known as the Pattengill Annex - was placed at Garden and Prairie avenues to serve the younger children in the area. This temporary solution served the community for two years while the school district worked on a more permanent answer to overcrowding. On June 22, 1922, the Board of Education introduced a resolution asking that condemnation proceedings be started started on an area bounded by Alaska, Burnette, Garden and Prairie streets. That resolution was tabled until March 8, 1923, when the Board voted to borrow funds to buy the land for $47,240.56 (the equivalent of about $884,000 in 2024, when adjusted for inflation). Around the same time, the Common Council was asked to close Wykes Street at Garden in order to provide ample room to build a school.
Paging Dr. Sherrill
The idea of naming a school after Dr. Edwin S. Sherrill (1854-1945), one of the organizers of the Detroit Society for Prevention and Cure of Tuberculosis, began in April 1920, when it was proposed at a Board of Education meeting. "In naming a school building for Dr. Sherrill, the Board of Education will be erecting a monument to the highest type of citizenship," said Laura Osborn, then an inspector for the Board of Education.
Sherrill was born in Pike, N.Y., on Nov. 8, 1854, and moved with his family to Detroit when he was a boy. He graduated from Detroit High School, Michigan State University, the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Medical Department of Columbia University. He practiced medicine in Detroit from 1885 until his retirement, and served as acting health officer for the city. He also served on the Detroit Board of Education from 1898 until 1903, where he is credited with helping to stabilize the teacher retirement fund and working on the committee overseeing construction of Eastern and Western high schools.
School's in session
Work on the first part of Sherrill School began in April 1924, and cost about $214,323 (about $4 million in 2024 valuation) to build. The school, designed by the firm McGrath & Dohmen, opened March 9, 1925, with an initial enrollment of 640 students. The building had a capacity of 760 pupils, but given how Detroit was growing, work began almost immediately on an expansion for Sherrill. The school's first principal was Adelaide M. Wilson, who would serve in the role until her retirement in June 1944.
The school had a minimal Collegiate Gothic facade with red brick and limestone accents, with two distinct square, hip-roofed towers. The central section featured a row of arched windows on the first floor. The center-rear wing had a cluster of large common areas, including an auditorium, gym, auxiliary gym, locker rooms and cafeteria.
In November 1925, work was completed on the second unit of the school, built at a cost of $236,705 (about $4.35 million in 2024 valuation), which had additional capacity for another 560 students.
The school, for reasons that aren't fully clear, wasn't dedicated until May 19, 1927 - two years after the school opened and after its first addition was tacked onto the building. The ceremony featured remarks by Superintendent Frank Cody; Osborn, who had since become a member of the Board of Education; and Sherrill. After his remarks, Sherrill presented the school with a large photograph of himself to hang in the main corridor of the building. The Sherrills hosted a buffet supper for 59 guests - including school board members and school faculty - at their home on Dexter Boulevard after the ceremony.
It is worth noting that it was unusual for a living person to be honored with a school named after them. Sherrill died Dec. 30, 1945, at age 91.
Despite Sherrill's addition, Detroit's population continued to surge with the rise of the auto industry bringing more and more families to the city. This would lead to another addition, with room for 320 more students, to be commissioned. This final addition - designed by Malcomson, Higginbotham & Trout - was completed in December 1930 at a cost of $75,878.15 (about $1.4 million in 2024). This brought the school's capacity to 1,640. Unfortunately, the Board underestimated student growth, and before the third addition even opened, Sherrill had 1,803 students by September 1930. The school would remain overcapacity for decades, as even in 1961, Sherrill had 1,737 students.
On Jan. 1, 1949, Sherrill was reorganized to accommodate seventh- and eighth-grade students from the nearby Herman School, who remained at Sherrill through the 1954-55 school year.
The fight against segregation
In 1962, Sherrill became a lightning rod in the fight for integration. The School Board redrew the district boundaries to move Sherrill from the West District, which was 93 percent white students, to the Southwest District, which was 42 percent Black and considered to be academically inferior. Civil rights leaders in Detroit, such as the Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr., accused the district of trying to keep white schools white by committing acts of gerrymandering. The School Board said it was moving all children enrolled in the eighth grade at Sherrill to Cloppert School.
"The absurdity of the new district boundaries, obviously gerrymandered for the sole purpose of taking the Sherrill School out of the West District clearly reveals the intention of the Board of Education," Cleage wrote in "The Illustrated News" on Jan. 15, 1962. "Parents correctly interpreted the action as a maneuver to strength the board's policy of racial segregation."
School's out
Amid shrinking population across the city, and the accompanying shrinking student body at Detroit Public Schools, Sherrill was closed in 2012. This was despite the area around the school remaining relatively populated. Sherrill was simply a victim of being an older school in need of repairs that the school district couldn't afford, and the shear number of other schools in the district leaving it left out of DPS' consolidation plans.
Demolition began on the school in August 2024.