History of Wilkins Elementary School

Wilkins Elementary School is a abandoned school on the east side of Detroit that was built in 1924 and opened in 1925. The original floor plan followed the “Ferry Plan” which was used to accommodate the narrow block the school was built on. When the school opened in 1925 the school had a capacity of 580 students, but by the next year a new addition was needed to house the 1255 students, many of which were taught out of portable units on the school property. In September of 1926 a second expansion was constructed, adding a capacity of 700 extra students to the school. In 1959 the 8th graders at Wilkins were transferred to the Von Steuben Junior High School (later closed in 2008). In 1976 via a court order the initiated a plan to desegregate the City’s public schools which included the bussing of nearly 22,000 black and white children and the reassignment of 8,000 more children (based upon boundary changes). Wilkins Elementary, whose student body was 23% black at the time, was slated to become 50.2% black by the plan with the addition of 205 children from the schools from the nearby Atkinson school, which was 99.6% black. Many murals in the later years of the school were added in the hallways and certain classrooms, a mural to the life of Rosa Parks is present as a memorial which tells the story that murals were added until at least 2005 when Rosa Parks passed away. Many of the murals display Civil Rights Heroes and other historical stories mainly from African American History. In 2013 Wilkins was closed and was sold to the lank bank in 2015. While many areas of the school remain in great shape others remain in poor shape in select areas. Most murals remain intact inside the school with minimal vandalism on many pieces.