By Geraldine H. Crawford
May 5, 1988
One page document in the Fordson Libary Archives
The Tower of Fordson High School
Patterned after the Lawyers Club at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and
other Ivy League schools, Fordson High School has a tower at its center. Deep in its
triangle the tower is similar to the one at the Memorial Triangle at Yale University. The
cupolas on top of the tower are Byzantine.
The Tower has been useful over the years because of its large rooms and dumb
waiter. From 1930’s to the 1960’s this large room served the entire Dearborn School
System as a book processing area. All the new books for the school libraries of the
Dearborn Schools were hauled up the dumb waiter. Here they were stamped, catalogued,
catalog cards typed, and book pockets with circulation cards created. Books were then
lowered on the dumb waiter and sent out to the various schools for circulation in their
libraries. Caroline Husted, Alice McMahon, Joe Smith and Annette Cummins were
cataloguers.
Just recently, our engineers found that the dumb waiters still work. They sent
buckets of water up in it to clean the whole area.
The second level of the Tower was used for furniture storage for a long time.
But more than its architecture and utility, the Tower has a people heritage. In
1929 and the early 30’s, students arrived one-half hour early and went up to the Tower
for bible study. The Tower has always been locked and difficult to get up into. In spite of
this, Fordson High School students one year managed to sneak up to the Tower and place
a huge FOR SALE sign outside the Tower. It was reported that this FOR SALE sign
could be seen for miles around.
During the Korean conflict, Charlie Hanover, a Major in the Marine Reserves
talked the school board into using the Tower as a watch tower for enemy aircraft. The
concern was for the River Rouge plant which built U.S. aircraft at the time. It was feared
that the Russians would come via the Arctic Circle route to bomb the plant or worse yet,
invade the United States. Telephone lines went from the Tower directly to Grand Rapids
to notify appropriate government personnel in case of an attack. All the faculty at
Fordson High School were enlisted to do sky watch duty. Those nearest the school were
asked to take night duty. Gene Baker, our English teacher, was scheduled to come on
watch from 3:00 to 6:00 a.m. At the last minute before all the elaborate plans went into
effect, the plan was cancelled by the School Board.
For many years at Christmas time, the Art Department painted religious murals on
the Tower window in blue and gold. A lighted star of Bethlehem was placed on the top of
the Tower in memory of Jesus’ birth.
During this last winter, I came up to the second floor of the Tower, found lots of
dust and pigeon dung. At the foot of the last flight of steps to the roof was a pigeon on a
nest carefully cuddling eggs. Somehow the door to the roof had been opened and pigeons
had come in. The pigeon played “broken wing” to entice my away from her nest. I left
the nest alone while I examined the contents of the room. The pigeon has found another
place to nest. The uppermost door has been fastened down and a place for our archives to
be treasured and examined by future generations of students has been found.