History of Mason Elementary School

Construction on the permanent building we know as Mason Elementary began in 1930. Before this, two temporary classrooms were set up on the site between 1927 and 1929. The school opened in 1931, and the student population was around 350. The school served many students from Marshall Elementary School, which was very overcrowded. Additions to Mason were constructed in 1945 and 1951. The 1945 addition added classrooms and an office. The 1951 addition saw three new corners added to the school, and added an auditorium and gymnasium to the school. Many other classrooms, such as art and science classrooms, were also included in the 1951 additions. In 1969, the first Black principal of Detroit Public Schools, Mrs. Beulah Brew, led Mason. The same year, a fire broke out in the school, temporarily closing it. In 1976, as part of a desegregation order to Detroit Public Schools, Mason, which was 87% Black, was to receive many white students from the nearby Fleming Elementary School, which was 90% white. This was part of boundary changes in the 1976 order that altered the school's makeup of students. Though originally slated to close in 2008, the school fought to stay open and succeeded. Detroit Public Schools would also transfer the top-of-the-line music program from Courville Elementary School, which closed in 2007, to Mason School. Mason remained open throughout the timeline of frequent closures across Detroit Public Schools between 2007 and 2012 but was ultimately closed during the final year of major closures in the district. The school was sold to the City of Detroit in 2015 and has remained abandoned since, in far worse condition than Courville, where students would end up at Mason until 2012. Fire damage seems to be present in many areas of the school . Mason remains an example of poor securing of certain vacant school properties by the district .