DETROIT – The abandoned husk of what was once Lodge Elementary School has loomed over the corner of Bennett Street and Lenore Avenue on Detroit’s west side for 15 years.
Residents throughout the neighborhood known as “The Eye” are sick of it.
“It makes our area look trashy,” Rustie Schloss, who has lived in the neighborhood for 10 years, said on Monday (Aug. 11). “I think it’s an eyesore, and it doesn’t do good for investment.”
The former Detroit Public School, which opened in 1950 and closed in 2010, has sat empty for more than a decade and attracted everything from rodents, to vandals, to drug activity, to – according to residents – prostitution and violence.
Some residents have even been assaulted while trying to confront trespassers.
It has also become a place where people dump trash and even unwanted pets.
“Last summer, I rescued my husband was going to the party store, and he heard kittens crying,” Schloss said. “He got out and walked up to the building, and someone had just dumped him.
“They didn’t even know where to go, what to do, so he brought him home,” Schloss said.
She said she has rescued six animals who were left at the school.
Lodge Elementary is situated next to Heckel Park, which the city has recently invested in upgrading.
The well-manicured park recently got a new basketball court and playground, which stands in stark contrast to the abandoned, boarded-up school.
“It looks good if you look around,” Jyra Tucker, a neighborhood resident since 2018, said. “The grass is cut; we got the kids out here playing basketball. It’s a real good feeling.
“But having that building up, it is a little bit of an eyesore,” he added. “You got this building right here that’s been closed and abandoned. It’s just so much more we can do with that.”
The building is currently owned by the Detroit Public Schools but is maintained by the City.
One resident Local 4 spoke with said that she has repeatedly contacted Detroit City Councilman James Tate, as the neighborhood is in his district, about taking action on the building.
Local 4 contacted the Councilman’s office and has yet to get a response.
In an attempt to keep trespassers out, the school district and the city had previously boarded up the building’s windows and doors – only for outsiders to force their way in.
Workers from the city’s Construction and Demolition Department were on site on Monday to board up the open back door, but also said that it would be just a matter of time before someone found their way back in.
Residents we spoke with would like to see the building renovated, turned into a rec center, or possibly razed.
They are all certain that they need to see something happen.
“You see the neighborhood and take pride in everything that they got going on,” Tucker said. “So we just need the city to match that energy and do the same with this building.”