The Edwin C. Denby High School is a public secondary education school located at 12800 Kelly Road in northeastern

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. Denby High opened in 1930, and the building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2005. It is a part of

Detroit Public Schools Community District Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) is a school district that covers all of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States and high school students in the insular city of Highland Park. The district, which replaced the original Detr ...

History

The school was named for Edwin C. Denby, an attorney and former Michigan legislator. Mr. Denby served as

Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the se ...

during the administration of

Warren G. Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...

. Denby was forced to resign his position and narrowly avoided criminal

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of a ...

for his role in what came to be known as the

Teapot Dome scandal The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923. Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyomi ...

. Denby died in 1929, and the Detroit School Board quickly voted to name a new high school after him "at the earliest opportunity." Later in 1929, the school board authorized the construction of this school and hired the firm of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls to design it. The building cost $351,649, with an additional $145,991 for the land the school is sited on. The first unit of the school, containing 19 classrooms, two study halls, and an office, opened in 1930 with about 1000 students and 38 teachers. However, only two months after the school opened, work began on a major addition. The addition, costing $338,121 and containing sixteen additional classrooms and four study halls, was completed in 1931. Enrollment soared to 2600 in 1931, and by 1934, Denby adopted double sessions to relieve the overcrowding. A third unit of the school was planned in 1938 and completed in 1939 at a cost of $893,000. This unit contained seventeen additional classrooms, art and music rooms, "domestic science" classrooms, two machine shops, an auditorium which seated 2,230, a large gymnasium with an indoor track, and a swimming pool. The third unit gave Denby a capacity of 2875 students. In 1942, 830 students graduated from the high school, and over 800 graduated each year from 1946 through 1960. The school converted to a three-year high school in 1960, with ninth graders moved to junior high schools. The school still averaged about 800 graduates per year through 1975, but the number of students graduating declined sharply in the late 1970s to a low of only 269 in 1980. At one time it was known for its mathematics department which ranked high in U.S. national rankings. Rochelle Riley of the ''

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'' wrote that by 2010 Denby was "known more for its academic decline than" for the said mathematics department. By 2010 Kenyetta "K.C." Wilbourn-Snapp began her term as principal of Denby. Wilbourn, who was called the "female

Joe Clark Charles Joseph Clark (born June 5, 1939) is a Canadian statesman, businessman, writer, and politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Canada from 1979 to 1980. Despite his relative inexperience, Clark rose quickly in federal polit ...

", was known for carrying a baseball bat which she called the "equalizer", ever since she witnessed the beating death of a student at Finney High School on April 12, 2007 while serving as that school's assistant principal. In 2016, Wilbourn-Snapp pleaded guilty to felony charges of bribery conspiracy and tax evasion for her role in a kickback scheme during her time at Denby. In 2011, the school completed an $16.5 Million renovation to restore the 1930s auditorium and construct new student meeting areas. The same year, Denby was transferred from Detroit Public School System (DPS) to the Education Achievement Authority. There was subsequently significant turnover of department heads and school leadership, which cycled through three principals between 2012 and 2015. The principal of Denby is currently Tanisha Manningham. DPS has said it will re-assume control of Denby High in fall 2017.

Description

The original 1929/1930 Denby High School building is a symmetrical three-story multi-colored brick structure measuring 391 feet long by 117 feet wide. The middle section of the facade is sheathed in concrete, and each half of the building features a concrete-sheathed entrance and a projecting wing.

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

stylistic elements are applied to the facade of the building; these include

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

panels with ship and lamp reliefs, designed and made by sculptor

Corrado Parducci Corrado Giuseppe Parducci (March 10, 1900 – November 22, 1981) was an Italian-American architectural sculptor who was a celebrated artist for his numerous early-20th century works. Early life and education Parducci was born in Buti, Italy, a ...

. The Parducci tiles include two types of reliefs used repeatedly throughout the facade. The first is a relief of a lamp with a flame which symbolizes the lamp of knowledge. The tile includes chevrons and zigzags above and below the lamp. The second is a relief of a warship, symbolizing the naval background of Edwin Denby. Two guns extend from the ship, below which are zigzags representing waves. The front facade includes strong vertical and horizontal lines. The center of the facade is arranged into seven vertical sections, with the central bays projecting slightly farther than outer ones. Terra cotta tiles appear between windows, accentuating the vertical lines, and above and below, accentuating the horizontal. In addition to the Parducci tiles, other decorative elements include arches at the top of the stairwell windows, a small roof parapet, and checkerboard brick patterns in the middle section of the building. The 1939 addition to the rear of the building, measuring 232 feet long by 196 feet wide, is also three stories, and the design is compatible with the original construction. The addition has the same terra cotta tiles around and between windows and concrete surrounding stairwell windows on the sides of the building. However, the terra cotta tiles on the original building do not appear on the addition. On the interior, the floors of the hallways and stairwells are originally terrazzo covered. Brownish tiles cover the walls to a height of seven feet, and lockers line much of the walls. Classrooms generally have original wood doors and cabinetry.

Demographics

The demographic breakdown of the 725 students enrolled for the 2013–2014 school year was as follows: *Male – 50.0% *Female – 50.0% *Native American/Alaskan – 0.0% *Asian/Pacific islander – 0.2% *Black – 99.2% *Hispanic – 0.0% *White – 0.6%

Notable alumni

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, professional basketball player *

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, Detroit TV news anchorman * * Ed Budde,

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for Super Bowl IV champion

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* Kim Carson, radio personality *

Wally Cox Wallace Maynard Cox (December 6, 1924 – February 15, 1973) was an American actor. He began his career as a standup comedian and then became the title character of the popular early U.S. television series ''Mister Peepers'' from 1952 to 19 ...

, actor * Wayne Dyer, author and speaker * Antonio Granger, professional basketball player *

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, (attended) movie and television actress * Curtis Hertel, politician * Dennis M. Hertel, U.S. Congressional representative from Michigan * John C. Hertel, politician * Jerry Hodak, Detroit TV personality * Nancy Milio, academic * Len Okrie,

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catcher and coach * Shantee Orr, NFL player * Carmella Sabaugh, politician * John Schubeck, national news broadcaster and top amateur golfer *

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, entertainer *

Dave Soutar David Soutar (born March 7, 1940) is a retired professional ten-pin bowler who competed on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. He won 18 times on the regular PBA Tour, and seven more times on the PBA Senior Tour (now known as the PBA ...

, former professional bowler *

Jack Van Impe Jack Leo Van Impe ( ; February 9, 1931 – January 18, 2020) was an American televangelist known for his half-hour weekly television series ''Jack Van Impe Presents'', an eschatological commentary on the news of the week through an interpre ...

, religious broadcaster * Roger Young, Olympic athlete *

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, winner of three Olympic medals in speed skating, three world championships in cycling

References

External links